Efficacy of an Osteopathic Treatment for Mechanical Sucking Dysfunctions in Newborn

Breastfeeding is the physiological and recommended way of feeding newborns as indicated by the World Health Organization, Health Canada and the politics of perinatality 2008-2018 in Quebec. Despite these, mothers who exclusively breastfed their babies are rare. According to Statistics Canada, the first month of life is the most at risk time to wean because of technical difficulties (53% of weaning) including mechanical issues. In Quebec city, despite a supportive network of health care professionals including lactation consultant, many babies are weaned. Lactation consultant are often feeling helpless when facing these mechanical difficulties.

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficiency of an osteopathic treatment for newborns presenting breastfeeding mechanical difficulties. The investigators' hypotheses is that an osteopathic treatment integrating in the usual care is more efficient than usual car alone to help healing mechanical breastfeeding issues.

The investigators propose a randomized clinical trial on a sample of 90 babies (45 in each group), under six weeks, presenting sucking dysfunctions, in Quebec city (Canada). The control group will receive usual care with a lactation consultant and the intervention group will receive usual care plus an osteopathic treatment. It is a simple blind clinical trial: the osteopath finds out, prior to evaluating the patient, what intervention should be delivered to the baby (assessment alone or standardized osteopathic treatment for infant).

The results will ultimately lead to improvements in the existing knowledge on the fields of osteopathy and lactation support, allowing implementation of osteopathic care in the perinatal network.