Could complex adaptive systems thinking reach the parts infant feeding policy is not reaching? Applying key concepts to policy making in Wales

摘要

Since the 1980s ecological conceptual models, and the principles that underlie them, have been increasingly influential, providing policy makers with a framework through which to interpret public health issues (Raynor and Lang, 2012). In 2001 the Welsh Assembly developed a breastfeeding strategy loosely based on an ecological framework (National Assembly for Wales, 2001) which addressed social polarisation in feeding behaviours. However, Welsh feeding patterns continue to be socially and geographically polarised, in lower income communities, particularly in the valleys, formula feeding has remained the cultural norm (NHS Wales Informatics Service, 2012).