Background: Mother’s own milk for preterm infants is a complete nutrition. In NICUs, there is a delay in starting and decreased frequency of breast milk expression leading to inadequate supply of mother’s own milk for preterm babies. There is a lack of knowledge about the importance of mother’s own milk for preterm babies in the general population and a paucity of studies on this topic from Bangladesh. This quality improvement initiative will serve as a baseline study for increasing the use of mother’s own milk for preterm babies in our country.

Objectives: To observe the effects of the quality improvement initiative to increase the supply of mother’s own milk for preterm newborns admitted in the NICU.

Methods: This QI study was conducted in the Department of Neonatology, in collaboration with the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, over the period of 1 year. Inborn Preterm neonates ≤34 weeks and/or ≤1800 gm and mother dyads, anticipated to stay in NICU for ≥ 7 days, were included in this study. In the observation phase, baseline data were collected. The intervention phase was started with a comprehensive counseling package, the demonstration of breast milk expression, and the early (within 6 h of delivery) and frequent (2 h) expression of breast milk.

Results: A total of 96 preterm newborns and mother dyads were enrolled. There was an improvement in the percentage of mothers expressing breast milk within 6 h of birth and on day 1 from 0% to 100% and from 14.5% to 100%, respectively, after implementing the QI initiative. The amount of expressed breast milk on days 1, 3, and 7 in the intervention group was higher than that of the observation group. The percentage of neonates receiving only mother’s own milk on day 1 was increased from 14.5% to 100% after giving intervention.

Conclusion: A significant improvement in early expression of breast milk, an increase in total amount of expressed breast milk, and an exclusive mother’s.