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Prevalence and patterns of gestational parent’s own milk feeds among infants with major congenital surgical anomalies in the NICU

Journal of Perinatology volume 41, pages 2782–2788 (2021)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Objective

To describe the prevalence and patterns of gestational parent’s own milk (GPOM) feedings among infants undergoing major surgery during their neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) admission.

Study Design

We analyzed de-identified electronic medical records of all infants admitted to a regional NICU 2014–2015 who underwent surgery for a gastrointestinal, cardiac, or other major organ system defect(s).

Results

Of 79 infants, 85% received any GPOM during the NICU hospitalization. The median proportion of GPOM feeds was 66%. There was a trend toward decreassing proportions of GPOM with progressive months in NICU. The rate of any and exclusive GPOM feeds at NICU discharge was 49% and 29%, respectively. Infants who had a GI anomaly were more likely than infants with a cardiac anomaly to be discharged from NICU receiving GPOM.

Conclusion

Barriers to the exclusive and continued provision of GPOM in this population require further study and intervention.

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Fig. 1: Proportion of feeds in NICU that were gestational parent’s own milk (GPOM) by successive month in NICU.

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Acknowledgements

Data acquisition was supported through NIH grant UL1TR001857. We thank Debra L. Bogen for her support in project conceptualization. We also thank Erin Caplan and Nora Lee for their assistance with dataset preparation.

Funding

This study was funded by the Association of Women’s Health, Neonatal, and Obstetric Nurses (Kimberly-Clark Nursing Research Award; PI: Demirci).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing, Department of Health Promotion & Development, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Jill R. Demirci, Jessica Davis & Melissa Glasser

  2. St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, St Louis, MO, USA

    Beverly Brozanski

Authors
  1. Jill R. Demirci
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  2. Jessica Davis
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  3. Melissa Glasser
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  4. Beverly Brozanski
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Contributions

JRD contributed to the conceptualization and design of the analysis, the analysis itself, and drafted the initial manuscript. JD assisted with data interpretation. MG assisted with data analysis. BB assisted with data acquisition and interpretation. All authors were involved in critically revising the manuscript for intellectual content and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jill R. Demirci.

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Ethics approval

This study was approved by the University of Pittsburgh Institutional Review Board and performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Demirci, J.R., Davis, J., Glasser, M. et al. Prevalence and patterns of gestational parent’s own milk feeds among infants with major congenital surgical anomalies in the NICU. J Perinatol 41, 2782–2788 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-021-01176-6

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