CHOP Lactation Expert 10-Step Breastfeeding Model Adopted by Thailand's Newborn Intensive Care Units

Diane L. Spatz, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN For the fifth consecutive year, CHOP Nurse Researcher and Lactation Director Diane Spatz, PhD, RN-BC, FAAN, was a featured speaker at the fifth annual Breastfeeding Sick Babies conference in Bangkok, Thailand. The conference was created to help hospitals in Thailand to implement Dr. Spatz’s 10-Step Model for the Use of Human Milk and Breastfeeding for Vulnerable Infants. During the opening keynote of this year’s conference, Samsak Akksilp, Chief, Department of Medical Services, Ministry of Public Health in Thailand announced that by 2020 all 144 NICUs in Thailand will adopt Dr. Spatz’s 10-step model to ensure every infant has access to human milk and breastfeeding support.

The 10-Step Model consists of informed decision, establishment and maintenance of milk supply, human milk management, oral care and feeding of human milk, skin-to-skin care, non-nutritive sucking, transition to breast, measuring milk transfer, preparation for discharge, and appropriate follow-up. The 10-step model has been implemented for more than 10 years at CHOP, as well as in other neonatal intensive care units across the U.S. and around the world.

While in Thailand, Dr. Spatz provided consultation for clinicians at Queen Sirikit National Institute of Child Health (QSNICH), the premiere children’s hospital in Thailand. Every person who enters QSNICH learns about the Spatz 10-step Model (the elevator doors describe it in detail) which shows how human milk is a medical intervention, and explains how to properly express, transport and store human milk.