Huffman S L, Zehner E R, Victora C
Ready to Learn, Academy for Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Ave. N.W., Washington, DC 20009, USA.
Midwifery. 2001 Jun;17(2):80-92. doi: 10.1054/midw.2001.0253.
to review the literature on the relationship between breast-feeding practices in the first month of life and neonatal mortality.
Medline and Cochrane databases were searched using the keywords breastfeeding, and neonatal mortality, supplemented with additional searches using the keywords developing countries, colostrum, infant feeding and infant mortality, hypoglaecemia, hypothermia, breastfeeding practices, and suckling.
breast feeding helps prevent hypothermia and hypoglycaemia in newborn babies, which are contributory causes of early neonatal deaths especially among low birth weight and premature babies. During the late neonatal period, most deaths in developing countries are due to infections such as sepsis, acute respiratory tract infection, meningitis, omphalitis and diarrhoea. Feeding colostrum and breast feeding, especially exclusive breast feeding, protects against such deaths.
in most developing countries, nearly all women breast feed in the first month of life, but often breast feeding is delayed beyond the first hour after birth, and exclusive breast feeding is not usually practised. Policies and training of staff of maternity centres and hospitals can encourage early initiation of breast feeding and exclusive breast feeding. Midwives can support community-based efforts to support exclusive breast feeding. Breast feeding plays an important role in reducing neonatal mortality and should be strongly emphasised by programmes attempting to reduce neonatal mortality.
回顾关于出生后第一个月母乳喂养方式与新生儿死亡率之间关系的文献。
使用关键词“母乳喂养”和“新生儿死亡率”检索Medline和Cochrane数据库，并补充使用关键词“发展中国家”、“初乳”、“婴儿喂养”和“婴儿死亡率”、“低血糖”、“低体温”、“母乳喂养方式”及“哺乳”进行额外检索。
母乳喂养有助于预防新生儿低体温和低血糖，而这尤其是低出生体重儿和早产儿早期新生儿死亡的成因。在新生儿后期，发展中国家的大多数死亡是由败血症、急性呼吸道感染、脑膜炎、脐炎和腹泻等感染所致。喂养初乳和进行母乳喂养，特别是纯母乳喂养，可预防此类死亡。
在大多数发展中国家，几乎所有女性在出生后第一个月都会进行母乳喂养，但母乳喂养往往会推迟到出生后一小时以上，而且通常不实行纯母乳喂养。针对产科中心和医院工作人员的政策及培训可鼓励尽早开始母乳喂养和纯母乳喂养。助产士可支持以社区为基础的纯母乳喂养推广工作。母乳喂养在降低新生儿死亡率方面发挥着重要作用，试图降低新生儿死亡率的项目应大力强调这一点。
