PP015 - BREASTFEEDING BEHAVIOUR AMONG FAMILIES OF PRETERM AND FULL-TERM INFANTS WITH INCREASED CARE NEEDS: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE WELCOME PROJECT

PP015

BREASTFEEDING BEHAVIOUR AMONG FAMILIES OF PRETERM AND FULL-TERM INFANTS WITH INCREASED CARE NEEDS: PRELIMINARY RESULTS OF THE WELCOME PROJECT

L. Heymel^1,*, R. M. Visscher^2,3, J. Will¹, M. Otter¹, S. Lessinnes¹, S. Kus^2,3, M. Coenen^2,3, E. Schouten⁴, M.-T. Hey⁴, A. W. Flemmer⁴, L. Sehn⁵, M. Schmid⁵, U. Fischer⁵, A. Tannen¹

¹Institute of Clinical Nursing Science, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, ²Faculty of Medicine, Institute for Medical Information Processing Biometry and Epidemiology, Chair of Public Health and Health Services Research, LMU Munich, ³Pettenkofer School of Public Health, ⁴Dr. von Hauner Children’s Hospital, ⁵Clinical Nursing Research and Quality Management Unit, LMU Hospital, Munich, Germany

Rationale: Breastfeeding rates often decrease after discharge among preterm infants. Telehealth could be an appropriate model of care to establish breastfeeding at home (Holm et al., 2019). This study investigates the breastfeeding rates.

Methods: The G-BA-funded WELCOME project, a duo-centered RCT, is developing and evaluating a digital post-discharge program for families of preterm and full-term infants with increased care needs. A total of 240 infants will be recruited by February 2027. The intervention group gets video consultations in addition to the standard care (Sehn et al. 2025). The present sub-study focuses on breastfeeding rates. Data were collected before (t0) and after (t1-t3) discharge.

Results: So far, n=59 parents (n=66 infants) are included. The breastfeeding rate increased over time (t0: 44%, t3: 52%), increasing more in the intervention group (∆=21%) than in the control group (∆=13%). 24% of mothers had prior breastfeeding experience (17% intervention group; 31% control group).

Conclusion: Although breastfeeding rates of preterm and full-term infants with increased care needs often decline after discharge, an increase is observed in this cohort and is even more pronounced in the intervention group. Future analyses will show whether these differences result from the intervention.

References: Holm, K. G., Clemnsen, J., Brødsgaard, A., Smith, A. C., Maastrup, R. & Zachariassen, G. 2019. Growth and breastfeeding of preterm infants receiving neonatal tele-homecare compared to hospital-based care. Journal of neonatal-perinatal medicine, 12, 277–284.

Sehn, L., Otter, M., Will, J., Visscher, R. M. S., Kus, S., Coenen, M., Flemmer, A. W., Schouten, E., Tannen, A. & Fischer, U. 2025. WELCOME: Digital transition of premature and newborn infants with special care needs to postdischarge care - study protocol for a randomised controlled duo-centred study. BMJ Open, 15, e104346.

Disclosure of Interest: None declared