Becca Smith

goals

Conduct the first JustMilk acceptability study in a western setting to:

• Understand breastfeeding behavioral practices and challenges of Boston-area mothers

• Solicit feedback on a novel infant medication administration system concept; understand related needs, concerns and preferences

• Learn from prior infant medication and nutrient administration experiences of Boston-area mothers and healthcare providers

outcomes (In process)

• A peer-reviewed journal article, “Attitudes toward a novel breastfeeding-mediated drug and nutrient delivery system: A qualitative study”, was published in the European Journal of Pharmaceutics and Biopharmaceutics in December 2022.

• Preliminary study results were shared in a poster session at MGH’s Pediatric Research Day 2019 (see below).

• A second journal article, focused on challenges faced by breastfeeding parents and sources of information, is being drafted.

• Findings suggest that further research is warranted to investigate the potential for novel administration systems and methods to provide an additional tool for parents to administer agents to breastfeeding infants: fundraising efforts for a pre-clinical investigation building on the collaboration and study findings are underway.

role

Project manager; Lead researcher; Lead author
JustMilk collaborators: Stephen Gerrard, PhD, Geoff Galgon, PhD, Aspen Flynn, Rebekah Scheuerle, PhD
MGH collaborators: Dr. Sara Bates (PI), Susan Curley, Dr. Diana Palmer, Rebecca Weiss

location

MGH Revere HealthCare Center (Revere, MA) & MGH Main Campus (Boston, MA)

TimeFRAME

2017 - present

process

A research collaboration was formed with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 2017, facilitated by participation in the CAMTech Accelerator Program. Working with the JustMilk-MGH team, I developed the research study protocol (building off previous acceptability studies in Kenya and South Africa) and led the IRB review process, receiving approval from Partners IRB in May 2018. Lactation consultant Susan Curley managed study recruitment: many of the study’s 20 participating mothers attended weekly group meetings of the Mother Infant Lactation Club, led by Susan, at MGH Revere. I also attended meetings regularly to gain subject knowledge and build rapport with mothers.

Interviews were conducted between September 2018 and June 2019 with 20 breastfeeding mothers and 6 healthcare practitioners. The semi-structured interviews ranged from approximately 25-50 minutes in length, focusing on breastfeeding experiences, challenges and ways addressed and discussion of the proposed JustMilk system, with a variety of prototypes shown. Interviews were transcribed and NVivo was used for descriptive coding and content analysis of the data.