NHS research targets breastfeeding in special care units

News release from the National Coordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment

7 June 2007

New research commissioned by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) programme will investigate the best ways to encourage mothers whose babies are in special and intensive care units to breastfeed. Around 97,000 babies a year need some level of special or neonatal intensive care at birth.

“Breast milk helps protect babies against illness, and for premature, small and sick newborn babies the health benefits are especially important,” says lead researcher Professor Mary Renfrew of the University of York . “However, breastfeeding rates in the UK are among the lowest in Europe, with mothers from disadvantaged groups the least likely to breast feed, even though their babies are most likely to be born too soon or too small. To complicate the issue further, starting and continuing to breastfeed, or to express breast milk, is particularly difficult in special and intensive care settings, where care is dominated by medical procedures, parents are likely to be anxious and distressed, and mothers are often separated from their babies.”

Researchers from the Mother & Infant Research Unit at the University of York will review the existing research evidence to assess which methods are the most clinically and cost-effective for encouraging mothers to start and continue to breastfeed in special and intensive care settings. They will look at direct intervention strategies, such as providing support and teaching breastfeeding techniques to mothers, as well as indirect strategies such as the provision of facilities for expression and storage of breast milk, to see how they affect breastfeeding.

“Despite strong policy support for breastfeeding in recent years in the UK , there has never been a policy initiative to increase breastfeeding rates in special and intensive care units,” says Professor Renfrew. “We hope that this research will help to inform future policy and practice in this area.”

For full project details visit www.hta.ac.uk/project/1611.asp

Notes:

  1. According to the Office of National Statistics, 12% of all babies born need some level of special care at birth (about 80,000) and 2.5% of all babies born need some level of neonatal intensive care (about 17,000).

  2. According to research by the Department of Health, the UK has one of the lowest breastfeeding rates in Europe . Almost a third of women (29%) in England and Wales never try to breastfeed compared to 2% in Sweden.

  3. The UK government supports the World Health Organisation recommendation that:
    •  Breast milk is the best form of nutrition for infants.
    •  Exclusive breastfeeding is recommended for the first six months of an infant's life, as it provides all the nutrients a baby needs.
    •  Breastfeeding should continue for a minimum of the first six months. It should also continue as solid food is introduced.

  4. Babies in special care and intensive care units are excluded from the remit of the NICE guideline on postnatal care published in July 2006.

Notes for editors


  1. The HTA programme is a programme of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and produces high quality research information about the effectiveness, costs, and broader impact of health technologies for those who use, manage and provide care in the NHS. It is the largest of the NIHR programmes and publishes the results of its research in the Health Technology Assessment journal, with more than 400 issues published to date. The journal’s 2007 Impact Factor (3.87) ranked it in the top 10% of medical and health-related journals. All issues are available for download free of charge from the website, www.hta.ac.uk The HTA programme is coordinated by the National Coordinating Centre for Health Technology Assessment (NCCHTA), based at the University of Southampton.
  2. The National Institute for Health Research provides the framework through which the research staff and research infrastructure of the NHS in England is positioned, maintained and managed as a national research facility.  The NIHR provides the NHS with the support and infrastructure it needs to conduct first-class research funded by the Government and its partners alongside high-quality patient care, education and training.  Its aim is to support outstanding individuals (both leaders and collaborators), working in world class facilities (both NHS and university), conducting leading edge research focused on the needs of patients. www.nihr.ac.uk

Contact details

Naomi Stockley, Programme Manager (Communications)
Telephone: 02380 595 646, Email: ns5@soton.ac.uk

Helen Nikandrou, Assistant Programme Manager (Communications)
Telephone: 02380 595 584, Email: h.nikandrou@soton.ac.uk

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