My name is Melissa and I am a junior nursing student at the
University of North Dakota. I choose to join this listserv because I
would like to become a NICU nurse. A topic that I have interest in are
the benefits of lactation support in the NICU. I found some recent
information on this topic that I would like to share.
In my research I found an article by Sisk, Lovelady, Dillard, and
Gruber (2006) in which they suggest that many mothers of very low birth
weight infants don’t breast feed due to anxiety.
Authors of this article suggest that counseling mothers of very low birth
weight infants is an effective way of increasing breast feeding success.
They found that after receiving support from International Board Certified
Lactation Consultants (IBCLC) breastfeeding success went from 21.5% to
62.5%. This article recommends that all mothers of very low birth weight
infants be introduced to professional support such as an IBCLC.
Smith, Durkin, Hinton, Bellinger, and Kuhn (2003) report that NICU
infants are less likely to receive breast milk than healthy infants, even
though they are far more vulnerable. This article explains one of the
reasons these infants are not receiving human milk is because of the lack
of support from healthcare workers regarding breastfeeding. Gonzalez et
al. (2003) suggests all mothers with infants in a neonatal intensive care
unit should receive some kind of lactation counseling. This article also
suggests that including IBCLC as members of the NICU team, results in
infants that are more likely to receive the benefits of human milk.
The questions I have are as follows: Do your units provide
lactation counseling?
If so, are the counselors International Board Certified Lactation
Consultants (IBCLC)? Have there been any noticeable positive effects,
from the counseling on the mothers and infants? Thank you in advance for
any information, it is greatly appreciated.
Melissa Monroe, SN
University of North Dakota
References:
Gonzalez, K., Meinzen-Derr, J., Burke, B., Hibler, A., Kavinsky, B., Hess,
S., Pickering, L., Morrow, A. (2003). Evaluation of lactation support
service in a children’s hospital neonatal intensive care unit. Journal of
Human Lactation, 19, 286-292.
Sisk, P., Lovelady, C., Dillard, R., Gruber, K. (2006). Lactation
counseling for mothers of very low birth weight infants: Effect on
maternal anxiety and infant intake of human milk. Pediatrics 2006, 117, 67-
75.
Smith, M., Durkin, M., Hinton, V., Bellinger D., Kuhn, L. (2003).
Initiation of breastfeeding among mothers of very low birth weight
infants. Pediatrics 2003, 111, 1337-1342.
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