Breastmilk Bundle Intervention to Increase Maternal Breastmilk for Very Low Birthweight Infants in the NICU

Abstract

Introduction: Of Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) infants weighing <1500 grams at birth, in a 71 bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at a university hospital, only 60.4% are receiving human milk at their first feeding and 66% at 21 days. Annually 27% were being fed any mother’s milk at discharge, well below the national average of 57.5%. In the pre-intervention period (figure 1) of infants born from October 2017-January 2018, 37.7% were discharged home receiving breastmilk (BM). Currently, it is difficult to evaluate the consistency and educational content and if necessary supplies are being given …