Hello! My name is Katherine Yurkovich and I am a junior nursing student at the University of North Dakota. I am currently taking a childbearing class and I have just finished my OB nursing clinical. I joined this listserv a few weeks ago and have enjoyed learning about several topics that I learned on the OB floor and several that I did not. I am very interested in information about breastfeeding with multiple births, especially triplets, and the role nurses play in education and support. I realize that many mothers may chose not to breastfeed because of multiple infants, but I feel that with the proper education and instruction, breastfeeding could be performed effectively with multiple infants. According to Moxley and Haddon (1999), with the increase in multiple births, there is a greater need to provide this group of parents with accurate information and anticipatory guidance about breastfeeding. Parents need to understand that breastfeeding is not only nutritional, but builds a maternal-child relationship and decreases the chances of viral and bacterial infections for the infant. Many mothers believe that breastfeeding is a life-line to their newborn infants and provides the child with emotional security and nurturing (Leonard, 2002). One study, conducted by Leonard (2000), was done on breastfeeding triplets in a home setting. The study concluded that the mothers of triplet infants felt that the support from health care professionals, i.e. CHN (community health nurses), was not very helpful. Several mothers felt that the CHN, although accessible and provided quality information, was unable to understand what it was like to have triplets. The study, in conclusion, suggested that not all nurses will achieve breastfeeding expertise, but that it is important to have access to someone with the necessary skills, i.e. lactation consultant. Another study was done on enhancing support during the postpartum hospitalization period for higher order multiples (Leonard, 2002). The study found that mothers of multiple newborns felt that interactions with multiple nurses could be stressful, because they were unaware of their particular situation. The study stated that it is important for nurses and lactation consultants to follow-up with new parents, because new parents may become overwhelmed or too exhausted to contact lactation support services after they have left the hospital if they run into problems. My questions are what your agency’s guidelines/policies for informing or teaching a mother with multiple newborns how to breastfeed, how many nurses are lactation consultants at your agency, is there a guideline for follow-up visits/calls, and how I can be supportive of a mother, in a hospital setting, with multiple newborns to start/continue to breastfeed. Thank you for your time! Katherine Yurkovich, SN Leonard, L.G. (2002). Breastfeeding Higher Order Multiples: Enhancing Support During the Postpartum Hospitilization Period. J Hum Lact, 18(4). 386-391. Leonard, L.G. (2000, May/June). Breastfeeding Triplets: The At-Home Experience. Public Health Nursing, 17(3), 211-221. Moxley, S. and Haddon, L.P. (1999). Focal Point to Breastfeeding: Teaching Breastfeeding to Parents Expecting Multiple Births. International Journal of Childbirth Education. 14(1), 1-9. *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html