Introduction: The benefits of human milk for preterm infants are well documented. Complex medical conditions can limit the extremely premature infant's ability to breastfeed and to receive human milk directly, yet these vulnerable infants may benefit most from receiving it.
Main Issue: Extremely preterm infants are at risk for infections, digestive challenges, and chronic lung disease, and occasionally require a tracheostomy to facilitate weaning from mechanical ventilation. There is a risk of aspiration when orally feeding a child with a tracheostomy. This case study describes a tertiary neonatal team supporting a family's direct breastfeeding goal in an extremely premature infant with a diagnosis of bronchopulmonary dysplasia requiring a tracheostomy.
Management: Initially, the infant participant (born at 24 weeks and 3 days of gestation, with a birthweight of 540 g) was gavage fed with human milk. The interdisciplinary team collaborated with the family to guide the infant's feeding goals, providing positive oral stimulation with soothers, oral immune therapy, and frequent skin-to-skin contact to prepare for future oral feeding. Within a month of the tracheotomy procedure, oral feeding was initiated, and direct breastfeeding with the tracheostomy tubing in place was achieved at 50 weeks and 1 day of age as a primary source of nutrition.
Conclusion: The open dialogue between the family and healthcare team was the foundation for trialing direct breastfeeding for an extremely premature infant with a tracheostomy. While direct breastfeeding of full-term infants with tracheostomies has been previously described in the literature, this is the first case study of an extremely premature infant with a tracheostomy transitioning to direct breastfeeding.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/08903344241254342 | DOI Listing |
Public Health Nutr
January 2025
Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Academic Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
Objective: To explore mothers' and early childhood (EC) educators' experiences of breastfeeding/breast milk provision and breastfeeding support in child care centers (CCCs) in the United States (U.S.).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJBI Evid Synth
January 2025
Ingram School of Nursing, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Objective: The objective of this review will be to synthesize the qualitative evidence on factors that influence direct breastfeeding of preterm infants in neonatal wards and the provision of breastfeeding support.
Introduction: Breastmilk is critical for the health of preterm neonates, and infants who directly feed at the breast are more likely to receive breastmilk exclusively for longer periods. Direct breastfeeding is associated with improved maternal coping and development of maternal identity.
Midwifery
December 2024
Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad de la Laguna, Tenerife, España, Spain.
Background: self-efficacy in breastfeeding influences the duration of breastfeeding. There is a validated scale to measure it, the Breastfeeding Self Efficacy Scale-Short Form (BSES-SF), developed by Dennis et al. AIMS: to examine the internal structure of the BSES-SF, verify if the score changes in the first months of lactation and if it is related to early cessation of breastfeeding.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBMC Pregnancy Childbirth
December 2024
NIHR Policy Research Unit in Maternal and Neonatal Health and Care, National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Public Health, University of Oxford, Old Road Campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF, UK.
Background: Breast milk has significant benefits for preterm babies, but 'very preterm' babies are unable to feed directly from the breast at birth. Their mothers have to initiate and sustain lactation through expressing milk for tube feeding until their babies are developmentally ready to feed orally. There are wide disparities between neonatal units in England in rates of breast milk feeding at discharge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Family Med Prim Care
November 2024
Department of Neonatology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, Bihar, India.
Introduction: The cut-off for referral to a higher center and further investigations for the delayed passage of first urine and meconium by a neonate have been traditionally kept after 48 hours of birth. There are very few studies regarding this in Indian neonates, and previous studies have relied primarily on the mother's recall of the event which may have led to recall bias. Therefore, through this study, we wanted to use hospital intake/output records to identify the risk factors that affect the timing of passage of first urine and stool in neonates delivered at our center and to find out if the cut-off of 48 hours to call it a delay is justifiable.
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