Early Initiation of Colostrum and Skin to Skin to Establish Successful Breast Milk Feeding in Very Preterm Infants

Introduction: Early colostrum feeds and skin to skin have shown to increase duration of breast milk feeds in newborns. Despite the known benefits of breast milk feeds for high risk preterm infants, many barriers still remain for the preterm infants to receive mother’s own breast milk. We initiated a quality improvement project to support NICU mothers to improve the duration of breast milk feeding in their preterm infants. Methods: Infants with birth weight ≤1500g …