Breastfeeding & CHD
Thank you to the families who participated in our live webinar on August 25th, as part of our CHD Wise educational series. Read on for the summary and full video presentation.
CHD Wise is an educational series designed for patients and families, by patients and families. It is a regular opportunity for the community to engage with experts on specific topics. Courses are held virtually, some live and some recorded. For full program details, please visit our CHD Wise website.
Our most recent CHD Wise event was a live webinar on breastfeeding an infant/baby with CHD. We were joined by an expert panel from the Heart Center at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.
The following questions were derived from over 100 submissions prior to the live webinar:
- How do Moms of babies with CHD maintain a milk supply under such intense stress?
- How successful is breastfeeding after a baby’s open-heart surgery? What positions work best?
- What community-based resources are available in most areas? Support groups? Classes? Specialists?
- How common is supplementing or fortifying breastmilk? How common is the use of formula instead of breastmilk? Is it better to supplement or fortify versus formula?
- What are other ways I can bond with my baby who is unable to breastfeed?
- What specialists should be involved to ensure successful breastfeeding?
- How can families with postnatal diagnosis successfully breastfeed?
- Mothers who exclusively pump often get left out of the breastfeeding conversation. How common is it for babies with CHD to receive breastmilk through bottle or tube feedings?
- How can I breastfeed my baby with CHD who also has tongue or lip tie issues?
- How do I explain to others that my baby with CHD cannot breastfeed, without divulging our personal medical information?
You can watch the recording of the live panel here:
Click below for quick access to the resources mentioned in the presentation:
Lurie Children’s Hospital Heart Center Breastfeeding Resources (Website)
Lurie Children’s Hospital Heart Center Breastfeeding Resources (YouTube)
Promoting Breastfeeding in Single Ventricle CHD Patients
Creating Optimal Nutrition article
10 Step Model for NICU Human Milk Care, Dr. Diane Spatz, PhD, RN
Prolacta Bioscience Resources for Parents
Prolacta Bioscience Clinical Trial
CHD Wise provides educational presentations each month for patients and families in the CHD community. If you have follow-up questions from any presentation, a topic you’d like to see us cover in the future, or are an expert willing to collaborate, we would love to hear from you. Email the CHD Wise team today.