Introduction: Early initiation of breastfeeding within 1 h of birth is known to be associated with decrease in neonatal morbidity and mortality. However, unfortunately, this is not being practiced in the majority of institutional deliveries in India. The major deterrent is delivery by cesarean section (CS) where mother and baby are usually monitored separately. The same practice was being followed in our hospital. The present research work was done to enhance the initiation of breastfeeding rate within 1 h of CS. Methodology: The present research was done with a quality improvement (QI) methodology at a tertiary healthcare center. In the study, data collection was done at a tertiary healthcare center from 2021 to 2024. The study population included all babies born by CS done at more than 34 weeks of gestation. The outcome was measured on the basis of percentage of BF rate. A fish bone analysis was also done to analyze the causes of noninitiation of breastfeeding with in the 1 st h. The various change ideas implemented included the formulation of departmental policy for breastfeeding after CS. Results: The present study highlighted that lacks of hospital policy as well as lack of sensitization of the healthcare providers were found to be the most important contributing factors. The percentage of initiation of breastfeeding within 1 h of CS increased from a baseline of 0% to more than 80% in 6 weeks. Conclusion: The present research project revealed that with innovative initiative and prompt actions, initiation of breastfeeding within 1 h of caesarean delivery at a heavy load tertiary care facilities can be enhanced. QI is an effective tool to achieve desired changes in healthcare services without use of any additional resources.
Agrawal et al. (Thu,) studied this question.