So, how do we decide what to do for baby? Is breast best? is vaccinating linked to Autism? and what about co-sleeping? From conception onward (and sometimes before if you’re in the position to plan, and not on the “oh sh!t” end of a pregnancy test ) we have a ton of research to do, plans to make, life-changing decisions that now not only affect you. What to do! As stated in the article “Unwanted opinions” I brought up the fact you will no doubt be inundated with opinions and advice but how do we really get the facts and what is right for us and our family? How do we research breastfeeding, back sleeping, vaccinating?
Unless you are on the other side of a university degree, which teaches you how to research and further still, how to analyse that research, it can all be a bit daunting and the Wikipedia articles probably do more harm than good. So, I thought I would break it down how you can conduct your own research, and feel confident with your decisions.
Let’s start with NCBI. NCBI allows us to find peer-reviewed articles. Why is this important? peer-reviewed research is a thesis statement or topic that has been put forward and then picked apart by other experts in the field of study. If they all come to the same conclusion which supports said original statement, this then becomes “best practice.” It never means it is the concrete be-all and end-all of the topic, it means that at the date of the research, it is the most supported piece of research. Why is this important? Let’s say I am an expert in my area; if I say something, and another expert in the same area says something that is completely conflicting, who’s correct? me or them? Well, I put forward a thesis statement, and they put forward theirs, then other experts or scholars in the field have a look at both our research, perhaps even perform their own research, if they come to the same conclusion that I do, this strengthens my statement. This is the process of which “peer-reviewed” articles are formed.
Now, where are the problems with this: Bias! Who has funded this research you are reading? If I own a formula company that produces research stating my formula is amazing, does this sound great? Nope, that’s bias. To take away this bias, you need to check that the research you are reading is not affiliated with the topic or product, meaning, they stand nothing to gain from supporting their argument. After all, of course, I am going to say my product is fabulous, why would you buy it if I said it was actually rubbish and caused your boobs to fall off?
Ok, so how do you do this you ask? Jump on your preferred search engine (I like chrome), go to google and type in your topic adding “NCBI” following it. This will bring up related journal articles. Here is what it will look like:
But what does this all mean: First up, we look at the date it was published? 1970?? hell, that’s no good, we need recent research! What next? “Cited by” this tells us how many times this article has been referenced, strengthening our research. Once we open the article we should be able to see a published date, a DOI (Digital Object Identifier which will always link to the original research), and who has contributed to the research. The article should have a clear research statement or topic, show all its findings, discuss potential biases or flaws with the study, and its conclusion. The authors should also state what involvement they have with the research, as in, what do they gain from researching this? Are they affiliated? Were they paid? Do they receive product?
Once you have concluded this, pull up a few different journal articles and try to get a feel for if they are saying a similar thing, or is their research showing conflicting opinions. If this is the case, down the rabbit hole you go. You need to read far and wide, pull up research by different authors to see conflicting or supporting evidence. This will allow you to try and form your own opinions backed by evidence. Remember to make sure you are looking at current evidence, like I said, something from the ’60s that states everything is ok to smoke while you’re breastfeeding bub probably isn’t considered the latest empirical evidence to support your decisions.
