Pacifier Use and Education With Exclusive Breastfeeding

Abstract

Hospitals throughout the country are moving toward a Baby-Friendly designation, focusing on exclusive breastfeeding through a set of 10 steps. These steps include encouraging rooming-in during the hospital stay, education of the staff about exclusive breastfeeding, skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding within the first hour of life, and limited to no use of a pacifier in breastfeeding infants. The average exclusive breastfeeding rate is 60%, whereas the requirement for Baby-Friendly hospital designation is 80%. This program involved intensive education of the staff, proceeded by education of the patients. The goal of this program was to educate patients about pacifier use with exclusive breastfeeding and to decrease supplementation. This education program involved comforting newborns, cautious pacifier use, and a proactive approach to exclusive breastfeeding. The program started in June 2017 and ended in November 2017. The project was divided into seven phases, including a foundation or review phase, data collection and analysis phases, creating and then disseminating the educational program phases, and post–data-collection and analysis phases. During the pre–data-collection phase, it was found that before the implementation of this educational program, 46% of mothers who were exclusively breastfeeding were using a pacifier with their newborn, whereas only 50% were educated on this topic. Thirty percent of all mothers who had stated before birth their intent to exclusively breastfeed had used formula for supplementation as well. The same data-collection tool and breastfeeding dashboard were used and analyzed. It was found that after our educational program started, the number of patients using pacifiers with their newborns decreased to 40%, whereas the number of patients educated on the topic increased to 90%. Patients who supplemented with formula decreased to 27%. According to the data presented, the project was a success. The number of mothers who were using a pacifier while exclusively breastfeeding decreased, whereas the number of those patients who were educated drastically increased. The amount of formula supplementation with those women who wanted to exclusively breastfeed also decreased. With these being our end goals, the project was successful. With this, we will continue our educational program with our postpartum patients.