Hospital Practices Affect Long-Term Breast-feeding Success:
Only one in five mothers experience all breast-feeding-friendly
practices post-delivery
August 24, 2007—Denver—A recent study on breast-feeding practices in hospitals,
conducted by the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment,
shows only one in five mothers benefit from the
breast-feeding practices
found to be effective. Jennifer Dellaport, breast-feeding
promotion coordinator for the
department's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for
Women, Infants
and Children and chairperson of the Colorado Breastfeeding
Task Force,
said, "I hope the findings of this study will lead hospitals
to
re-examine their post-delivery practices and will empower
mothers who
choose to breast-feed to request these supportive practices
during their
hospital stay." The study, authored by Erin Murray, Sue
Ricketts and Dellaport, has
been published in the September issue of Birth: Issues in
Perinatal
Care. According to Murray, breast milk and breast-feeding
are recognized to
be the ideal choices of nutrition and feeding for infants.
The new study suggests that implementing five
breast-feeding-friendly
practices in hospitals following birth can significantly
improve
long-term breast-feeding success. The study found that
nearly two-thirds
of mothers who engaged in all five supportive practices were
still
breast-feeding four months after going home. The five
specific hospital
practices are
- initiating breast-feeding within one hour of delivery;
- keeping infants in the mother's hospital room;
- feeding infants only breast milk in the hospital, with
no
supplementation of water or formula;
- prohibiting pacifier use in the hospital; and
- providing a telephone number to call for breast-feeding
help
after hospital discharge.
"These practices are important because a high percentage
of mothers
initiate breast-feeding, but a large percentage discontinue
it within
the first month or two after giving birth," says Murray, who
led the
study. "The main reasons for stopping are related to
preventable or
resolvable difficulties with breast-feeding." Study
results indicate that most Colorado hospitals were not
consistently implementing these practices at the time of the
study. Of
the more than 4,500 Colorado mothers surveyed, only one in
five mothers
in the study who began breast-feeding experienced all of
these
breast-feeding-friendly practices. To significantly improve
a mother's
likelihood of continuing to breast-feed, many hospitals must
change
their current practices of caring for mothers and babies
after delivery,
according to Murray. Today, only 56 hospitals and birth
centers in the
United States follow the baby-friendly global guidelines for
breast-feeding, which include the five identified practices.
"When these practices were experienced together, they
significantly
improved how long mothers breast-fed, regardless of their
socioeconomic
status," says Murray. "Thus, all mothers who want to be
successful with
breast-feeding will benefit from delivering their baby at a
hospital
that consistently provides these breast-feeding practices."
This study was done by analyzing data collected from the
Colorado
Pregnancy Risk Assessment and Monitoring System survey. The
data
represent the experiences of Colorado mothers who gave birth
in 2002 and
2003, and who responded to the survey. - - - - - - - - - -
Birth: Issues in Perinatal Care is a
multidisciplinary, refereed
journal devoted to issues and practices in the care of
childbearing
women, infants and families. It is written by and for
professionals in
maternal and neonatal health, nurses, midwives, physicians,
public
health workers, childbirth educators, lactation counselors
and other
health caregivers and policymakers in perinatal care. For
more
information, please visit
www.blackwellpublishing.com/bir. --30-- |
