17 Aug, 2026
At The For Baby’s Sake Trust, we know that tackling complex social challenges requires collaboration and learning from different perspectives. Our new Expert Opinion blog series shares conversations with thought leaders and practitioners whose work can deepen understanding of the issues affecting families and communities.
Please note, these interviews are not representative of The For Baby’s Sake Trust’s positions, policies, or opinions.
Exploring breastfeeding and intimate partner violence: a new programme of research
Breastfeeding can be an important and very personal part of becoming a parent. But for women who are experiencing abuse or controlling behaviour from a partner or ex-partner, breastfeeding may be affected in ways that we do not yet fully understand.
Manchester Centre for Health Psychology are developing a programme of research to learn more about women’s experiences of breastfeeding in the context of intimate partner violence (IPV). They also want to understand how health professionals and breastfeeding supporters can provide support that is safe, respectful and helpful.
About the Research Team
The programme is being led by Dr Stephanie Lyons, a lecturer in health psychology and researcher in the Division of Psychology and Mental Health at The University of Manchester. Health psychology Master’s students, Esme Purcell and Abigail Fletcher, have joined the team as part of their postgraduate study to support the early development of this programme.
We are also working with organisations that support families affected by domestic abuse and those who provide breastfeeding and infant feeding support. Their experience is helping us understand which questions are most important to explore.
What is health psychology? And how does it differ from other areas of psychology?
Health psychology looks at how our thoughts, feelings, behaviour, relationships and wider circumstances can affect our health and wellbeing.
People’s experiences of health and healthcare can be very different. What happens in our lives, our relationships, our mental health and the support around us can all affect how we experience health and make decisions about it.
This is why we are interested in listening to people’s experiences, rather than looking only at statistics or health outcomes. We want to understand what breastfeeding is actually like for women experiencing IPV, and what could make support feel safer and more helpful.
Can you tell us what inspired you to explore breastfeeding experiences in the context of intimate partner abuse?
We became interested in this topic after looking at research on the relationship between IPV and breastfeeding. Much of this research has focused on questions such as whether women experiencing IPV are more or less likely to start breastfeeding, or how long they continue breastfeeding. This research is important, but it tells us much less about what the experience of breastfeeding is actually like for women experiencing IPV.
For example, we know relatively little about how partners may influence or control breastfeeding, how women navigate breastfeeding in difficult or unsafe circumstances, or what kinds of support feel safe and helpful.
We therefore want to look beyond breastfeeding rates and outcomes to understand women’s experiences and the circumstances in which they make decisions about feeding their babies.
We have several aims for the early stages of our research:
- To understand what we already know about breastfeeding and IPV, and identify the questions that still need to be answered.
- To work with women who have experienced IPV and breastfed to hear their views about what researchers should be focusing on.
- To work with organisations supporting families affected by IPV and those providing breastfeeding support, including For Baby’s Sake, to understand their experiences and priorities.
- To explore how health professionals and breastfeeding supporters can provide safe and appropriate support when IPV is known or suspected.
We hope that this work will help us understand what women need from breastfeeding support when they are experiencing, or have experienced, abuse. We also want to understand how professionals and support services can respond in ways that respect women’s choices, safety and individual circumstances.
Why is breastfeeding an important topic to focus on? What does the current research tell us about breastfeeding experiences within the context of abuse?
Breastfeeding can be an important part of the health and wellbeing of both women and babies. It can also be a very personal experience, involving a woman’s body, her relationship with her baby and decisions about how she wants to feed.
For women experiencing abuse or controlling behaviour from a partner, these experiences may be more complicated. A woman’s decisions about whether, when and how to breastfeed may not always feel completely free.
There is a growing body of research on the relationship between IPV and breastfeeding, but much of it focuses on breastfeeding outcomes rather than women’s experiences. This means we know more about patterns in breastfeeding rates than we do about what happens day-to-day for women who are trying to breastfeed while experiencing abuse or controlling behaviour.
One study suggests that breastfeeding experiences within an abusive relationship can be complex and varied. Some abusive partners may pressure a woman to breastfeed, interfere with breastfeeding or expressing milk, or try to control when and where she feeds her baby. On the other hand, some women have described using breastfeeding in ways that help them cope with difficult situations. For example, breastfeeding may allow them to create some distance during a difficult interaction, keep their baby physically close, or give them a sense of confidence as a mother (Bomsta, 2022).
Breastfeeding can therefore mean very different things to different women. Even when breastfeeding gives someone confidence or a sense of being a good mother, wider pressures about breastfeeding can also lead to guilt or feelings of failure when breastfeeding is difficult, not possible or not what someone wants to do.
This is why we think it is important to understand women’s own experiences rather than making assumptions about why they choose to breastfeed, stop breastfeeding or feed their baby in different ways.
Health psychology can help us look at the whole picture. This includes how relationships, emotional wellbeing, experiences of trauma, social expectations and access to healthcare may all affect someone’s experience of breastfeeding.
Most importantly, we want to listen to women and work alongside organisations supporting families to understand what is helpful, what is not, and what could be done differently.
What do you hope this research will contribute to policy, practice or future support for families affected by domestic abuse?
Our research is still at an early stage, so we do not yet know what we will find or what changes may be needed. However, we hope that working with women who have experienced IPV and breastfeeding, alongside organisations supporting families, will help us focus on the questions that matter most to people affected by this issue.
In the longer term, we hope our research can help health professionals, breastfeeding supporters and other services better understand how IPV may affect breastfeeding. This could help to improve training, guidance and support for professionals, as well as the way services work together to support women and families.
We are particularly interested in hearing from people and organisations with experience of supporting families affected by IPV or providing breastfeeding and infant feeding support. If you have any questions about the research, or would like to share your experiences or views, please contact Dr Stephanie Lyons (stephanie.lyons@manchester.ac.uk).
Support and Resources
If reading this blog has raised questions about your own experiences of breastfeeding, infant feeding or your relationship, support is available.
For Baby’s Sake supports families affected by domestic abuse during pregnancy and the early years of a child’s life.
If you would like support with breastfeeding or infant feeding, you can also contact a breastfeeding support service such as The Breastfeeding Network or speak to your midwife, health visitor or other healthcare professional.
You do not need to be certain that what you are experiencing is abuse before asking for support.
If you are in immediate danger, please follow For Baby’s Sake’s usual emergency guidance:
- call 999 and ask for the police. If you are calling from a mobile and cannot speak, listen to the instructions and press 55 when prompted.
