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