How to beat the Booby Traps in the NICU

June 7, 2012 — While many NICUs have a long way to go in supporting breastfeeding, there are some which have made great strides in implementing policies and supports which make breastfeeding and breast milk feeding a reality for moms and babies.

Best for Babes interviews Diane Spatz, PhD, RN, a world-renown lactation expert, about how she changed the Newborn/Infant Intensive Care Unit at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Spatz describes her “Ten Steps for Promoting and Protecting Breastfeeding for Vulnerable Infant,” and her own advice for beating the Booby Traps in the NICU.

Spatz is associate professor of healthcare of women and childbearing nursing and Helen M. Shearer Term associate professor of nutrition at the University of Pennsylvania.  She holds a joint appointment at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia as a nurse researcher in lactation.  Her expertise is the provision of human milk/breastfeeding in mothers who have infants with complex surgical anomalies.

Spatz is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (AAN), and is chair of the Expert Panel on Breastfeeding for the AAN. 

Learn more in the Booby Traps Series.