Abstract

Audit about early initiation of breast feeding in preterm babies

M. Alkotamy¹, O. Alake ², I. Akubue², V. Riches², S Reynolds¹, K Palmer² and J Kapur²

                                  Royal Wolverhampton Hospital¹, University Hospital North Midlands²

Early initiation of breast feeding is a key factor of neurodevelopment of preterm babies and one of the measures of national neonatal audit program.

West Midlands network scored below the national average of this audit and hence the decision to undertake this audit.

Objectives:

•To assess our rates of initiation and maintenance of breastfeeding

•To assess average time taken to achieve full feeds

•To develop an action plan around improving our breastfeeding experience for our babies

Method:

Prospective study of babies born less than 34 weeks gestational age in two neonatal units (University Hospital of North Midlands and Royal Wolverhampton Hospital) over period of four months.

Results:

Total of 70 babies from two neonatal units with gestational age ranging from 25+5 to 33+5 were involved. 39 babies were born via caesarean section and 31 born via NVD with 18 multiple births. All babies whom mothers wanted to breast feed received breast milk as the first feed, and breast milk was introduced to other babies at some point so that 86% of all babies received breast milk at some point, 54% of all of them received breast milk within 48 hours of birth. The main reason for delaying breast feeding was unavailability of mother’s milk. Breast feeding was less among babies born via section and unexpectedly breast

feeding did not shorten duration to reach full feeds compared to formula feeds.

Breastfeeding rates declined gradually through their stay.

Conclusion:

There is need to offer breastfeeding support throughout the admission to mothers to ensure sustainability. An expression checklist was designed towards achieving this.

SpeakerBiography:

Marwa Alkotamy is a paediatric trainee at Univeristy Hospital of North Midlands, UK. She is member of Royal College of Paediatrics and Childhealth and she had MBBCH in 2009 from Alexandria Univerity in Egypt. She has worked since then as a paediatric registrar in Saudi Arabia and joined paediatric training program in West Midlands Hospitals in UK.

Email address: marwa.alkotamy@nhs.net

Bottom Note: This abstract has been taken from World Pediatric congress completed on June 25-26, 2020.