Improvement of Expressed Breast Milk in Mothers of Preterm Infants by Recording Breast Milk Pumping Diaries in a Neonatal Center in China.

Bin Wu,Jing Hua,Xiaohong Xi,Xuefeng Hu,Jinxia Zheng,Jiang-Qin Liu,Ming Zhou,Qin Wang,Umberto Simeoni

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144123

Bin Wu, Jing Hua + Show 7 more

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https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0144123

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Abstract

ObjectivesBecause inadequate expression of human milk (EBM) in mothers of hospitalized infants were noticed in a neonatal center of our hospital, family education program was carried out to increase the EBM.MethodsA breast milk pumping diary was introduced to the mothers with preterm infant(s) admitted in the NICU. The ratios of EBM (days of EBM to NICU/hospitalized days), breast milk feeding (BMF) (days of infants fed with exclusive human milk/hospitalized days), mixed feeding (MF) (days of infants fed with partial breast milk and partial formula/hospitalized days), and formula feeding (FF) (days of infants fed with preterm formula/hospitalized days) were evaluated.ResultsDuring January to April, 2014, the ratios of EBM to the NICU, BMF, MF and FF were 28.11%, 6.6%, 32.8% and 60.6%, respectively. After the introduction of breast milk pumping diary to the mothers from May 2014, the ratio of EBM to the NICU increased significantly to 53.3% (p<0.01) within the following eight months. Both the ratios of BMF and MF also rose to 23.8% and MF 55.3%, respectively. Consequently, the ratio of FF was reduced to 20.9%. Exclusive breast milk feeding also significantly reduce the duration of nil per oral (NPO) of the very low birth weight infants during hospital stay as compared to those fed with mixed feeding and formula feeding.ConclusionThe introduction of a breast milk pumping diary was associated with a significant increase in the intake of EBM of the hospitalized preterm newborns.

Highlights

Human milk feeding decreases the morbidities of preterm newborns by discharge in neonatal intensive care unit, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) [1], infectious diseases [2] and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) [3], and affects the long-term development in their later lives [4,5]
After the introduction of breast milk pumping diary to the mothers from May 2014, the ratio of expressed breast milk (EBM) to the NICU increased significantly to 53.3% (p
Exclusive breast milk feeding significantly reduce the duration of nil per oral (NPO) of the very low birth weight infants during hospital stay as compared to those fed with mixed feeding and formula feeding

Summary

Introduction

Human milk feeding decreases the morbidities of preterm newborns by discharge in neonatal intensive care unit, including retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) [1], infectious diseases [2] and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) [3], and affects the long-term development in their later lives [4,5]. The benefits of human milk feeding have been observed in very low birth weight infants fed with their own mother’s milk [6,7], and in preterm infants fed with donor human milk [8]. The strategy of human milk feeding to preterm infants has to be developed by NICU medical staff who investigated lots of methods to promote the human milk feeding, such as antenatal lactation consult, playing music when pumping, frequent education and lactation instruction, and so on. It has been reported that the rate of expressed breast milk (EBM) is about 15% in the NICU without human milk bank and 30% in that with donor human milk bank [10]

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Conclusion