School of Health and Social Care, Swansea University, Swansea, Wales, UK.
Int Breastfeed J. 2022 Jun 27;17(1):47. doi: 10.1186/s13006-022-00488-3.
Current infant feeding support is often targeted at establishing breastfeeding in healthy term infants, or supporting lactation for preterm infants in the neonatal setting. Breastfeeding presents different challenges for children beyond the neonatal period who have a medical complexity. The tendency to focus on breastfeeding as a preventative public health intervention overlooks the fact that mothers and children with medical complexity often require additional and targeted support to continue to breastfeed. Despite this identified need, there is very little research, policy or clinically specific teaching within paediatrics that is nuanced enough to support this vulnerable population. RAISING AWARENESS OF BREASTFED CHILDREN WITH MEDICAL COMPLEXITY IN PAEDIATRICS: While research, policy and embedded Baby Friendly Health Initiative (BFHI) standards in both the maternity and neonatal directorates exists, paediatrics is a separate discipline and contrastingly, has very little lactation support infrastructure. To this end, a doctoral study was commenced aiming to identify the differences for this vulnerable and largely overlooked group. One of the related outputs of the ongoing research is the use of creative methods to raise awareness. This commentary highlights a project with an artist to develop a series of portraits alongside a book and health professional education to increase awareness of these children's needs.
The breastfeeding needs and challenges of children in the paediatric setting are unique and require additional awareness, creativity and skills to support optimal infant and young child breastfeeding. Using art can connect professionals to the lived experiences of families trying to persevere through medical complexity.
目前的婴儿喂养支持通常针对健康足月婴儿的母乳喂养，或在新生儿环境中支持早产儿的泌乳。对于患有医疗复杂性的新生儿期后的儿童，母乳喂养带来了不同的挑战。将母乳喂养作为预防公共卫生干预措施的倾向忽略了这样一个事实，即患有医疗复杂性的母亲和儿童通常需要额外的、有针对性的支持来继续母乳喂养。尽管存在这种需求，但在儿科领域，几乎没有足够细致的研究、政策或临床特定教学来支持这一弱势群体。提高儿科中患有医疗复杂性的母乳喂养儿童的意识：虽然在产科和新生儿科都存在研究、政策和嵌入式母婴友好健康倡议 (BFHI) 标准，但儿科学是一个独立的学科，与之形成鲜明对比的是，几乎没有母乳喂养支持基础设施。为此，开始了一项博士研究，旨在确定这个脆弱且被严重忽视的群体的差异。正在进行的研究的相关成果之一是使用创造性方法来提高认识。本评论重点介绍了一个与艺术家合作的项目，该项目旨在开发一系列肖像画以及一本图书和专业医疗教育，以提高人们对这些儿童需求的认识。
儿科环境中儿童的母乳喂养需求和挑战是独特的，需要额外的意识、创造力和技能来支持婴幼儿的最佳母乳喂养。使用艺术可以将专业人员与努力克服医疗复杂性的家庭的生活经历联系起来。
