Book Description
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (1998), allowing new mothers to be cared for in the same room as their infant 24 hours a day is the seventh step of the ten steps to successful breastfeeding. Rooming-in and couplet care has been proven to increase positive outcomes, in many ways, for both the mother and infant (Couplet care for all, 2012). The following will identify a problem on a mother-baby unit in a hospital in Winchester, Virginia with proposed solutions related to couplet care. One recent research study found that couplet care positively effects breast feeding due to the promotion, education and support of breastfeeding (Grzeczinski Zenkner, Fortes Brasil Miorim, Silveira Cardoso, Portella Ribeiro, Cezar-Vaz and Pereira Rocha, 2013). The results of a similar study, in which couplet care was implemented, found that exclusive breastfeeding increased by 38% in the facility in which the study was conducted (Maugans, Buchko and Gutshall, 2013). This project will attempt to answer the question in new mothers and infants being cared for on a post-partum inpatient unit, what is the impact of fully utilized couplet care versus modified or non-use of couplet care on the overall care of the patient's including breastfeeding, maternal-infant relationship, safety and satisfaction? The implementation will begin by educating potential patients and all staff effected by this change. Meetings will be held among staff and the implementation team in order to ensure all questions are answered and increase the chance for 100% compliance. The practice change, detailed below, will then take effect with constant monitoring and evaluation by the implementation team. Results will be evaluated after three months, final changes will be made as necessary and then steps to finalizing the change will ensue.
