Introducing donor human milk to the NICU: lessons for Australia

Abstract

There is an increased use of pasteurised donor human milk (PDHM) in North American neonatal intensive care units (NICU) in order to achieve exclusive human milk (EHM) feeding for preterm infants. Australia, on the other hand, is relatively new to reintroducing PDHM to NICUs. Very little is known about the perception of multidisciplinary NICU teams toward PDHM. This article reports on a survey of 89 NICU clinicians that was implemented during the first weeks of PDHM use in an American NICU, and was repeated 6 months later. Their knowledge and opinions of PDHM in addition to their inclination to recommend its use were evaluated using thematic coding and descriptive statistics. We found that after a 6-month trial, preparedness to recommend PDHM increased to 93%. We found that NICU clinicians’ support for PDHM exceeded their knowledge about its risks and benefits and clinicians requested education about various aspects of PDHM. This research in this article aims to assist clinical staff educators as they go about introducing PDHM in NICUs.