RESUMO
Background: Breastfeeding is a well-established key of success to improve the outcome in neonates. Early initiation of breastfeeding in neonates refers to the provision of mother's milk to their own babies as early as possible after delivery. Despite the established benefits of breastfeeding, early initiation of breastfeeding is found to be suboptimal in our country. Early initiation of breastfeeding has many challenges like no bedding in, availability of lactation counsellors and staff nurses, procedural delay (episiotomy, skin suture) and shifting from the recovery room. Objective of the study was to improve the rate of initiation of breastfeeding stable term and preterm neonates within 1 hour of life in both normal vaginal delivery and caesarean section conducted in our hospital from baseline to 95% over 3 months period by Quality improvement approach.Methods: Eligible inborn mother-infant dyads were enrolled in this study. A team formed, baseline data and rate of early initiation of breastfeeding collected and factors for delayed initiation analysed by Flowchart process, Fishbone analysis and 5 why's, 3 PDSA cycles were done.Results: Total 50 mother-infant dyads assessed. Rate of early initiation of breastfeeding within 1 hour of life increased from 25% to 100% over 3 months.Conclusions: This quality improvement study was able to accomplish sustained improvement in the rate of breastfeeding the neonates in the first hour of life.
RESUMO
Background: The knowledge and practice of exclusive breastfeeding has been prejudiced by demographic, social, cultural, biophysical, and psychosocial factors. About two-thirds of under-five deaths in India are associated with inappropriate infant feeding practices. Objective of this study was to assess the awareness, knowledge and practice of breastfeeding among the mothers attending to the tertiary care institute at Puducherry, India.Methods: This hospital-based, cross-sectional study was carried out among 150 postnatal mothers who attended immunization clinics, post-natal and paediatric wards at the tertiary care hospital at Puducherry collecting data about breastfeeding knowledge and practices using a structured interview.Results: The breastfeeding practices were significantly poorer in terms of initiation, feeding colostrums, timing and frequency of feeding and inclusion of pre-lacteal feeds among obese women compared to the normal weighted mothers. The breastfeeding knowledge and attitude was healthy among the mothers as depicted by the awareness of nutritive value of breast milk by majority (84%) of mothers.Conclusions: The mothers had poor knowledge regarding initiation of breastfeeding and administration of colostrum. There was a positive attitude about exclusive breastfeeding, frequency of feeding and social aspects of breastfeeding.