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Overview
Affiliations
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Professor in the Department of Anthropology  
Fellow in the Durham Research Methods Centre  
Member of the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre  
Fellow of the Wolfson Research Institute for Health and Wellbeing  

Biography

Helen Ball is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre. She obtained her PhD in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1992.

Helen studies infant sleep and the parent-infant sleep relationship from a biosocial perspective. Broadly defined, her research examines sleep ecology, of infants, young children and their parents. This encompasses attitudes and practices regarding infant sleep, behavioural and physiological monitoring of infants and their parents during sleep, infant sleep development, and the discordance between cultural sleep preferences and biological sleep needs.

Helen has conducted research in hospitals and the community, and contributes to national and international policy and practice guidelines on infant care. She pioneers the translation of academic research on infant sleep into evidence for use by parents and healthcare staff via Basis-- the Baby Sleep Information Source website (www.basisonline.org.uk). She serves as Associate Editor of the journal Sleep Health, and is on the Ediotial Board of the Journal of Human Lactation. She is Chair of the Lullaby Trust Scientific Committe, and an elected Board Member of the International Society for the Study and Prevention of Infant Deaths (ISPID).

In 2013 Helen received an award for Outstanding Impact in Society from the Economic and Social Research Council, and in 2018 Durham University was awarded the Queen's Anniversary Prize for her research and outreach on parent-infant sleep.

Queen's Anniversary Prize

Their Royal Highnesses The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall have presented the UK’s highest academic honour to Durham University for research that has helped to shape the way babies sleep and how parents care for them at night time.

At the awards ceremony at Buckingham Palace, similar to an investiture, the Royal couple awarded The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher and Further Education to the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart Corbridge, and Professor Helen Ball, Director of the Durham Infancy & Sleep Centre, with the University’s Chancellor, Sir Thomas Allen, in attendance.

The prize has been awarded to Durham University for ‘leading influential research on parent-infant sleep with a widely-used public information service’. The awards, part of the national honours system in the UK, are approved by The Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister from recommendations made by the Royal Anniversary Trust’s Awards Council.

Research interests

  • Videosomnography of parent-infant sleep
  • Relationship of sleeping and infant feeding methods
  • Infant Sleep Safety, Sudden Deaths in Infancy (SUDI), SIDS
  • Integration of evolutionary and socio-cultural perspectives on anthropology of infant sleep
  • Coping with infant-related sleep distruption -- effects on parents
  • Development of sleep patterns and circadian rhythms
  • Parenting, infant care, infant feeding, infant mortality
  • Midwifery and postnatal care
  • Evolutionary medicine

Research groups

Research Projects

Awarded Grants

  • 2017: RI170013: Coping with Infant Sleep, ESRC £21959.00, 2017-06-15 - 2018-12-15
  • 2016: Baby Bed Box Project - Let's Talk About Infant Sleep(£63500.00 from The Scottish Government)
  • 2016: Teen Sleep Pilot Evaluation(£11357.00 from Education Endowment Foundation)
  • 2016: Teen Sleep Pilot Evaluation(£78207.00 from Education Endowment Foundation)
  • 2015: A New Approach for Improving Infant Sleep-Sharing Safety: a feasibility study(£36787.00 from The Lullaby Trust)
  • 2015: IAA-DEVELOPING A NEW APPROACH FOR INFANT SLEEP-SHARING SAFETY(£21112.25 from ESRC)
  • 2014: Exploring the experiences of families living in fuel poverty and its impact on children's educational outcomes(£304.00 from Chesshire Lehmann Fund)
  • 2014: FP7-COFUND-DIFeREns2 - Anthropology(£116085.20 from European Commission)
  • 2011: Infant Sleep Information Source (ISIS) Project(£96087.00 from ESRC)
  • 2008: RF170040: Bradford Infant Care Study (BradICS), Foundation for Study of Infant Deaths, £78554, 2008-09-01 - 2010-08-31
  • 2007: KTP - REDCAR & CLEVELAND PCT(£114416.00 from Redcar & Cleveland PCT)
  • 2007: RF170028: NIHR Research for the Patient Benefit Programme: NECOT Trial, £263,104, 2007-11-01 - 2011-09-30
  • 2003: IMPACT OF BEDDING-IN ON BREASTFEEDING RATES(£1240.00 from The Wellcome Trust)
  • 2003: NEW DATA COLLECTION METHODOLOGY(£5825.62 from Foundation for Study of Infant Deaths)
  • 2003: THE ROLE OF PARENTS(£4950.00 from Foundation for Study of Infant Deaths)
  • 2002: BEDDING-IN ON THE POSTNATAL WARD(£144558.00 from Babes in Arms)
  • 2001: R170208: Bedding-in on the postnatal ward (Pilot Study), Community Foundation, £2710.00, 2001-06-01 - 2001-09-30
  • 2000: Co-bedding in twins(£70358.00 from Foundation for Study of Infant Deaths)
  • 2000: R170194: Fellowship -- Dr HL Ball, The Leverhulme Trust, £4532.00, 2000-09-01 - 2001-03-31
  • 1999: R170155: Risks to infants of sharing the parental bed, Scottish Cot Death Trust, £64607.00, 1999-10-01 - 2001-09-30
  • 1999: R170193: Internship-MS CHI THAI, The Wellcome Trust, £1080.00, 1999-06-14 - 1999-08-13
  • 1999: R170196: Internship-MS L GOODHALL, The Nuffield Foundation, £1400.00, 1999-10-01 - 2001-09-30
  • 1998: R170191: Parent-Infant Sleep Strategies, Foundation for Study of Infant Deaths, £59004.00, 1998-05-01 - 2000-04-30
  • -0001: RI170023 Basis Sustainability Project: To develop training materials and online content for Basis Webinars to broaden accessibility

Esteem Indicators

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

  • Subject specialists: Evolutionary paediatrics
  • Medical and health research topics: Breastfeeding
  • Human biology and development: Infant care practices
  • Infant and child health:

Publications

Chapter in book

Conference Proceeding

Journal Article

Newspaper/Magazine Article

Other (Digital/Visual Media)

Other (Print)

Report

  • Ball, H.L. (2002). Risks to infants of sharing the parental bed: a physiological & behavioural study. Final report to Scottish Cot Death Trust. Glasgow.
  • Ball, H.L., Hooker, E. & Heslop, E. (2000). Night-time caregiving and parent-infant sleep strategies in the North East of England. Final Report to Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths. London.

Supervision students