By Rebecca Costello, IBCLC
Twice a year, the WBWC lactation consultants organize a “Breastfeeding Update” for all our midwives, nurse practitioners, and nurses. This spring we covered several topics, one of which was a quality improvement project by our UNC intern, Anna Caudill. Anna pulled data from charts for 6 months of WBWC births, looking at breastfeeding outcomes, specifically whether a baby is at or above birth weight at 2 weeks of age, which is an indicator of whether baby is breastfeeding well/getting enough milk. Her work was an update to a similar assessment conducted 2 years ago, which had enabled us to identify possible early warning signs of breastfeeding issues. As a result of the previous study, WBWC implemented several additional screening measures as part of our routine postpartum care.
Anna’s research showed that over the past 2 years, we cut our rate of babies who were not back to birth weight by 50%! Because our rate 2 years ago was already similar to other comparable populations, this result now means we are doing much better than average. We credit this progress to our focus on early intervention – noticing breastfeeding problems in the first few days of life, and helping fix them quickly. We want to thank the entire WBWC team for making this progress possible, and of course you, our WBWC families, for working so hard with us to make breastfeeding successful for you and your babies.
Anna also looked at the percentage of babies who lost more than 10% of their birth weight in the early days after birth (another sign that breastfeeding is not going well). We found that our rate is consistent with other comparable populations. Our next step is to see whether we can reduce that number as well. We have been in touch with another birth center that successfully reduced its numbers with some baby-friendly changes, like continuous skin-to-skin for 48 hours postpartum. We are interested to pilot some new ideas in the service of happy, healthy moms and babies. Stay tuned!
Image courtesy of Heart in Hands Photography