Strengthening Newborn Care Through Nurse-Led Support for Mothers and Babies

Boston Children’s Global Health Nursing Fellowship (GHNF) is sharing clinical expertise and capacity support through a nursing-led neonatal and lactation initiative at Chenla Children’s Hospital in Kratie, Cambodia. The project is a partnership with local hospital leadership and staff and reflects a systems-oriented approach to improving care in outpatient, inpatient, NICU, and PICU settings.

The project addresses critical challenges that directly affect newborn survival and maternal-infant outcomes: delayed initiation of enteral feeding in preterm and low-birth-weight infants, declining breastfeeding and use of expressed breast milk in Cambodia, and limited formal lactation education. In response, the team conducted lactation and Kangaroo Mother Care training sessions for nurses, physicians, and midwives , followed by hands-on bedside education with staff and families in the NICU and PICU. During subsequent trips, the team delivered a five-day Lactation Resource Nurse Champion Training for seven nurses from three provinces, building a local cohort able to train peers and support families over time. Early project outcomes already show improvement in initiation of early pumping and milk expression, along with increased staff confidence in educating and supporting mothers and families. These early gains are important because they strengthen local capacity, improve feeding support for medically fragile newborns, and create a foundation for more consistent, evidence-based neonatal care.