Expanding and Sustaining Breastfeeding in the Sick and Premature Babies in Thailand

Abstract

The clinical guidance for human milk (HM) feeding for sick and premature babies in Thailand was developed in 2013 to help improve their breastfeeding rates.ObjectiveTo expand breastfeeding (BF) for sick and premature babies using the clinical guidance, develop a monitoring system, and to integrate the practice into the national routine newborn care for sick babies.MethodVolunteer tertiary care hospitals were recruited to implement the clinical guidance. The development of a monitoring and evaluation system was done by the multidisciplinary team and volunteer hospitals. The integration into routine national care practice was done by including it in the national neonatal service plan of Thailand.ResultsThirty-eight pilot tertiary care hospitals volunteered for implementing the program. The proposed outcome indicators of rate of exclusive BF sick babies at hospital discharge and at 6 months of life for the volunteer hospitals were 62.97% and 41.76%, respectively. Since its integration into the national service plan in 2019, a total of 98 hospitals have been included in the program.ConclusionThe integration of the clinical guidance into the national service plan is essential for sustaining BF of sick, premature babies in the country.