Maintenance of Breastfeeding during Hospital Stay: A Case Report

Abstract

Skin-to-skin contact and breastfeeding initiation within the first hour following delivery are key recommendations to promote breastfeeding (1). Early skin-to-skin contact begins ideally in the delivery room and involves placing the naked baby on the mother's bare chest. This intimate contact at this sensitive period is believed to evoke certain neurobehaviors for programming future physiology (2). Despite the scientific and technological advances in neonatal care, hospitalization of the following newborn delivery remains as one of leading causes that may interfere with mother-child bonding and maintenance of breastfeeding. The Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine recommends that breastfeeding parent and their nursing baby be hospitalized together if either of them requires a hospital stay (3). Unfortunately, this goal cannot be achieved in every setting. Although there is an increased level of awareness and elevated efforts towards the promotion of breastfeeding and skin-to-skin care in nenatal intensive care units (NICU), mothers cannot participate in every single feeding session and baby bottles are generally used for the introduction of expressed milk in hospitalized infants (4). However, bottle feeding is reported to have an association with nipple confusion, and breastfeeding refusal and remains a barrier to maintenance of lactation (5). This paper describes a case study with efforts of a NICU team to maintain breastfeeding and reduce bottle feeding among hospitalized newborns in a tertiary hospital.