Quality improvement initiative to improve mother’s own milk usage till hospital discharge in very low birth weight infants from a tertiary care NICU

• Published in: Journal of perinatology Vol. 40; no. 8; pp. 1273 - 1281
• Main Authors: Kulkarni, Dattatray V., Murki, Srinivas, Pawale, Dinesh, kiran, Sai, Sharma, Deepak, Verdhelli, Venkateshwarlu, Oleti, Tejopratap, Raggala, Yadalaxmi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.08.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 692/308/409; 692/700/1720; Admission and discharge; Birth weight; Hospitals; Infants; Infants (Premature); Intensive care; Low birth weight; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Milk; Mother-offspring interactions; Neonatal care; Neonatology; Nutrition; Pediatric Surgery; Pediatrics; Premature birth; Quality control; Quality improvement; Quality Improvement Article; Weight; India
• ISSN: 0743-8346; 1476-5543
• DOI: 10.1038/s41372-020-0707-0

Importance Mother’s own milk (MOM) for premature infants is a complete nutrition. It is an ideal issue for a quality improvement (QI) initiative. Objective To increase the proportionate usage of MOM as enteral feeds. Methods A QI study conducted in Tertiary care NICU involving all eligible very low birth weight (VLBW) infants and mother dyads. The proportionate usages of MOM as enteral feeds were the main outcomes. Exposure Education, milk expression, and mother–infant interaction formed the key drivers. Results We studied 282 mother infant dyads during the QI period. The proportionate usage of MOM as the enteral feed increased from 55% (±34) at baseline to 80% (±27) during the intervention and to 88% (±16) in sustenance phase. Conclusions A QI initiative resulted in 60% relative improvement in proportionate usage of MOM as enteral feeds in VLBW infants during hospital stay.