Harris Elaine
Our Lady's Children's Hospital, Crumlin, Dublin.
Nurs Child Young People. 2014 Dec;26(10):30-7. doi: 10.7748/ncyp.26.10.30.e480.
Breastfeeding is the healthiest way for a woman to feed her infant. The World Health Organization/United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund ( 1989 ) launched the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative to protect, promote and support breastfeeding in maternity services. However, this initiative focuses on healthy and full-term infants. While it remains the role of the nurse in children's hospitals and neonatal/children's units to promote, protect and support mothers to breastfeed sick and premature infants, this is performed in an environment that incorporates the unexpected nature of these infants' sickness/prematurity. In children's hospitals and neonatal/children's units, breastfeeding is challenged by infant's illness, prematurity, fasting or maternal/infant separation, resulting in mothers expressing their milk for their infants to consume either through alternative routes immediately or freezing it for a later date. Furthermore, once clinically stable, these mothers and infants should be afforded the opportunity to safely and effectively transition from expressed breast milk to direct breastfeeding. For the purpose of this article, the infant population of children's hospitals and neonatal/children's units is comprised of either an infant transferred from a maternity unit at birth due to illness/prematurity or an infant admitted up to the age of one year.
母乳喂养是女性喂养婴儿的最健康方式。世界卫生组织/联合国儿童基金会（1989年）发起了“爱婴医院倡议”，以在产科服务中保护、促进和支持母乳喂养。然而，该倡议侧重于健康的足月儿。虽然在儿童医院以及新生儿/儿童病房中，护士的职责仍然是促进、保护和支持母亲为患病和早产婴儿进行母乳喂养，但这是在一个包含这些婴儿疾病/早产意外情况的环境中进行的。在儿童医院以及新生儿/儿童病房中，母乳喂养受到婴儿疾病、早产、禁食或母婴分离的挑战，这导致母亲们将母乳挤出，以便婴儿立即通过其他途径食用，或者将其冷冻以备日后使用。此外，一旦临床情况稳定，这些母婴应获得安全有效地从挤奶喂养过渡到直接母乳喂养的机会。就本文而言，儿童医院以及新生儿/儿童病房的婴儿群体包括因疾病/早产在出生时从产科病房转来的婴儿，或一岁以内入院的婴儿。
