BreaSteps: Breastfeeding the Premature Infant

This two-part course provides all the information and tools you need to successfully integrate BreaSteps, a systematic approach for preterm babies from birth through successful breastfeeding, into your facility’s framework of care.

Instructor Amy Black, BS, IBCLC, and the Pathway Three Clinical Internship Director at LER, explains each of the 5 steps in detail. Black also shares rich insights from her experience implementing BreaSteps in her own hospital’s NICU and seeing the results it can achieve:

• Improved breastfeeding rates
• Increased maternal milk supplies
• Decreased human donor milk costs
• Happier, more confident NICU parents

You’ll leave this course with:

• A thorough, evidence-based explanation of the rationale for and benefits of BreaSteps.
• Training on how to assess an infant’s readiness for each step, the risks involved with each step, and how to mitigate them.
• An easy-reference booklet & milk log for NICU parents covering everything they need to know in an accessible way.
• Downloadable nurse/parent cards Black created to integrate BreaSteps in her facility; one side has info for family and the other has info for nurses. Clearly and concisely explain the steps and their rationale for easy, reliable incorporation into your facility’s practices.
• Guidance from Black’s own experience on how to introduce BreaSteps to neonatologists and the entire care team and tailor it to achieve buy-in in your own setting.

The course’s many embedded videos clearly showing dyads at each step and illustrating NICU staff’s role will leave you feeling confident and prepared, and the heartwarming interviews with NICU parents about the benefits of BreaSteps will leave you inspired and excited about this powerful tool.