Research Article
Have access already?
Get access to this article:
Or get access to the entire journal:
Advertisement
Abstract
Objective:
Exposure to painful stimuli serves as toxic stress for infants, increasing their subsequent pain sensitivity and resulting in neurodevelopmental impairments. Besides offering nutritional, psychological, immunological, and economic benefits, breastfeeding is reported as the most effective analgesia for the management of minor procedural pain in infants. Although breastfeeding holds several advantages, implementation of this nonpharmacological intervention is still uncommon in many clinical settings.
Methods:
This scoping review presents an analysis of 29 clinical trials that compare the effectiveness of breastfeeding with other nonpharmacological methods.
Findings:
Breastfeeding is an efficacious analgesia compared with sucrose, sweet solutions, and other nonpharmacological methods. When used alone or in combination with other nonpharmacological interventions, breastfeeding reduces infants’ biobehavioral responses to pain and promotes faster physiologic recovery after painful procedures. Breastfeeding is recommended as the first choice whenever feasible. Barriers to the uptake of this effective pain management method in clinical practice include misinformation/inconsistent use of evidence, an infant’s impaired sucking reflex, maternal–child separation, the workload of healthcare professionals, a lack of parental involvement, assumptions of healthcare providers, and a lack of adequate information/guidance for parents. Strategies to promote the uptake of breastfeeding for the management of procedural pain in infants include an effective partnership between healthcare providers and breastfeeding mothers, knowledge mobilization resources in multiple languages, informational support and media campaigns, and experiential learning opportunities for breastfeeding mothers.
Conclusions:
Successful implementation of baby-friendly hospital initiatives, a patient-centered approach, family-centered care, and the collaborative efforts of healthcare providers in all healthcare settings is recommended to promote the uptake of breastfeeding as analgesia.
Article usage
| Period | Abstract | Full | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 2024 | 61 | 0 | 0 | 61 |
| Mar 2024 | 41 | 0 | 0 | 41 |
| Feb 2024 | 42 | 0 | 0 | 42 |
| Jan 2024 | 39 | 0 | 0 | 39 |
| Dec 2023 | 45 | 0 | 1 | 46 |
| Nov 2023 | 28 | 0 | 0 | 28 |
| Oct 2023 | 57 | 0 | 0 | 57 |
| Sep 2023 | 71 | 0 | 1 | 72 |
| Aug 2023 | 38 | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| Jul 2023 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 24 |
| Jun 2023 | 217 | 0 | 1 | 218 |
| May 2023 | 68 | 0 | 0 | 68 |
| Apr 2023 | 395 | 0 | 3 | 398 |
| Mar 2023 | 660 | 0 | 1 | 661 |
| Feb 2023 | 902 | 0 | 5 | 907 |
| Jan 2023 | 217 | 0 | 0 | 217 |
Cited by