WBFA’s partnership with Medela Cares, which launched in 2021, with the crucial goal of enhancing lactation support and premature newborn survival within Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). In this intervention, WBFA and Medela Cares promoted the use of Mother's Own Milk (MOM) and the provision of breastfeeding equipment in NICU wards to improve infant feeding practices and ultimately health outcomes. This vital project sought to advance the expertise and knowledge on lactation and human milk among NICU maternities and the healthcare community. WBFA-Medela Cares targeted five key hospitals across three states, namely Maitama General Hospital and Asokoro District Hospital in Abuja, Lagos Island Maternity Teaching Hospital in Lagos, and General Hospital Ilorin and University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital in Kwara State. The implementation of this initiative was based on quality improvement methodology. During the initial phase of the project, WBFA conducted a 5-day training/workshop for 15 program staff, including doctors, midwives, and officers, both in-person and virtually.

WBFA provided training to healthcare workers on using simulation and anatomical models to promote breastfeeding. Equipment, including breast pumps, refrigerators, KVA stabilisers, Symphony Pump Sets, Breast Shields, Symphony Stands, Symphony Cords, Symphony Protector, Symphony Breast pump, Breast Milk bottles, Breast Demonstration Model, Fridge 150L and Stabiliser; Feeding Containers, Autoclave and Electric Kettle were distributed to selected healthcare facilities in Abuja, Lagos, and Kwara states. WBFA and Medela Cares held training workshops for nurses and doctors on the usage of this equipment With the strengthened infrastructure, mothers began expressing breast milk using the provided equipment in NICU wards, contributing to data collection for quality improvement. The programme spanned from July 2021 to December 2023, making a positive impact on 1,800 mothers and 2,500 neonates in the NICU. This program left an indelible mark on the healthcare infrastructure we reached, by strengthening the capabilities of NICU nurses to provide breast milk, thus delivering essential nutrients to NICU infants. Additionally, we enhanced mothers’s education on the importance of sustaining breastfeeding for at least 6 months after birth through our strategic advocacy efforts. Our advocacy campaign included engaging with healthcare providers and
nurses to enhance breastfeeding techniques, utilizing resources such as: the LactaHub training materials on the value of human milk for the most vulnerable infants, how to ensure sufficient milk supply for longterm breastfeeding, and best practices to expedite the transition to at-breast feeding.

This initiative, designed to increase breast-feeding practices in NICU wards, was incorporated into our MamaCare360 programme, thereby continually addressing knowledge gaps on lactation practices by directly educating and supporting mothers of neonates and galvanizing behavioral change. Indeed, through robust prenatal education, mothers feel ready for their birthing journey, equipped with new learnings on breast-feeding care and lactation solutions if struggling to breastfeed. Introducing mothers to expressing with the Medela Cares breast pump enabled them to accumulate enough milk thereby improving neonatal survival and growth rates In the implementing sites, our teams tracked rates of neonatal intake, mothers’ expression rates and the pumping logs on a daily basis. This data collection has helped the facilities build knowledge of the values and metrics from the NICU units. As of December 2023, we collected data of 9,200 babies and entered it into our Quality Improvement tool across the five implementing hospitals to assess progress and impact. The findings indicated that the proportion of mothers exposed to breastmilk and breastfeeding information surged to over 95% between January 2023 to December 2023.

Highlights: Furthering our breastfeeding advocacy, WBFA organized a commemorative webinar for World Breastfeeding Week in September 2023, in partnership with Medela Cares. The event featured presentations from distinguished researchers, including Professor Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, Dr. Paula Meier, Mrs. Sioned Hilton, Mrs.Margret Sadiku, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Champion, and Mrs. Oniremu Oyetokunbo, with a total of 103 participants. This webinar served as a platform to raise awareness of the significance of breastfeeding and to empower midwives and nurses, who serve as primary healthcare providers to mothers and infants.