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NICU Peer counselors

Vitamin D

ILCA 2006

NICU Peer Counselors

We performed a randomized controlled trial to examine the effect of peer counselors on breastfeeding duration among premature infants in the BMC NICU. The study took place betwen 2001 and 2003, and was funded by the Bureau of Maternal Child Health, Washington DC.

Our study found that peers significantly increased the amount of human milk received by premature infants.

The results of this trial were recently published in Archives of Pediatrics and adolescent medicine. Link to:

• The Effect of Peer Counselors on Breastfeeding Rates
  in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Results of a Randomized Controlled Trial (Archives, Merewood et al, 2006)
• Peer Counselors for Breastfeeding Mothers in the Hospital Setting:Trials, Training, Tributes, and Tribulations (Journal of Human Lactation, Merewood/Philipp, 2003)
• Our oral presentation (slideshow) on NICU peer counselors presented at the American Public Health Association Meeting, Philadelphia, December 2005 (includes some more detailed results via alternative analyses)