A review of breastfeeding training intervention studies that evaluate staff knowledge outcomes in NICU

Journal of Neonatal Nursing : http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2017.10.002

The NICU environment presents many barriers for mothers to provide breast milk for their infants. In order to succeed, mothers require advice and assistance from healthcare staff, however some staff lack the necessary knowledge and skills to support them. This review evaluates studies of breastfeeding education interventions on staff knowledge outcomes.

UHCW Research: Amber Dunlop

Position Statement: breastfeeding in the UK

This guidance, from the RCPCH gives advice on how long women should consider breastfeeding. It also sets out the health benefits of breastfeeding for mother and child, and the cost savings to families and health services.

Skin-to-skin contact improves breastfeeding of healthy babies

Early skin-to-skin contact improves breastfeeding of healthy full-term babies. Skin-to-skin contact is the direct contact between a naked baby and the mother’s bare chest. It can occur before or after the baby is cleaned following birth.

From the NIHR Dissemination Centre.

Support for healthy breastfeeding mothers with healthy term babies

To describe forms of breastfeeding support which have been evaluated in controlled studies, the timing of the interventions and the settings in which they have been used.

To examine the effectiveness of different modes of offering similar supportive interventions (for example, whether the support offered was proactive or reactive, face-to-face or over the telephone), and whether interventions containing both antenatal and postnatal elements were more effective than those taking place in the postnatal period alone.

To examine the effectiveness of different care providers and (where information was available) training.

To explore the interaction between background breastfeeding rates and effectiveness of support.

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Breastfeeding education and support for women with twins or higher order multiples

To assess effectiveness of breastfeeding education and support for women with twins or higher order multiples.

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Breastfeeding reduces crying during baby immunisation

Babies who were breastfed before and during routine childhood immunisations cried on average for 38 seconds less and had lower pain scores compared to babies not breastfed.

From the NIHR Dissemination Centre

Better Beginnings: Improving Health For Pregnancy

This themed review from the NIHR brings together NIHR research on different aspects of health before, during and after pregnancy. It features published studies, ongoing studies or interim results and questions for clinicians, commissioners, public health professionals and others.

Supplementary feeding of preterm babies by cup rather than bottle helps breastfeeding success

For women who chose to breastfeed their preterm baby, supplementary feeds with a cup, compared with a bottle, led to improved breastfeeding rates at discharge and up to six months later.

From the NIHR Dissemination Centre

Rooming-in for new mother and infant versus seperate care for increasing the duration of breastfeeding

Mother-infant proximity and interactions after birth and during the early postpartum period are important for breast-milk production and breastfeeding success. Rooming-in and separate care are both traditional practices. Rooming-in involves keeping the mother and the baby together in the same room after birth for the duration of hospitalisation, whereas separate care is keeping the baby in the hospital nursery and the baby is either brought to the mother for breastfeeding or she walks to the nursery.

Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews