A quality initiative to improve exclusive breast milk feeding in preterm neonates

Background and Objective: Preterm babies thrive well on exclusive breastfeeding with fewer complications. In a retrospective analysis, challenges were noticed in the form of delayed first milk expression and frequency of expression, which was limited to 2–3 times a day. A quality improvement initiative was designed to increase the exclusive breast milk feeding rates in admitted preterm babies. The purpose of the present study is to evaluate the proportion of preterm neonates receiving mother's own milk by day 7 of life after such an initiative. Methods: The quality improvement initiative was conducted at a level 3 neonatal intensive care unit from May 10, 2018, to August 10, 2018. Inborn preterm neonates