Help for Nurses Who Support Breastfeeding Mothers

New Guideline Includes Special Section on Breastfeeding Premature Infants

NEWS RELEASE: April 4, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC—Breastfeeding is widely recognized as the optimal form of infant nutrition through the first year of life. Despite initiating breastfeeding while in the hospital, many new mothers don't continue even for the recommended minimum of six months. In many cases, this is because they don't receive the education or support they need to successfully breastfeed once they leave the hospital.

Nurses are ideally positioned in the healthcare delivery system to increase breastfeeding rates among new mothers and to extend the amount of time that women breastfeed to at least six months, or ideally, a year. To help them provide that support, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) has just released the second edition of its evidence-based guideline (EBG), Breastfeeding Support: Prenatal Care through the First Year.

New mothers need consistent, accurate guidance in order to successfully breastfeed. Nurses must have evidence-based information in order to provide the accurate, consistent support and education needed to increase rates of breastfeeding initiation and duration. The revised EBG was specifically designed to meet those needs.

"Hospital stays for new mothers have become so short that it makes it even harder for nurses to prepare new mothers to breastfeed successfully," said AWHONN President Judith Poole, PhD, RNC. "We can increase breastfeeding rates and help improve the health of newborns by ensuring that nurses have access to the most up-to-date evidence-based information so that they can deliver consistent breastfeeding education and support to new mothers."

The second edition of Breastfeeding Support: Prenatal Care through the First Year includes updated recommendations based on comprehensive review and systematic analysis of the current literature in the areas of preconception and prenatal care and counseling, and breastfeeding support and promotion from birth through the first year of life.

The revised guideline also features a special section with recommendations for breastfeeding promotion and support for preterm and vulnerable newborns and their mothers. All babies benefit from breastfeeding, but preterm infants may derive even greater benefits, including a reduction in the incidence of certain neonatal diseases including necrotizing enteroclolitis and late-onset sepsis.

Oxygen desaturation is a critical concern for these babies and evidence suggests that preterm infants' breathing is less stressed during sucking bursts for breastfeeding sessions than during bottle feeding sessions. Preterm mother's milk is usually better suited for the preterm infant than either mature or term human milk because it contains higher concentrations of essential nutrients. Preterm infants who are fed preterm mother's milk may also have shorter hospital stays.

The helpful Quick Care Guide in the EBG has been revised to include very user-friendly breastfeeding patient assessment and teaching points for term and preterm neonates and their mothers. Continuing Nursing Education contact hours are available with this second edition of Breastfeeding Support.

Breastfeeding Support: Prenatal Care through the First Year is available from the AWHONN store for $53.95 for non-members and $34.95 for members.
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About AWHONN

A leader among the nation's nursing associations, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) serves and represents more than 22,000 health care professionals in the US, Canada and abroad.

AWHONN members are committed to delivering superior health care to women and newborns in hospitals, in home health and ambulatory care settings. AWHONN members' rich diversity of skills and experience make AWHONN the voice for women's health and neonatal nursing.

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