Feed the Mom

This is a breastfeeding and pumping program for Children’s Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) mothers and babies. This initiative supports postpartum mothers in the CICU as their babies are admitted directly from the birth hospital, which allows for very little bonding between mother and baby. Feed the Mom will create nurturing and supportive opportunities for postpartum mothers to bond with their babies.

Our goal is to provide tangible and emotional support for these moms in the form of care packages, help promote the breastfeeding relationship by providing breast pumps at the patient bedside, and facilitate nurse rounding on the mothers to check in and assess for maternal needs. The care packages will include postpartum ‘donuts’ to sit on to make sitting more comfortable after delivery, journals to aid in emotionally processing their experience, nutritious snacks and water, socks, heating and cooling packs, coloring books/pencils, some basic toiletries, and notes from previous CICU patient mothers for encouragement.

Our nurses will perform rounds with these moms to provide resources for them emotionally and support the mother-infant breastfeeding dyad by providing breastfeeding and breast pumping support, supplying more breast pumps for the CICU and privacy curtains for pumping in the unit. Furthermore, the nurses will strive to connect mothers with additional resources when appropriate such as lactation consultants, referrals to our cardiac psychologist, chaplain, and social work. This will enable mothers to pump at their infant’s bedside instead of going to a communal pumping room. Overall, we seek to improve the experience of our new moms and babies in the CICU, particularly during these unusual times when so many resources and normal support systems are scarce.