Building Strong Hearts: Recent Evidence on Human Milk and Direct Breastfeeding for Infants with Critical Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) - Kristin Elgersma, DM, MN, RN, Ph.D. (C)

Infants with critical congenital heart disease (CHD) are among the most vulnerable neonates and experience extremely low rates of human milk feeding and direct breast/chestfeeding. Until recently, there has been little evidence on this topic, with concurrent variation in feeding practice across clinical sites.

This session will discuss a series of recent studies examining the prevalence of human milk and breastfeeding for infants with critical CHD, identifying supportive and limiting factors of these feeding practices, and investigating the impact of human milk and breastfeeding on key health outcomes in this population. Qualitative findings from lactating parents of infants with critical CHD will further describe the process by which direct breastfeeding can be established with these vulnerable infants. 

Upon completion of this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the prevalence of human milk and breastfeeding for infants with critical CHD in the United States
• Identify the strongest predictors of human milk and breastfeeding in this population
• Explain how lactating parents establish a direct breastfeeding relationship with an infant with critical CHD
• Describe how human milk and direct breastfeeding impact key health outcomes for these infants (e.g., necrotizing enterocolitis, sepsis, hospital length of stay, mortality)