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Project

Development of Playful Technology to Support Breastfeeding

Breastfeeding brings many benefits for parents, children, and wider society. However, the process is often described as challenging. Parents' ability to initiate and continue breastfeeding is determined by a number of factors, not all of which are within the control of parents. Factors such as birth complications, medical conditions of mother or child, and low socioeconomic status can have detrimental effects on breastfeeding. Other factors, including the intention to breastfeed, perceived self-efficacy, acknowledgement of the benefits of breastfeeding, understanding of the feeding process, attitudes toward breastfeeding, social norms, and perception of being supported, can be altered to facilitate breastfeeding and hence, are often addressed by breastfeeding support structure. Despite the efforts, parents still feel inadequately prepared for their breastfeeding journey as they lack may insights into the lived experience of breastfeeding, an area overlooked by the current breastfeeding support structure. Playful technology has been an effective tool for communicating health information to a broad audience. On this basis, playful technology is an appealing means for conveying the lived experience of breastfeeding and its associated challenges.

In this doctoral thesis, I explored playful technology as a means of supporting breastfeeding through the conveyance of the lived experience. To lay the foundation for this research, the first part of this thesis provides an overview of information and communication systems that support breastfeeding and details a qualitative study that leveraged a mixed-methods approach combining an interview and an online survey study to gain insights into the lived experience of breastfeeding and to understand the role of technology in that space. The second part details the design and development process of Virtual Reality and mobile simulations addressing the lived experience. This part also demonstrates the potential and limitations of the developed simulations to contribute to parents' understanding of the breastfeeding process. The third part built upon findings from the second part and outlines considerations for technology that seeks to leverage playful approach as a means of conveying the lived experience of breastfeeding.

The results of this work show that playful simulations can communicate insights into the lived experience of breastfeeding. They have the potential to engage a wide range of stakeholders, especially partners who play an essential role in supporting breastfeeding parents, and they can be leveraged as a vehicle for meaningful reflection on nuances and challenges within the feeding process. Findings from this work also underscore the potential risks of reinforcing unrealistic expectations of breastfeeding when conveying the lived experience using a playful approach, highlighting the tension between the need to provide an engaging experience to users and the conveyance of realistic experiences with respect to the act of nursing a baby. In sum, this work showcases the relevance of the lived experience for technology that supports breastfeeding and outlines points for reflection for the design of playful interventions in such a sensitive setting.

 

Date:1 Oct 2018 →  28 Sep 2022
Keywords:Breastfeeding, Playful Technology, Interactive Simulations, Virtual Reality, Gamification
Disciplines:Human-computer interaction
Project type:PhD project