Increased breastfeeding; an educational exchange program between India and Norway improving newborn health in a low- and middle-income hospital population

BACKGROUND: The purpose of the project was to improve newborn health in neonatal care units in a low resource area with high neonatal mortality, predominantly by better nutrition and educational exchange of health care workers. METHOD: A fourfold program to make human milk production and distribution feasible and desirable. 1 Education to enlighten health care workers and parents to the excellence of human milk. 2 Lactation counselling to address the various challenges of breastfeeding. 3 Improving infants´ general condition. 4 Infrastructure alterations in the hospital. A collaboration between hospitals in India and Norway. RESULTS: The number of infants receiving human milk increased pronouncedly. Systematic, professional lactation counselling, the establishment of a milk bank, and empowerment of nurses was perceived as the most important factors. CONCLUSIONS: It is possible to greatly improve nutrition and the quality of newborn care in low/middle income settings by optimising human resources. Viable improvements can be obtained by long-term health partnership, by involving all hierarchal levels and applying locally developed customized methods. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41043-022-00297-8.