While August is National Breastfeeding Awareness Month, educating new mothers about the importance of breastfeeding happens every day at Texas Children’s Pavilion for Women.
“A natural, life-saving gift mothers can give their newborns is their own breast milk,” said Women’s Support Services Director Nancy Hurst. “Unlike formula, human milk contains powerful antibodies that protect infants against disease and infection, while strengthening the indelible bond between a mother and her baby from the earliest moments of life.”
The Pavilion for Women has implemented numerous breastfeeding practices to ensure our nurses, obstetricians and pediatricians are well trained to teach mothers how to breastfeed and maintain lactation. Even when separated from their infants, which can occur when premature babies are confined to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for long-term care, mothers are shown how to initiate and maintain lactation. A nursing and medical staff that is educated in evidence-based breastfeeding practices is one of the many requirements to achieve the designation of Baby Friendly Hospital.
On July 22 and 23, surveyors from Baby Friendly USA visited Texas Children’s Hospital to evaluate our adherence to the Ten Steps for Successful Breastfeeding. These steps – which the Pavilion for Women has successfully implemented – include teaching mothers to respond to their infant’s early feeding cues rather than schedule feedings, avoiding the use of pacifiers and bottles until breastfeeding is well established which normally occurs during the first two weeks, feeding infants only breast milk and providing mothers with resources for lactation support prior to leaving the hospital.
Other breastfeeding efforts initiated at the Pavilion for Women include:
- Helping mothers breastfeed within one hour of birth
- Encouraging “rooming in” so mothers and infants can stay together 24 hours a day
- Implementing immediate skin-to-skin contact between mother and baby following delivery, even after cesarean birth
- Standardizing prenatal education to educate women about the benefits of breastfeeding
- Providing 20 hours of didactic and skills-based education and instruction to all nursing staff caring for mothers and babies at the Pavilion for Women, including three hours of breastfeeding education to our obstetricians and pediatrics providers
- Promoting the Breastfeeding Champions Program to inspire nurses to become role models for other nurses by reminding them why it is important to encourage women to breastfeed
“New mothers often times do not succeed in breastfeeding because there are no systems in place to support them,” said Prenatal Education Program Manager Anne Wright. “Since 88 percent of the mothers who deliver at the Pavilion for Women want to breastfeed, it is important that we implement and sustain practices that ensure their success.”
The Baby Friendly Hospital designation is important to Texas Children’s because it complements our commitment to delivering high-quality care to improve long-term outcomes for our neonatal patients.
Since Texas Children’s Newborn Center implemented the exclusive human milk feeding protocol six years ago, the rate of necrotizing enterocolitis – a devastating intestinal disease that affects premature infants – has dropped by 77 percent in our NICU. This remarkable feat is attributed to the generous mothers, many of whom are Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine employees, who donate their excess breast milk to Texas Children’s Mother’s Milk Bank.
“Every ounce of donor breast milk improves outcomes for our NICU babies,” said Texas Children’s Neonatal Nutrition Director Dr. Amy Hair. “Mothers who donate their excess supply to our milk bank ensures our tiniest, most vulnerable patients receive a constant supply of nourishment and protection to build their developing immune system.”
While achieving the Baby Friendly Hospital designation is a lengthy four-phase process, Hurst says it could take up to 10 weeks to find out if Texas Children’s joins the roster of hospitals that proudly display this coveted distinction.
“Right now, it’s a waiting game for us,” Hurst said. “But, I am confident that we will achieve this designation because we’ve worked so hard to meet the rigorous criteria for implementing successful breastfeeding practices at the Pavilion for Women.”
For more information about Baby Friendly USA, click here. To learn more about Texas Children’s Mother’s Milk Bank, click here.