MATERNAL VIRTUAL INFANT NUTRITION SUPPORT CLINIC FOR THE NEONATAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT (MAVINS-NICU) - A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Abstract

Abstract BACKGROUND Canadian exclusive breastfeeding rates at 6 months of age are only 24.2%, and are even lower in mothers of infants requiring Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) admission. An interactive website was developed that provides professional (articles, videos) and peer (discussion forum for peers, access to a lactation consultant) breastfeeding support to mothers of infants requiring NICU admission. OBJECTIVES The objective of the study is to outline maternal perceptions of the breastfeeding support website (MAVINS-NICU) in a level-III NICU setting. DESIGN/METHODS This study represents the qualitative research component of the MAVINS-NICU project. Semi-structured interviews were conducted antenatally with women at risk of delivering an infant requiring NICU admission (n=6), and postnatally with mothers of infants admitted to the NICU (n=7), regarding their experiences with the MAVINS-NICU website. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed by a professional transcriptionist. Analysis occurred in an iterative fashion using open and axial coding strategies to identify majors themes. RESULTS Several themes were identified: 1) Women seemed comforted that a reliable hospital-provided resource would be available to them after birth, “…I’m very happy that I’m going to have lots of support”; 2) Women felt overwhelmed after birth, but often accessed the website on their phone or read newly posted comments on the discussion forum in response to automatically generated weekly emails from the website, “I’m just, overwhelmed… because I’m [in the NICU a lot], I only have my phone and it’s just easier to look at the emails… [they] just pop up”; 3) Mothers felt extremely comforted by the peer support component of the website, “to see what other moms are going through … similar emotions or issues … to see that I’m not the only one [helps]”; 4) Mothers enjoyed remote access and quick online lactation consultant response times, “ … [you can] get help even when there’s no one around”, “I was really surprised … by how quickly I got responses”; 5) Majority of mothers expressed a sense of empowerment to provide breast milk with the help of MAVINS support, “…being able to breastfeed eventually is a big deal for me… [it made me feel] like I was accomplishing something”. CONCLUSION Mothers of infants admitted to the NICU found the MAVINS-NICU website very helpful and considered it part of their success in providing breast milk for their babies.