The Student Nurses at Penn (SNAP) were a powerhouse – winning awards/scholarships/elections, having legislative impact, making presentations – at the 69th Annual Convention of the Student Nurses’ Association of Pennsylvania held November 18-19, 2021, in Harrisburg.
Research from the School of Nursing shows that these support professionals can be another tool to improve outcomes for newborns and parents.
There are ways you could try to quantify the reach and influence of Penn Nursing. You could look at school rankings, which for the past five years have placed the School in the number one spot in the world. Or you could calculate the amount of research funding it’s been awarded by the National Institutes of Health.
Data show the importance of human milk and breastfeeding for the optimal health of infants, children, and lactating parents. But when parents and newborns are separated due to a hospitalization, current research shows that most sick babies are discharged home on infant formula. While many professional organizations have position statements about breastfeeding, few outline the specific lactation needs during parent–newborn separation.
Of the more than 200,000 women in U.S. federal and state prisons and jails, it is estimated that up to 10% are pregnant and will give birth while incarcerated. Clinical practice guidelines to support breastfeeding and increase infants’ access to human milk are well established. However, little data assess the extent to which they are modifiable or applicable for incarcerated mothers.
All the honorees will be recognized during our virtual, end of the year event on Thursday, May 27, 2021 3-5 PM EST.
With stressors mounting daily on the health care system due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a de-prioritization of the childbearing family has been noted. Their care has changed, resulting in mothers forced to go through labor and birth without their partners, parents barred from NICU visitation, and discharge of mothers and newborns early without enough expert lactation care. There is great concern that these changes in childbearing families’ care may become permanent – to the detriment of the health of both mother and child.
An abundance of data underscore the importance of breastfeeding and human milk for the optimal health of infants, children, mothers, and society. But while breastfeeding initiation rates have increased to more than 80% in the U.S., a disparity exists for African American mothers and infants. In this group, breastfeeding is initiated only about 69% of the time.
The Student Nurses at Penn (SNAP) were a powerhouse at the 68th Annual Convention of the Student Nurses’ Association of Pennsylvania held November 18-20, 2020.