Stirling Breastfeeding Experience Study

Professor David Comerford – Principle Investigator

Dr Alix Aitken-Arbuckle – Researcher

Susie Boardman – Research Assistant

Prof. David Comerford researches human behaviour and how people make decisions. He is especially interested in designing decision aids to help people make choices that improve wellbeing. He has published papers on decision making around career choice, pensions and retirement, health insurance choice, choice of medical treatments, choice of modes of transport for travelling to work and choice of which residential property to buy. He received his PhD from the University College Dublin. He won a Fulbright scholarship to study at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, where he stayed on as a postdoctoral fellow. He came to Stirling Management School in 2012, was made Professor of behavioural science in 2022 and became father to Amos in 2015 & to Esmay in 2017.

Recent Publications:

Antibiotics | Free Full-Text | Understanding Vaccine Hesitancy in Vietnamese Fish Farmers (mdpi.com) 

Responsibility utility and the difference between preference and desirance: implications for welfare evaluation | SpringerLink

Dr Alix Aitken-Arbuckle is a Community Midwife and Researcher with NHS Lothian. Alix has been a Midwife for 10 years, having trained at Stirling University and completed a Research Masters shortly afterwards. She has just completed her PhD, looking at maternity service provision for women experiencing drug and alcohol addiction. She is currently working in both an academic capacity and as a Community Midwife in the local area, as well as parenting her young family. Alix’s research interests include: infant feeding, continuity of care, woman-centred maternity care, service development for “vulnerable” pregnancies, realist methods and co-production approaches.

Recent publications:

McInnes RJ, Aitken-Arbuckle A, Lake S, Hollins Martin C, MacArthur J. Implementing continuity of midwife carer – just a friendly face? A realist evaluation. BMC Health Serv Res. 2020 Apr 15;20(1):304. doi: 10.1186/s12913-020-05159-9. PMID: 32293422; PMCID: PMC7158105. Implementing continuity of midwife carer – just a friendly face? A realist evaluation – PubMed (nih.gov)

McInnes, R.J., Arbuckle, A. & Hoddinott, P. How UK internet websites portray breast milk expression and breast pumps: a qualitative study of content. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth 15, 81 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12884-015-0509-0 

Susie is a Research Assistant at Stirling University. She is a Psychology Graduate and worked in the charity sector and for women’s services before training as a Midwife. She has been a qualified Midwife for 10 years with a variety of specialist roles in community and acute settings, particularly antenatal screening and fetal medicine. Her particular interests lie in Maternal mental health and attachment, and supporting the psychological transition to parenthood. She is mum to three young children.