Mothers' "liquid gold": a quality improvement initiative to support early colostrum delivery via oral immune therapy (OIT) to premature and critically ill newborns

Abstract

Early breast milk, known as colostrum ("liquid gold") provides immune benefits to infants, offering potential risk reduction for nosocomial infection (NI) and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a serious gastrointestinal emergency. Provision of colostrum is recognized as oral immune therapy (OIT) and is valuable to all NICU infants unable to feed orally. A quality improvement project was initiated by the multidisciplinary NICU Quality Care Council at London Health Sciences Centres-Victoria (LHSC-VH) to obtain mothers' colostrum for early OIT. The initiative was driven by the Canadian EPIQ (Evidence-based Practice for Improving Quality) group as a means of reducing the rates of NEC and NI, two major morbidities in the NICU. The overall aim was to facilitate the availability of OIT to preterm and critically ill neonates as soon as possible after birth.