Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of two different bottle feeding positions on a preterm infants cardiorespiratory stability while feeding. Other factors associated with feeding success such as feeding duration, volume of consumption, gestational age, and day of life were also examined with respect to the feeding positions used. The long term objective for this line of investigation was to develop a neonatal intensive care unit feeding position protocol in order to decrease length of stay, improve oral feeding success, reduce health care costs, and prevent future feeding problems.
Background: Of all live births in the United States, approximately 12% are to premature infants and of those born prematurely 90% will require admission to a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Although technological advances have improved preterm infant survival rates, they have failed to decrease medical costs and length of hospital stay. This is due mostly to the preterm infants failure to oral feed successfully. As a result, research efforts tend to focus on oral feeding skills, the transition period from nasogastric to oral feeding, oral feeding readiness, and oral feeding advancement. However, little attention has been given to bottle feeding positions used and the preterm infants cardiorespiratory stability.
Methods: The study used a randomized, two-period, cross-over design to test Upright (45 degree head up) and Cradle (15 degree head up) feeding positions on cardiorespiratory stability. Feeding positions were administered by a NICU nurse on 12 medically stable, bottle feeding infants who were < 35 weeks gestational age.
Results: Subject demographics were similar between each order grouping. Findings indicated that neither the Cradle nor the Upright feeding positions had a statistically significant effect on the preterm infants cardiorespiratory stability. No significant relationships were found between feeding positions, volume of consumption, gestational age, and day of life as well. However, results suggested that preterm infants experienced a somewhat slower heart rate (p = .005), higher oxygen saturation level (p = .02), and although non-significant, a slightly shorter feeding duration (p = .27) when held in an Upright position as compared to the Cradle position.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-06282007-094501 |
| Date | 28 June 2007 |
| Creators | Stevens, Emily Elaine |
| Contributors | Rita H. Pickler, PhD, RN, PNP, Susan M. Sereika, PhD, Ellen Olshansky, DNSc, RNC, FAAN, Thelma E. Patrick, PhD, RN |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-06282007-094501/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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