Amningshjälpen is a Swedish non-profit association where women, called helpmothers, provide breastfeeding peer-support. Purpose: The aim of this bachelor thesis is to examine how and where helpmothers experience information needs and seek information on breastfeeding, and what obstacles they face doing this. Method: The method used is qualitative email-interview where four helpmothers answered a number of questions via email comparable to questions in a semi-structured interview. Theoretical framework: This thesis rests upon the serious leisure perspective and the theory of cognitive authority, particularly institutional authority and the theory that cognitive authority is created in communication between people. Earlier research: Earlier research shows that seeking leisure-related information is an ongoing process. Participants use a variety of sources and the most common are other people and the internet. Result and discussion: The results show that the helpmothers information behaviour is similar to that of earlier studies in serious leisure. Their information seeking is an ongoing process that cannot easily be separated from information seeking in daily life. This could be an explanation to why they don’t experience many information needs. They use a variety of sources, including databases, books and homepages. The most common sources are other people: laypersons, health care professionals and other helpmothers. When seeking information helpmothers want the information to be unbiased and based on science, they also encourage each other to look for such information. This way they are both part of and affected by the process of making science as an institution a cognitive authority in society.

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