Beginning to breastfeeding a premature baby: correlation between entre the readiness score and translactation performance

Author(s)

Andreara de Almeida e Silva

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: Ribeirão Preto.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC)
• Defense date: 2013-09-27

Examining board members

Carmen Gracinda Silvan Scochi; Cristina Ide Fujinaga; Adriana Moraes Leite

• Advisor: Carmen Gracinda Silvan Scochi

Abstract

An instrument to assess the premature baby\'s readiness to begin breastfeeding was desgined and validated regarding its content, appearance, reliability and specificity. It is divided into categories (correcte age, behavioral organization, oral posture, oral reflexes, non-nutritive sucking), with scores ranging between 0 and 2 according to the performance of the premature baby in each category, adding up to a maximum final score of 36 points. Continuing the process of validation, the present study general aimed to test the concurrent criterion validity of the instrument for assessing the readiness of preterm infants to begin the transition from gastric to oral correlating the scores obtained during the application of the instrument, with the ingestion of milk-mediated technique translactation. This correlational study was approved by the local Research Ethics Committee. The participants were 43 mother-premature baby dyads of the neonatal unit of a university hospital of Ribeirão Preto, São Paulo, Brazil. The instrument was applied before the premature baby began to breastfeed and, then, the baby\'s performance was verified while sucking at the mother\'s breast, mediated by translactation, in which a syringe showed the volume of milk that was ingested. The degree of linear correlation between the volume of milk ingested and the readiness scores was measured using Pearson\'s linear correlation. Simple linear regression was used to predict the milk volumes to be offered to the premature baby through the translactation syringe, depending on the score obtained with the instrument. The premature baby\'s readiness score showed a strong positive correlation with the ingested milk volume (r=0.795 and p<0.001), i.e., the higher the score obtained on the instrument, the greater the milk volume ingested by the premature baby aided by the translactation technique, thus revealing the instrument\'s high concurrent validity. The score explained 63% of the variability of milk volume measured by the syringe (r²=0.632), and each unit added to the score added 0.847ml to the amount of milk ingested by the premature with the aid of translactation, with a confidence interval of 95%, based on the score, proposing the following adaptation of the results for use in clinical practice: scored of 23 to 24 - 1ml; 25 to 26 - 2ml; 27 to 28 - 4ml; 29 to 30 - 6ml; 31 to 33 - 8ml and 34 to 36 - 10ml. In conclusion, the instrument shows high concurrent validity evidenced by the strong positive correlation between the readiness score of the premature baby and the volume of milk ingested with the aid of translactation. The obtained results are useful and applicable to clinical practice, and, thus, help healthcare professionals to initiate early breastfeeding in a safer and more objective way in premature babies (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 11/04236-3 - Asses the readiness of preterm infants for the start breastfeeding: correlation between the score and performance in relactation
• Grantee: Andreara de Almeida e Silva
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master