By: Megan Brinkworth
The
topic of breastfeeding as a whole is one that was scattered throughout my undergrad
classes in brief snippets but never too in depth. It is something of interest
to me that I have wanted to learn more about, both for the nutrition, research
aspect and the more sociocultural piece. With my hopes of working with a
pediatric population, I know it will be covered more in the classroom this year
than any yet. Without having to wait until my pediatric classes in the spring,
an experiential opportunity was presented to continue an existing capstone
project regarding breastmilk in the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital NICU.
I was immediately on board, with the research piece, interpersonal aspects, and
hopes of making an impact.
The
project is focused around the desire of the Cardinal Glennon team to purchase
and implement a breastmilk tracking system. Breastfeeding is encouraged after
birth but that is not always possible in the NICU environment. Many moms pump milk
at the hospital or drop it off if their baby is there for an extended period of
time or they are not from the surrounding area. The issue comes in because
there is not an effective way to notify moms that their milk supply at the
hospital is running low. Due to busy schedules and many other factors, calls
are often missed when trying to get in touch with moms. There is a need for a
simpler way to make moms aware how much breastmilk they have at the hospital at
any given time. I had no idea that such platforms actually existed to make this
possible. As I have learned through preliminary research, there are many
systems and applications that have been created for this exact purpose, and
that offer many additional benefits.
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| Photo from: www.timelessmedical.com |
Photo from: https://www.sep.benfranklin.org/2017/02/25/immigrant-founded-keriton/
When
this capstone project was started last year, Cardinal Glennon was deciding
between two applications, Timeless and Omadre. They have since ruled out Omadre
due to its costly price tag. Currently, the two programs in the running are
Timeless and Keriton. The main distinction is that Timeless offers a customized
text or email notification, whereas Kertion has a smartphone application that
moms can download and receive messages via the app. Either way, moms are
notified that they need to bring more milk to the hospital soon, which seems to
be one of the biggest barriers. A study followed the implementation of Timeless
in a NICU unit and found that physicians spent less time writing feeding
orders, avoided 35 near misses delivering the wrong bottle to the wrong baby,
and 78 near misses with breastmilk expiration (Feaster 2016). A bonus of the
Keriton program is that the application is mom friendly and has a feature that
sends moms a photo of their baby via the app. This actually resulted in 83 mL
more milk pumped daily (Karp & Asim).
Overall, I have learned how beneficial breastfeeding is for both mom and baby. Especially for preterm infants, breastmilk lowers mortality rates, long-term growth failure, and neurodevelopmental disabilities (Eidelman & Schanler 2012). In the long-term, infants who are fed human milk have higher intelligence test results, white matter, and total brain volumes (Eidelman& Schanler 2012). My role in the capstone project is to survey moms on their interest in a program like Timeless or Keriton. I am so intrigued to see how useful moms would find these programs and which one Cardinal Glennon chooses to implement as a result of the research.
Sources used:
Eidelman, A. I., & Schanler, R. J. (2012). Breastfeeding and the Use of Human Milk. Pediatrics, 129(3). doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-3552
Feaster, W., Cappon, J. and Steele, C. (2016). Breast Milk Management. [online] HIMSS.org. Available at: https://www.himss.org/sites/himssorg/files/choc-davies-2016-case-study-breast-milk-mgmt.pdf
Karp, K & Asim, M. (n.d). “The Most Complete Feeding Management Platform Available Today.” Keriton, 28 Aug. 2020, www.keriton.com/.
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