Incorporating breastfeeding care into daily newborn rounds and pediatric office practice

Abstract

Integrating breastfeeding care into pediatric practice and thought process results in improved breastfeeding outcomes for patients and significant professional satisfaction for pediatricians. Meeting a family's expectation to help them succeed in their desire to breastfeed their infants is rewarding. Current knowledge regarding the appropriate care of the breastfed infant immediately after birth provides an engaging opportunity to reframe ideas regarding good newborn care. Whatever may have previously been thought regarding newborn care, the true objectives are to maintain optimal physiologic parameters and optimize neurophysiologic and behavioral homeostasis in transitional infants. The goal is a thriving, eagerly breastfeeding newborn infant and a comfortable mother with an abundant milk supply within the physiologically anticipated time frame. In the office setting, supporting the ongoing success of the breastfeeding is a natural extension of the preventive health care activities that are the cornerstone of general pediatrics. Facilitating parents' plan to breastfeed their infants by incorporating good breastfeeding care into daily practice routines is professionally satisfying, enhances the well-being of pediatric patients, and enriches the experience of practicing general pediatrics.