Breastfeeding Class

Breastfeeding is always good for the babies. That's what I've learned from nursing school and working in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit before. And as a nurse it's my responsibility to inform mother's about the benefits of breastfeeding.

I've been working in Pediatrics for almost eighteen years now and I always encountered some situations wherein mothers are really stubborn to breastfeed their newly born babies. I mean, how come they don't know the benefits of breastfeeding to their child?

It was a stupid decision.... but I can't blame them because they were not just probably educated of the benefits of breastfeeding. So I have to go in in their lives and let them understand how important breastfeeding to the newborns.

Breastfeeding is beneficial to babies for various reasons you can think of. But the ultimate benefit is that the first drops of milk called colostrum (a yellowish trickle of  the first breastmilk) is very rich of the mom's antibodies that can help newly born babies fight off infection and other numerous diseases.

We all know that the babies' immune system is very weak thereby they are so prone to any infections. That's why they needed that colostrum to give them antibodies for the first few days of their life. And the mom's antibodies from that colostrum will help them combat this infection and diseases.

Then follows some of the benefits and advantages you can think of like convenience, economical, time-saving, promotes growth, safeguard health etcetera, etcetera.

As a Pediatric nurse I was mandated to attend the two day class for the Birth and Beyond: Breasfeeding Training and QI Project sponsored by the Couplet Care Unit of the hospital I work with. The hospital had received a national grant to promote breastfeeding in the hospital and do some research studies about the benefits of breastfeeding.

Nurses working in Labor and Delivery, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Post-partum, Nursery, Couplet Care, and Pediatrics were required to attend the mandatory class. And the class was been offered all year round.

So every nurses who got involved in the care of the newborns and infants were required to attend the mandatory breastfeeding class to learn what to do in educating parents and convincing them to breastfeed their child.

In doing so, we can up the percentile of breastfeeding compliance of the hospital as well as the Los Angeles County in general in promoting the benefits of breastfeeding to the newly delivered babies and their moms.

Sitting in this class for eight hours for two Mondays (Nov. 9 and Nov. 16) we had discussed and delved everything that pertains about the anatomy of the breast, the advantages and disadvantages of breastfeeding, the history of breastfeeding, researches done in promoting breastfeeding, and our approaches and suggestions on how to promote breastfeeding in our own facility.

It was a very productive class and we all come up to different solutions and suggestions about maintaining our hospital as promoter of breasfeeding within Los Angeles County and as the save haven for a healthy baby and mom. In short, we are building our hospital's image as a mother-and-baby-friendly hospital within the county.

With the huge budget allocated on this project the hospital is hoping to see great and enormous results. And from a compliance percentage of 13% our target goal is to reach 100% compliance for the mom to carry out breastfeeding at the hospital and home.

So looking for the target of 100% percent compliance imagine how much the population of Los Angeles County will become healthy in the near future benefiting from the advantages and benefits of breastfeeding? Wow.... that's a huge and ambitious plan. I can see how these population will grow smarter, healthier, and better in the near future.

At least, this research had kick-off and started right in our hospital. I truly believe that breastfeeding is very healthy to everybody and is always best for babies. Although there are some exceptions there but try to think of the benefits the society and our country can get.

That's why I couldn't blame the State of California for campaigning statewide in every hospital to promote breastfeeding because of its great benefits to us all.

Education is the only key and way to promote breastfeeding to everybody and I urge everyone to help us in our campaign. I hope this will be fruitful and successful. And eventually we can achieve 100% compliance and enjoy the best results of our efforts to enhance the health situations of our society.

Let us think about the children who will become the future of our country. Let us promote the spread of  the advantages breastfeeding to everyone and enjoy the benefits it will give to us and our society in the near future.