title: A multipronged approach is associated with improved breast milk feeding rates in very low birth weight infants of an inner-city hospital.
abstract: Breast milk feeding has advantages over formula feeding in premature infants, but its use in them is low. We initiated measures in our inner-city hospital such as starting a dedicated lactation service, counseling the mothers prenatally and postnatally, educating hospital staff, and advocating with our state's Medicaid insurance to provide free home breast pumps. These measures were associated with improvement in our breast milk feeding rates in very low birth weight infants from 22% to 88% over 5 years. This article describes our multipronged approach and can help encourage and guide other units with similar demographics to improve their breast milk feeding rates.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA ndereddy@uthsc.edu.
authors.forename: Narendra R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Dereddy
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Ajay J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Talati
authors.affiliation: Regional Medical Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Ashley
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kudumula
authors.affiliation: Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center, Memphis, TN, USA.
authors.forename: Ramasubbareddy
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dhanireddy
mesh_terms: D061186:Breast Milk Expression / Q000191:economics* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006779:Hospitals, Public; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019102:Infant, Very Low Birth Weight; D000068101:Maternal-Child Health Services / Q000592:standards*; D008484:Medicaid; D011181:Postnatal Care / Q000592:standards; D011295:Prenatal Care / Q000592:standards; D058996:Quality Improvement; D013714:Tennessee; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population
keywords: breastfeeding; inner-city hospital; prematurity; quality improvement