Supporting breastfeeding in the neonatal intensive care unit: Rush Mother's Milk Club as a case study of evidence-based care

Abstract

The translation of the evidence for the use of human milk (HM) in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) into best practices, toolkits, policies and procedures, talking points, and parent information packets is limited, and requires use of evidence-based quality indicators to benchmark the use of HM, consistent messaging by the entire NICU team about the importance of HM for infants in the NICU, establishing procedures that protect maternal milk supply, and incorporating lactation technologies that take the guesswork out of HM feedings and facilitate milk transfer during breastfeeding.