This best practice guideline supports breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity for newborns and infants to six months, and continuation for infants and young children to two years, or longer, in addition to complementary feeding to optimize breastfeeding outcomes in community and health-care organizations.
This best practice guideline supports breastfeeding initiation, exclusivity for newborns and infants to six months, and continuation for infants and young children to two years, or longer, in addition to complementary feeding to optimize breastfeeding outcomes in community and health-care organizations.
As an introduction, we’ve provided summaries of the practice recommendations from the BPG document — but we strongly encourage downloading RNAO’s official PDF.
Assess the breastfeeding process, using validated and reliable tools, during pregnancy and at key stages of lactogenesis, including the following:
Facilitate skin-to-skin contact with the breastfeeding dyad immediately following childbirth or once clinically stable.
Support the early initiation of breastfeeding, within one hour of childbirth or once the breastfeeding dyad is clinically stable, through multicomponent perinatal interventions including:
Support the breastfeeding dyad to achieve effective positioning, latch, and milk transfer.
Support responsive cue-based breastfeeding through strategies such as:
Teach hand expression to all breastfeeding persons prior to discharge from the childbirth setting.
Implement individualized breastfeeding self-efficacy interventions throughout the perinatal period to enhance breastfeeding confidence including:
Provide individualized assistance to support or enhance breast milk production, where appropriate.
Provide ongoing proactive breastfeeding support services to address the individualized needs of the breastfeeding dyad.
Facilitate informed decision-making regarding pacifier use.
Provide breastfeeding education throughout the perinatal period and as long as breastfeeding continues:
Include family members, such as partners and grandmothers, in breastfeeding education and support.
This website was developed by a team of researchers at the Daphne Cockwell School of Nursing at Toronto Metropolitan University (Formerly Ryerson University). The purpose of the site is to provide supplementary resources for implementing RNAO’s Best Practice Guidelines. Some information about the best practice guidelines has been collected directly from the RNAO BPG website. We have done our best to ensure accuracy, however some discrepancies may occur. For official, up-to-date information about the best practice guidelines, please refer to the RNAO website.