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A Quality Improvement Initiative to Increase Breast Milk Use in a Chinese NICU: a Pilot Study

Not Applicable
Completed
Conditions
Infant, Extremely Premature
Interventions
Other: breast milk consume promotion
Registration Number
NCT02897388
Lead Sponsor
Children's Hospital of Fudan University
Brief Summary

To assess the prevalence of breast milk feeding in a NICU in China, to implement a quality improvement program to increase breast milk feeding, and to evaluate its impact.

Detailed Description

The benefits of breast milk are well recognized for providing health benefits in early infancy and extending into adulthood, and breast milk feeding is promoted by numerous professional organizations. However, for various reasons, in neonatal intensive care unit in China, most infants are separated from their parents and are fed infant formula exclusively. To address this problem, the investigators propose to carry out a pilot study to assess the prevalence of breast milk feeding in a NICU of a tertiary teaching hospital in China, and then to introduce an intervention program to increase the prevalence of breast milk feeding and to evaluate the impact of this program.

The intervention would include building a nutrition team in the NICU, training of a lactation coordinator and nursing staff by a team from Mount Sinai Hospital, providing parents with education on breast milk feeding, providing access to breast pumps through a lend/lease program and providing a breast pumping room for parents. The investigators will collect data on breast milk feeding, including prevalence and reasons for not breast milk feeding during both the pre-intervention and intervention period. The investigators will also assess the enrolled infants' weight gain from admission to discharge, incidence of nosocomial infection and mortality, and average length of stay in the NICU, to assess the efficacy of the breast milk feeding intervention.

This trial has the potential to dramatically change feeding of infants in Chinese NICUs from exclusive infant formula to breast milk, with potential impacts on nosocomial infection, growth, development and hospital length of stay.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
COMPLETED
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
325
Inclusion Criteria
  1. all very low birth weight(birthweight ≤ 1500g)infants admitted to the NICU of Children's Hospital of Fudan University
  2. informed consent is given
Exclusion Criteria
  1. Presence of breast milk feeding contraindications
  2. Severe illness with contraindications for feeding

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
interventionbreast milk consume promotionall very low birth weight infants admitted to the NICU at Fudan University Children's Hospital from April 2015 through June 2016 who meet the enroll criteria. A series of breast milk consume promotion interventions would implemented during this intervention period, which including build local lactation team, set breast milk feeding room, train NICU staff etc.
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
prevalence of breast milk feedingup to 18 months

to compare the breast milk feeding incidence between pre-intervention and intervention period

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Nosocomial infection incidenceup to 18 months

to compare the nosocomial infection incidence between pre-intervention and intervention period

Necrotizing enterocolitis(NEC) incidenceup to 18 months

to compare the NEC incidence between pre-intervention and intervention period

overall mortality rateup to 18 months

to compare the overall mortality rate between pre-intervention and intervention period

time to full feedingup to 18 months

to compare the time to full feeding between pre-intervention and intervention period

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