Breastfeeding education provided to university health students: is it enough to support breastfeeding women?

Merz, Caitlin; Shield, Alison; McClatchey, Alyson

doi:10.1016/j.sapharm.2019.03.142

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Discussion: Most students showed a lack of confidence in advising patients about medication safety during lactation, similar to findings from Merz, Shield, and McClatchey (2019). Changes to the MPharm curriculum and teaching are needed to develop students' understanding of medicines used in breastfeeding and breastfeeding as a public health strategy in accordance with Unicef learning outcomes for pharmacy students (Unicef, 2019).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 62%

Pharmacy Education Conference 2023

2024

Pharm Educ

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 62%

Pharmacy Education Conference 2023

2024

Pharm Educ

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“…Factors associated with low breastfeeding initiation and/or duration include maternal and paternal lower education [ 11 , 12 ], partners’ negative attitudes towards breastfeeding [ 13 ], mother/baby separation after birth [ 12 ] and lack of health professionals’ knowledge of breastfeeding [ 14 , 15 ]. The first few hours and days of an infant’s life are critical to establish breastfeeding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social value of maintaining baby-friendly hospital initiative accreditation in Australia: case study

Pramono

Smith

Desborough

et al. 2021

Int J Equity Health

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Background Breastfeeding has positive impacts on the health, environment, and economic wealth of families and countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in 1991 as a global program to incentivize maternity services to implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding (Ten Steps). These were developed to ensure that maternity services remove barriers for mothers and families to successfully initiate breastfeeding and to continue breastfeeding through referral to community support after hospital discharge. While more than three in four births in Australia take place in public hospitals, in 2020 only 26% of Australian hospitals were BFHI-accredited. So what is the social return to investing in BFHI accreditation in Australia, and does it incentivize BFHI accreditation? This study aimed to examine the social value of maintaining the BFHI accreditation in one public maternity unit in Australia using the Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework. This novel method was developed in 2000 and measures social, environmental and economic outcomes of change using monetary values. Method The study was non-experimental and was conducted in the maternity unit of Calvary Public Hospital, Canberra, an Australian BFHI-accredited public hospital with around 1000 births annually. This facility provided an opportunity to illustrate costs for maintaining BFHI accreditation in a relatively affluent urban population. Stakeholders considered within scope of the study were the mother-baby dyad and the maternity facility. We interviewed the hospital’s Director of Maternity Services and the Clinical Midwifery Educator, guided by a structured questionnaire, which examined the cost (financial, time and other resources) and benefits of each of the Ten Steps. Analysis was informed by the Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework, which consists of mapping the stakeholders, identifying and valuing outcomes, establishing impact, calculating the ratio and conducting sensitivity analysis. This information was supplemented with micro costing studies from the literature that measure the benefits of the BFHI. Results The social return from the BFHI in this facility was calculated to be AU$ 1,375,050. The total investment required was AU$ 24,433 per year. Therefore, the SROI ratio was approximately AU$ 55:1 (sensitivity analysis: AU$ 16–112), which meant that every AU$1 invested in maintaining BFHI accreditation by this maternal and newborn care facility generated approximately AU$55 of benefit. Conclusions Scaled up nationally, the BFHI could provide important benefits to the Australian health system and national economy. In this public hospital, the BFHI produced social value greater than the cost of investment, providing new evidence of its effectiveness and economic gains as a public health intervention. Our findings using a novel tool to calculate the social rate of return, indicate that the BHFI accreditation is an investment in the health and wellbeing of families, communities and the Australian economy, as well as in health equity.

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“…Factors associated to low breastfeeding initiation and/or duration include maternal and paternal lower education (8,9), partners' negative attitudes towards breastfeeding (10), mother/baby separation after birth (9) and lack of health professionals' knowledge of breastfeeding (11,12). The rst few hours and days of an infant's life are critical to establish breastfeeding.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social Value of Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Implementation in Australia: Case Study

Pramono

Smith

Desborough

et al. 2020

Preprint

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BackgroundBreastfeeding has positive impacts on the health, environment, and economic wealth of families and countries. Nevertheless, barriers to accessing high-quality breastfeeding support are evident in the low global exclusive breastfeeding rate of 41%. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) in 1991 as a global program to incentivize maternity services to implement the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding (Ten Steps). These were developed to ensure that maternity services remove barriers for mothers and families to successfully initiate breastfeeding and to continue breastfeeding through referral to community support after hospital discharge. However, in 2020 only 26% of Australian hospitals were BFHI-accredited. This study aimed to examine the social return on investment (SROI) of implementing the BFHI in one public maternity unit in Australia.MethodThe study was non-experimental and conducted in the maternity unit of an Australian BFHI-accredited public hospital with around 1000 births annually. This facility illustrated costs for BFHI implementation in a relatively affluent urban population, and more than three in four births in Australia take place in public hospitals. Stakeholders considered within scope of the study were the mother-baby dyad and the maternity facility. We interviewed the hospital’s Director of Maternity Services and the Clinical Midwifery Educator, guided by a structured questionnaire, which examined the cost (financial, time and other resources) and benefits of each of the Ten Steps. Analysis was informed by the Social Return on Investment (SROI) framework, which uses monetary values to measure social, environmental and economic outcomes of change. This information was supplemented with micro costing studies from the literature that measure the benefits of the BFHI. ResultsThe social return from the BFHI initiative in this facility was calculated to be AU$ 1,398,140. The total investment required was AU$ 24,433 per year. Therefore, the SROI ratio was approximately AU$ 55:1 (sensitivity analysis: AU$ 16-112), which meant that every AU$1 invested in BFHI implementation by this maternal and newborn care facility generated approximately AU$55 of benefit. ConclusionsScaled up nationally, the BFHI could provide important benefits to the Australian health system and national economy. In this public hospital, the BFHI produced social value greater than the cost of investment, providing new evidence of its effectiveness and economic gains as a public health intervention. Our findings using a novel tool to calculate the social rate of return, indicate that implementation of the BHFI is an investment in the health and wellbeing of families, communities and the Australian economy, as well as in health equity.

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Breastfeeding education provided to university health students: is it enough to support breastfeeding women?

Cited by 4 publications

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Pharmacy Education Conference 2023

Pharmacy Education Conference 2023

Social value of maintaining baby-friendly hospital initiative accreditation in Australia: case study

Social Value of Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative Implementation in Australia: Case Study

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