This is the first part of a presentation which I later delivered to the Helen Mayo House Perinatal Mental Health Conference November 2025, Adelaide, South Australia
Finished
Here are the basic tenets of complexity science, which I've adapted to develop the NDC or Possums programs for breastfeeding problems, unsettled infant behaviour and family well-being in early life. The woman and her baby, the carer and their baby, are conceptualised as a complex adapative system (CAS).
A CAS is comprised of myriad different factors which interact and co-evolve together
A CAS is nested within bigger CASs (such as family and society), and comprised of many smaller CASs (such as the enteromammary immune system, or the stress response system, or orofacial and breast anatomies)
CASs are inherently resilient, with myriad feedback loops operating to keep the…