Baby-Friendly Designation! – Implementing the “Ten Steps” to Successful Breastfeeding
Despite the brevity of the post-birth hospitalization, mounting evidence confirms that making institutional changes in maternity care practices can significantly increase breastfeeding initiation and duration rates. The Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative’s (BFHI) Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding have long been recognized as the “gold standard” for maternity care practices that promote successful breastfeeding. Although relatively few U.S. hospitals have been awarded the Baby-Friendly designation, hundreds of maternity facilities have now embarked on the Baby-Friendly journey, and countless more are committed to making incremental changes in implementing supportive maternity practices. This presentation will educate nursing staff, lactation consultants, physicians, mid-level providers, administrators, prenatal educators, and others concerning the “whys” and “hows” of implementing the BFHI Ten Steps. Special emphasis will be given to the “anchor” steps of immediate mother-baby skin-to-skin contact and exclusive breastmilk feeding as strong evidence-based interventions to increase breastfeeding duration and exclusivity. In addition, the program will address effective strategies to prepare expectant mothers for an optimal hospital breastfeeding experience. Let Dr. Neifert’s empowering information and contagious enthusiasm help ensure that your hospital’s Baby-Friendly destination results in the BFHI designation!
Applying Evidenced-Based Strategies to Increase Exclusive and Extended Breastfeeding
A growing body of research evidence confirms that the improved health outcomes associated with breastfeeding are dose-related, with exclusive breastfeeding for six months conferring the maximum infant and maternal health benefits. Despite the steady increase in breastfeeding initiation rates, a large majority of U.S. infants and mothers do not receive the maximum health benefits associated with exclusive and extended breastfeeding. Furthermore, substantial differences in breastfeeding rates among vulnerable populations contribute to infant and maternal health disparities. This session will briefly summarize the recent literature identifying evidence-based clinical strategies that promote exclusive breastfeeding. Participants will learn specific prenatal, intrapartum, early follow-up, and ongoing interventions linked with improved exclusive breastfeeding outcomes. In addition, Dr. Neifert will share effective counseling strategies targeting the common barriers that undermine exclusive breastfeeding, including: the lack of prenatal preparation; inadequate support; perception of insufficient milk; misinterpretation of infant crying; returning to work or school; and early introduction of solid foods. The empowering information presented will equip lactation consultants, WIC staff, public health nurses, primary care providers, and other health professionals who work in diverse practice settings to implement evidence-based, clinical strategies to better promote exclusive and extended breastfeeding.
The Important Role of Lactation Consultants and Breastfeeding Proponents in Reducing SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths
Each year in the United States, approximately 4,600 infants die suddenly of no immediately obvious cause. Nearly half of all Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUID) are attributed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). While SIDS rates have dropped significantly since the national Back to Sleep campaign was initiated, SIDS still remains the leading cause of death for infants aged 1–12 months. Accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed (ASSB) is a potentially preventable subgroup of SUID that has quadrupled in the last two decades and accounts for another 500 sleep-related infant deaths annually. Lactation consultants and other health professionals who work with expectant and new mothers have the opportunity and ethical responsibility to help reduce preventable sleep-associated deaths in infancy. This session will explore the environmental, biologic, and social risk factors for SIDS and ASSB and review the latest American Academy of Pediatrics Policy Statement and Technical Report on “SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths.” Dr. Neifert will also discuss the newly launched NIH “Safe to Sleep Campaign,” which builds on the success of the long-standing Back to Sleep campaign, and provides additional strategies—including the recommendation to breastfeed—to reduce all sleep-related, sudden unexpected infant deaths. Participants will be challenged to begin incorporating evidence-based, uniform safe sleep guidelines as a routine part of their breastfeeding counseling of expectant and new mothers.
“Just a Few Weeks Early:” Breastfeeding Challenges in Late-Preterm Infants
Infants born at 34, 35, and 36 weeks gestation are referred to as late-preterm infants to emphasize that these babies are physiologically immature and have special health care needs compared to full term infants. The proportion of all U.S. births that are late preterm has increased over the past 15 years, presently comprising more than 8% of all births and accounting for more than 70% of all preterm births (<37 weeks gestation). Although hospital personnel and parents often treat apparently healthy late-preterm infants as if they were developmentally mature newborns, babies born even a few weeks early have an increased risk of a variety of neonatal complications, including feeding problems, severe jaundice, and excessive weight loss after birth. Smaller, developmentally immature late-preterm infants often have trouble latching on to the breast correctly and breastfeeding effectively at first, due to fewer awake-alert periods, immature oromotor skills, lower muscle tone, and a tendency to tire easily. This presentation will address the special breastfeeding challenges among late-preterm infants and offer helpful guidelines to ensure a plentiful milk supply and a thriving baby. The extra investment of time and effort to safeguard early breastfeeding among these vulnerable newborns can set the stage for long-term breastfeeding success. This presentation is relevant for all health care workers who counsel pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.
Keeping Breastfeeding Going: Keys to a Plentiful Milk Supply
While more than three-quarters of U.S. mothers begin breastfeeding their newborns, fewer than 50% of infants continue to be breastfed by six months of age. In a recent national survey, two of the most common reasons mothers gave for stopping breastfeeding before their baby was a year old were: “I didn’t have enough milk” and “Breastmilk alone did not satisfy my baby.” Concerns about producing enough milk prevent many women from reaching their breastfeeding goals. This presentation will offer strategies to help women establish and maintain a plentiful milk supply throughout their baby’s first year. Topics to be discussed include: the critical importance of the first two weeks in establishing an abundant milk supply; the essential role of “prevention pumping” among mothers of infants at risk for inadequate breastfeeding; the role of exclusive breastfeeding in extending breastfeeding duration; the variability of breast storage capacity among breastfeeding women and its influence on recommended feeding/pumping routines; and avoiding common “insults” that can decrease a once generous milk supply, such as a long night interval without draining the breasts, mastitis, hormonal contraceptives, and maternal employment. This presentation is relevant for all health care workers who are committed to promoting exclusive and extended breastfeeding.
Life in Balance: Improving the Quality of Your Journey
Virtually every lactation consultant or other health care worker knows the feeling – too much to do and too little time or energy to do it all well. This informative, entertaining, and inspiring session will target those dedicated, and often-depleted, lactation professionals who sometimes forget to re-fill their own emotional tanks as they endlessly respond to the compelling needs of nursing dyads. Juggling professional and personal responsibilities can create stifling overload that jeopardizes both roles and contributes to job burnout. Worse yet, toxic role overload threatens to create “compassion fatigue” by draining health professionals of a deeply cherished attribute. Drawing from her own experience of giving birth to five children in seven years, while completing her medical education, Dr. Mom shares hard-earned wisdom gleaned from her personal journey and professional encounters. In addressing the universal quest of contemporary life – finding a balance – Dr. Mom offers timeless practical life-strategies to equip LCs to clarify governing values, establish priorities, reduce stress, downscale and simplify, cultivate healthy coping skills, and promote essential self-care. Reordering our frenzied lives can renew our excitement about our life and our work. Furthermore, the same prescription can help our nursing clients re-structure their priorities to accommodate successful breastfeeding. Come prepared to laugh and learn – leave rejuvenated and re-energized!
Comprehensive Breastfeeding Training for WIC Professional and Paraprofessional Staff
This comprehensive 3-day training is designed to prepare WIC professional and selected paraprofessional staff to provide effective assessment and counseling for expectant women and breastfeeding clients who have been identified as high risk per the NRF 52 description. The course will review the scientific basis for breastfeeding promotion, and offer specific counseling techniques in routine breastfeeding management. Emphasis will be placed on: 1) the promotion of exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months; 2) extending the duration of breastfeeding; and 3) the recognition and timely intervention for breastfeeding risk factors in the pregnant woman, the lactating mother, and the breastfeeding infant. Practical, clinically relevant information will be presented and supplemented with a course syllabus of resource materials. A variety of practicum opportunities will be incorporated into the training to give participants hands-on experience with breast pumps, breastfeeding aids and accessories, and a variety of breastfeeding educational resources. In addition, multiple case studies will give participants opportunities to apply their knowledge in troubleshooting a variety of breastfeeding problems.
Troubleshooting Breastfeeding Problems
With more than 75% of U.S. mothers choosing to breastfeed, health professionals need to know how to prevent and manage breastfeeding difficulties that arise during the course of lactation. This presentation addresses the prevention, recognition, and clinical management of the common maternal and infant breastfeeding concerns that often lead to early weaning. Maternal problems to be addressed include: breast variations; acute and chronic sore nipples, including infection with bacteria and/or candida; plugged ducts and mastitis; maternal employment; and insufficient milk supply. Infant breastfeeding problems include: breastfeeding-related jaundice; the late-preterm infant and other at-risk newborns; infant latch-on and suckling difficulties; slow infant weight gain; and the “colicky” breast-fed infant. This presentation will empower and equip health care workers who serve pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers to effectively address common lactation concerns.
Insufficient Milk Syndrome
Although lack of milk is the most common reason women give for discontinuing breastfeeding, this all-too-common complaint is poorly understood. This presentation reviews the magnitude of the problem of lactation insufficiency and distinguishes rare “primary” (non-preventable, non-remediable) causes of insufficient milk (including breast surgery and breast variations) from common, often remediable, “secondary” causes linked to poor breastfeeding management. Participants will learn the mechanisms by which lactation difficulties become complicated by low milk, and review common maternal and infant factors contributing to insufficient lactation. The program will include guidelines for establishing and maintaining a generous milk supply and offer specific management strategies to help increase low maternal milk production and improve the nutritional status of underweight breastfed infants. Dr. Neifert also will discuss the current controversy surrounding the clinical use of pharmaceutical and herbal galactagogues and review the latest Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine’s Protocol on The Use of Galactagogues.
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