Sostegno all’allattamento nei primi giorni di vita: lo strumento del “semaforo”

Breastfeeding is the safest, most effective and economical method for nourishing the newborn from birth to six months of life and beyond. The benefits of breastfeeding for mothers and babies have long been known, as well as the primary role that exclusive breastfeeding plays as a determinant of short and long-term health. For these reasons, since the 1980s, international and national institutions, together with those responsible for providing care in the maternal and child environment, have collaborated through implementation strategies in the promotion, protection and support of breastfeeding. For this reason, starting from 2012, at the Castelli Hospital of the ASL VCO (BFHI certified since 2010), we worked on the development of a tool for the qualitative assessment of breastfeeding that can be used at the discharge of the mother-newborn dyad, with the goal of identifying mothers in need of greater support and therefore of a clinical re-evaluation.