Human Milk in the NICU: Policy into Practice

This unique text covers the use of banked, or stored, human milk in the hospital for premature and sick infants, and discusses the advantages of human milk feedings and the elements of hazard or risk introduced by the use of formulas, including rationales for the use of both mother’s own milk and donor human milk in the NICU.This reference also highlights domestic health policies that impact the use of human milk for sick and fragile infants, international models and policies for milk banking, the history of donor milk banking and how it came into being and ethical issues surrounding the delivery of milk banking services and donor human milk in the NICU.

PartPart I Introduction
ChapterChapter 1 Introduction
PartPart II Establishing the Need for Human Milk
ChapterChapter 2 Establishing the need for human milk in the NICU
PartPart III The Baby-Friendly NICU: The Ten Steps for Providing Maternal Milk
ChapterChapter 3 Step 1: Developing a policy supportive of breastfeeding/human milk use
ChapterChapter 4 Step 2: Training all health care staff in skills to implement the policy
ChapterChapter 5 Step 3: Teach mothers about the benefits of human milk for their preterm infants
ChapterChapter 6 Step 4: Initiate early skin-to-skin as soon as possible
ChapterChapter 7 Step 5: Help mothers to begin early milk expression, and provide education and support for establishing and maintaining an adequate milk supply
ChapterChapter 8 Step 6: Give special care infants only human milk unless medically contraindicated
ChapterChapter 9 Step 7: Promote skin-to-skin contact between parents and their preterm infants
ChapterChapter 10 Step 8: Foster early transition to full breastfeeding
ChapterChapter 11 Step 9: Use ethical evidence-based breastfeeding practices free of conflicts of interest
ChapterChapter 12 Step 10: Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and community programs and refer mothers to them.
PartPart IV Use of Banked Donor Human Milk as an Alternative
ChapterChapter 13 Clinical use of donor milk
ChapterChapter 14 Brief history of donor milk banking in the US
ChapterChapter 15 International models
ChapterChapter 16 The Ten Steps for a “Baby-Friendly� milk bank
PartPart V Conclusions
ChapterChapter 17 Conclusions