(Re)configuring the parental gaze: the work of change in the context of a trial
Perinatal stroke occurs when the blood supply to part of brain is interrupted in the womb or in babies age 28 days or less. It may lead to cerebral palsy, learning difficulties, or other disabilities with life-long personal, social and financial consequences. Professor Rapley was part of a team that developed a parent-delivered home based early therapy intervention (eTIPS) for the first 6 months of life for babies with a diagnosis of perinatal stroke.
The eTIPS approach has been initially evaluated in a pilot feasibility study. This involved recruiting families of babies with perinatal stroke and ‘typically’ developing, with monthly home visits over a six month period. We have undertaken observations, interviews and focus groups with parents of babies with perinatal stroke and ‘typically’ developing babies, parents of children with perinatal stroke and with health professionals.
In this talk, Professor Rapley will focus on how parents perceptual configuration of their babies is shaped and transformed, over time, in and through engaging with the eTIPS intervention. Professor Rapley will outline how, given a context of prognostic narratives of risk and uncertain futures, parents of babies with perinatal stroke initially buy into the eTIPS approach. Over time, parents work to (re)adjust their interactions with their babies, alongside the local geography of their home and the material culture of new parents.
Centrally, parental action and reasoning was also transformed through the interactions with the research team and research-orientated task. For those parents of babies with perinatal stroke, we especially see biographical reconstruction, in which future trajectories are (re)imbued with elements of hope. Whether we choose to call it ‘behaviour’ or ‘practice’ change, Prof Rapley will explore the (mundane) work of change in the context of a research setting.
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