Medela

2020

In support of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Strategy for Women’s, Children’s and Adolescents’ Health (2016-2030), Medela’s new commitment aims to improve health and survival of infants in need of care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) by increasing the dose of own mother’s milk though optimal lactation care for the mother and through practices supporting the transition to at-breast feeding. Medela will build and deliver NICU specific education and training material on 1, the value of human milk for these most vulnerable infants 2, how to ensure sufficient milk supply for long-term breastfeeding and 3, the practices shown to expedite the transition to at-breast feeding. This support will be delivered as Medela’s NICU Quality Improvement Initiative.

Additionally Medela will build and deliver an online quality improvement toolkit to enable scale up, monitoring and evaluation.

To maintain focus on the most vulnerable, Medela will provide dedicated support in 1 high-risk country, Nigeria, and channel this support through the Well Being Foundation Africa.

2018

Commitment Progress

Summary: The WE Women project is now at a stage where the pilot with the first 11 factories is finished. We have started to roll out the program to our remaining 20 factories in Bangladesh and 5 factories in Myanmar. Totally 36 factories, we have reached 45 600 women in Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Throughout 2018 our commitment to EWEC and the Global Strategy transitioned from active expansion to stabilize and solidify our work and relationships. We have continued to provide education and training to Neonatal Intensive Care Units in public hospitals of India on basic anatomy and physiology of the lactating breast, lactation care and the value of human milk for these most vulnerable infants. We have overseen and guided the work of upskilled, local champions we have developed since we made our commitment in the 2014 and are satisfied with their ability to lead future work in this area.

Medela’s support from our global office will cease at the end of 2018 and the work will be maintained by our local Medela representatives.

2017

Commitment Progress

Since making our commitment in September 2014 we have positively impacted the health and wellbeing of over 50, 000 critical care newborns and their mothers through lactation care to provide the life giving benefits of human milk (figure represents only 1 site with data available, we have 3 sites). We have also sensitized approximately 10, 000 healthcare providers on the value of mother’s own milk for the most vulnerable and provided comprehensive education and training on the alternative path to at-breast feeding when mother-infant separation due to medical intervention is required.

We are in the process of supporting data collection on the number of mothers successfully establishing their lactation to allow long term exclusive breastfeeding and assessing the doses of mother’s own milk being received by these critical care infants, this data will be presented to policy makers as an additional effort to highlight this important issue as well as guide practice improvement.

All materials created are intended for use in other geographies, once tested and validated, we will assess further expansion.

2016

Medela commits through its shared values initiative in India, to build and deliver education packages on the value of human milk and breastfeeding for all newborns; with a particular focus on babies born prematurely.

Medela will focus on lactation support for mothers when separated from their new-born and enhancing and standardizing hygiene safety as well as sustainable solutions surrounding the provision of human milk in the NICU. In addition, targeted education to healthcare professionals will support and improve initiation and duration of breastfeeding. Our overarching goal is to collaborate with in-country organizations, communities and education providers to foster and support the mind frame of breastfeeding as a public health imperative. This commitment extends until December 2018.

Commitment Progress

Medela’s Shared Values Initiative to support lactation and mother’s own milk feeding for the most vulnerable new-borns in Indian Public Hospital NICUs has positively impacted at risk babies and their mothers. Of the 5 Focus hospitals, all have reached optimal feeding of low birth weight, sick and preterm infants (own mother’s milk first then donor human milk) and successfully transition to at-breast feeding as soon as possible, these sites are proactively disseminating these teachings and quality improvement practices nation wide with limited oversite from Medela. This demonstrates a sustainable and Indian lead outcome of our original commitment. Medela will continue to support and update these trainings with the latest evidence based practice improvements as they develop and further assess expansion into other geographies.

2014

Medela commits through its shared values initiative in India to build and deliver education packages on the value of human milk and breastfeeding for all newborns; with a particular focus on babies born prematurely.

Medela will focus on lactation support for mothers when separated from their new-born and enhancing and standardizing hygiene safety as well as sustainable solutions surrounding the provision of human milk in the NICU. In addition, targeted education to healthcare professionals will support and improve initiation and duration of breastfeeding. Our overarching goal is to collaborate with in-country organizations, communities and education providers to foster and support the mind frame of breastfeeding as a public health imperative.