Improving Human Milk and Breastfeeding Rates in a Perinatal Hospital in Japan: A Quality Improvement Project.

The leadership team at the Center for Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, Saitama Medical Center, Saitama Medical University in Tokyo, Japan sought to improve our human milk (HM) and breastfeeding rates for vulnerable infants. This article describes the quality improvement (QI) initiative, which involved the implementation of the first three steps of the Spatz 10-step model for HM and breastfeeding in vulnerable infants. Our main objectives were to ensure that: (1) families were making informed feeding decisions about HM and breastfeeding as a medical intervention; (2) mothers were pumping early and often; (3) the staff implemented HM management; and (4) the proportion of infants who received HM at 1 month of life increased.