Adoption of the “Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding”
Lori B. Feldman-Winter, MD, MPH, FAAP, Head of Adolescent Medicine at the Children’s Regional Hospital at Cooper and a member of the executive committee of American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Section on Breastfeeding, has published a review of the recently released Perinatal Core Measures related to exclusive breast milk feeding in AAP News. These new guidelines, a component of the Perinatal Care Core Measures set by the Joint Commission, will address how hospitals support exclusive breast milk feedings and will enable hospitals to develop better methods of tracking breastfeeding while mothers are in the hospital. These new standards highlight the importance of exclusive breastfeeding.
“The newly released Perinatal Care Core Measures Set developed by the Joint Commission will stimulate better tracking of exclusive breastmilk feeding rates among delivery hospitals, a key driver in the support of exclusive breastfeeding initiation,” said Dr. Winter. “Enhanced support of exclusive breastfeeding will benefit mothers and children and result in a healthier nation.”
Human breast milk strongly contributes to the health and wellness of newborn infants. To address the concern of excessive formula use, the Joint Commission has revised the Pregnancy and Related Conditions core measure requiring hospitals to track breastfeeding rates among healthy term and late preterm babies who are cared for in the normal newborn nursery. Mother’s will be urged to exclusively breastfeed their baby unless otherwise noted due to medical complications such as maternal HIV infection or Human t-lymphotrophic virus type I or II infection. The Joint Commission defines exclusive breast milk feedings as a “newborn receiving only breast milk and no other liquids or solids except for drops or syrups consisting of vitamins, minerals or medicines.”
Education is vital to the process of change within healthcare institutions. The AAP recommends implementing the World Health Organization’s Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding as the most effective and comprehensive method of increasing exclusive breastfeeding. This will require collaboration among obstetrical and pediatric practitioners within the hospital setting. The AAP Section on Breastfeeding has developed resources to aid pediatricians in serving as leaders of such interdisciplinary teams (www.aap.org/breastfeeding).