Breastfeeding and Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome
Best practices for infants and parents
A dramatic increase in the number of opioid-dependent new parents, as well as in the number of people of childbearing age with dependence on opioid maintenance medications, means today’s lactation professionals must to be prepared to help parents and their infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS), which occurs primarily when a neonate is no longer receiving a substance they were exposed to prior to birth. This course prepares you to care for both babies and parents during NAS.
Skills you will gain for helping parents:
- Better understand Substance Use Disorders (SUDs).
- Provide effective counseling as parents work through decisions about providing their milk to their baby.
- Expand your understanding of the emotions and challenges parents experience.
- Learn new history-taking skills to assess for possible SUD.
- Understand the safe use of the maintenance drugs methadone and buprenorphine in lactation.
- Become equipped to help parents whose baby is coping with NAS breastfeed successfully.
Skills you will gain for helping infants:
- Know the behavioral and physiological signs of NAS.
- Become familiar with assessment tools, such as the Modified Finnegan Scoring Tool.
- Understand how NAS alters normal infant states and the baby’s ability to transition between states, and how this affects breastfeeding.
- Learn about non-pharmacological interventions for NAS, such as altering the environment, and learn how to teach these to parents.
- Learn about pharmacological treatment for NAS.
Familiarize yourself with this timely issue, and leave this class prepared to offer evidence-based care to this vulnerable population.
The Instructor is Cheryl Harrow, FNP, IBCLC.
This Course Awards:
- 2.0 L-CERP
- 2.0 Nursing Contact Hour