Increasing breastfeeding support among neonatal nurses

Abstract

The importance of breastfeeding support remains a global phenomenon, as breastfeeding remains the algorithm of healthcare promotion throughout the life span. The purpose of this project reviews benefits of improving breastfeeding, and breast milk production, among lactating women and their infants by increasing knowledge, skills and positive breastfeeding attitudes among Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) nurses. The project health care facility has approximately 30% of its neonatal infants who receive breast milk within four weeks of life (Project Facility, 2017) compared to the Center for Disease Control (CDC) recommendation of 75% for early breastfeeding initiation (CDC, 2017). The project’s quality improvement program provided a descriptive quantitative design in which questionnaires were distributed among neonatal nurses and breastfeeding mothers to query access and implement the CDC guidelines, Baby Friendly benchmarks, and Healthy People 2020 goals. A Breastfeeding Support Program was implemented as a 3 day breastfeeding support class, implementation of hands-on policy, and a quality improvement tool. The key findings of this project study demonstrated evidence that neonatal nurses were not given consistent interactive breastfeeding in-service. As such, neonatal nurses should be given a ‘hands on’ breastfeeding support class and policy review annually per CDC recommendations. In particular, mothers experienced a statistically significant greater breastfeeding proficiency post-intervention (M = 7.43, SD = 0.53) than pre-intervention (M = 1.86, SD = 1.86). By doing so, neonatal nurses had increased breastfeeding support to breastfeeding mothers and their infants at the project facility. Key Words: hands on training, breastfeeding support, Neonatal nurses, breastfeeding mothers, breastfeeding outcome