Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jun;113(6):1322-1330.
doi: 10.1111/apa.17184. Epub 2024 Mar 4.

A structured programme to promote breastfeeding improved the rates in very preterm infants at discharge

Silvia Perugi  1 , Martina Ciarcià  1 , Caterina Coviello  1 , Monica Fusco  1 , Clara Lunardi  1 , Giulia Remaschi  1 , Davide Sarcina  1 , Giovanni Sassudelli  1 , Simone Pratesi  1 , Carlo Dani  1   2 ; PROBREAST Study Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

A structured programme to promote breastfeeding improved the rates in very preterm infants at discharge

Silvia Perugi et al. Acta Paediatr. 2024 Jun.

Abstract

Aim: We developed the Promotion of Breastfeeding (PROBREAST) programme and evaluated what effect it had on the breastfeeding rate in infants born at less than 32 weeks of gestation or weighing ≤1500 grams.

Methods: We compared the breastfeeding rate in two cohorts of patients who were born before (n = 72; January 2017 to June 2018) and after (n = 80; July 2018 to December 2019) the application of the programme. Moreover, we compared the correlation between type of feeding at discharge and post-discharge breastfeeding rate, between exclusive breastfeeding, postnatal growth and neurodevelopment.

Results: Infants in the PROBREAST group had an exclusive breastfeeding rate at discharge higher (42 vs. 16%, p < 0.001) than that in the historical control group. Exclusive breastfeeding was negatively correlated with weight z-score at discharge, but not at 12 and 24 months corrected age, and was positively correlated with cognitive score at 24 months corrected age.

Conclusion: The application of a structured programme for the promotion of breastfeeding improved the breastfeeding rate in very preterm infants. We demonstrated that exclusive breastfeeding at discharge improved their neurodevelopment without impairing growth.

Keywords: breastmilk; direct breastfeeding; preterm infant; programme; promotion.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

REFERENCES

    1. World Health Organization. Indicators for Assessing Infant and Young Child Feeding Practices. 2008; https://www.who.int/maternal_child_adolescent/documents/9789241596664/en/
    1. Miller J, Tonkin E, Damarell R, et al. A systematic review and meta‐analysis of human Milk feeding and morbidity in very low birth weight infants. Nutrients. 2018;10:E707.
    1. Quigley M, Embleton ND, McGuire W. Formula versus donor breast milk for feeding preterm or low birth weight infants. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2019;7:CD002971.
    1. Dani C, Coviello C, Panin F, et al. Incidence and risk factors of retinopathy of prematurity in an Italian cohort of preterm infants. Ital J Pediatr. 2021;47:64.
    1. Rodrigues C, Zeitlin J, Zemlin M, et al. Never‐breastfed children face a higher risk of suboptimal cognition at 2 years of corrected age: a multinational cohort of very preterm children. Matern Child Nutr. 2022;18:e13347.

Publication types