Support breastfeeding in premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit

Abstract

The multiple benefits of human milk in newborns are known, especially in preterm newborns by reducing the rates of neonatal sepsis, necrotizing enterocolitis, retinopathy of prematurity and better results in neurodevelopment. However, rates of exclusive breast milk use remain low. To achieve higher percentages of successful breastfeeding, strategies must be applied from the NICU, such as expressed within the first 6 hours of life, skin-to-skin contact and administration of colostrum in the cheeks, all well, in order to have sufficient volume of breast milk since this is the main barrier they face, not having enough milk. There are very few studies that evaluate when to initiate suctions directly to the maternal breast, using the empty breast as non-nutritive suction could improve the performance of VLBW to the maternal breast.