"My Pumping Pathway”: Standardizing a Personalized Approach to Pumping for Practice and Research

Tuesday September 24^th 1 PM-2 PM CST 

The first two postpartum weeks represent a critical window for achievement of secretory activation and the transition to autocrine/paracrine control of lactation.  In otherwise healthy dyads, the breastfeeding infant adapts sucking patterns to accommodate these lactation phases and, in turn, provides essential stimulation for milk synthesis. For NICU mothers, the pump substitutes for the infant with respect to mammary gland stimulation and milk removal.  Thus, as with breastfeeding a healthy infant, breast pump use should be effective, efficient and comfortable.  However, postpartum patient education about breast pump use is often not evidence-based, standardized among practitioners, nor personalized to the mother’s individual needs.  This presentation introduces a novel, evidence-based 2-part instrument, My Pumping Pathway, which links pumping behaviors to those used by the human infant during the first 1-2 postpartum weeks.  “My First Pumping Pathway” guides and monitors optimal breast pump use prior to and during the achievement of secretory activation, and is completed during the maternity hospitalization. “My Second Pumping Pathway”, completed near the end of the first postpartum week, guides and monitors optimal breast pump use during the transition to the autocrine/paracrine control of lactation.  Items in the Pumping Pathway link via QR codes to videos and education sheets in the PROVIDE Compendium (www.lactahub.org/nicu-training), so that practitioners and mothers can access additional information about specific topics such as “pumping to empty” and “sizing of breast shields” in real time or later to reinforce specific topics.  Preliminary data suggest high satisfaction among NICU mothers, and studies within practitioner groups are underway.  Implications for NICU-based QI projects and/or research in which pumped MOM volume is a dependent variable will be discussed.  

Objectives:   

1. Articulate the biologic interplay between infant sucking behaviors during breastfeeding, mammary gland stimulation and milk removal patterns during the first two postpartum weeks, with implications for breast pump use.
2. Detail the biologic link between items in My First Pumping Pathway and their importance in guiding and monitoring the achievement of secretory activation.  
3. Detail the biologic link between items in My Second Pumping Pathway and their importance in guiding and monitoring the transition to the autocrine and paracrine regulation of lactation.
4. Describe the relevance of My Pumping Pathways to various QI/research initiatives that involve the baseline standardization of pumping prior to or in conjunction with the introduction of other interventions to optimize pumped milk volume in NICU mothers.    

Event details

Date           24 September 2024

Time           1:00pm CST

Click here to register for the webinar. 

This webinar is free of charge.