Decisions surrounding the perinatal goals of care for infants born extremely preterm (<28 weeks) are highly controversial. With advancing neonatal intensive care technology and capabilities, an increasing number of infants born at 22 to 25 weeks’ gestation receive postnatal life support. This increase reflects a shifting limit of viability with a focus on shared decision making with families.^1-4 We currently do not have consensus in the United States on viability, and importantly additional factors other than gestational age are used for individual counseling.⁵ There is significant hospital-level variation in the provision of postnatal life support at 22 to 24 weeks’ gestation.⁶ With careful consideration of the risk of death and morbidities including severe neurodevelopmental impairment, some institutional guidelines allow informed parents to choose palliative comfort care for their extremely preterm infants up through 25 6/7 weeks’ gestation.⁴

Background: The benefits of human milk for hospitalized preterm infants are well documented, but the extent to which current human milk diets adequately support growth is uncertain. Objectives: 1) To quantify differences in weight gain and head growth between very preterm infants fed human milk compared with infant formula; and 2) to describe trends in the magnitude of these differences over time Methods: We studied infants from 777 US NICUs in the Vermont Oxford Network database. We included all surviving infants 23-29 weeks of gestation or 401-1500 g birth weight (maximum gestational age 32 wk) and excluded infants discharged >42 weeks of gestation or with congenital anomalies. In diet-growth analyses, we included infants born 2012-2016 (n = 138,703) to reflect current practice. In trend analyses, we included a 10-y cohort (n = 263,367). We categorized diet at NICU discharge/transfer as: 1) human milk only (no formula or fortifier); 2) human milk with formula or fortifier (mixed); or 3) infant formula only. Outcomes were weight and head circumference z-score change from birth to discharge relative to a fetal reference. Results: Diet at discharge/transfer was human milk only for 18,274 (6.6%), mixed for 121,621 (44%), and formula only for 137,067 (49%). Weight deviated more from the fetal reference for infants fed both human milk diets compared with formula only (weight zscore change for infants fed human milk only, -0.88; mixed, -0.82; formula only -0.80; P < 0.0001 for diet overall). There were also differences by diet in head z-score change (human milk only, -0.52; mixed, -0.49; formula only, -0.45; P < 0.0001 for diet overall). Themagnitude of these differences has diminished substantially over 10 y. Conclusions: Very preterm infants receiving human milk compared with infant formula diets have a slower weight gain and head growth at hospital discharge.

The Textbook of Neonatal Resuscitation, seventh edition, does not suggest routine endotracheal suctioning for non-vigorous infants born through meconium-stained amniotic fluid. We compared 301,150 infants at ≥35 weeks’ gestational age inborn at 311 Vermont Oxford Network member centers in the United States (U.S.) and admitted to neonatal intensive care units (NICU) who were born before (2013 to 2015) and after (2017) the guideline change. Logistic regression models adjusting for clustering of infants within centers were used to calculate risk ratios. NICU admissions for infants with a diagnosis of meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS) decreased from 1.8% to 1.5% (risk ratio: 0.82; 95% confidence interval: 0.68, 0.97) and delivery room endotracheal suctioning in this group decreased from 57.0% to 28.9% (0.51; 0.41, 0.62). Treatment with conventional or high frequency ventilation, inhaled nitric oxide, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation remained unchanged 42.3% vs. 40.3% (0.95; 0.80, 1.13) among infants with MAS and 9.1% vs. 8.2% (0.91; 0.87, 0.95) among infants without MAS. The use of surfactant among infants with MAS increased from 24.6% to 30% (1.22; 1.02, 1.48). Mortality (2.6 to 2.9%, 1.12; 0.74, 1.69) and moderate/severe hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (5.4 to 6.8%, 1.24; 0.91, 1.69) increased slightly in 2017. Subgroup analyses of infants with 1 min Apgar scores of ≤3 found similar results. While NICU admissions for MAS and tracheal suctioning decreased after the introduction of the new guideline with no subsequent increase in severe respiratory distress among infants with and without a MAS diagnosis, limitations in our study preclude inferring that the new guideline is safe or effective.

Quality improvement is driven by benchmarking between and within institutions over time and the collaborative improvement efforts that stem from these comparisons. Benchmarking requires systematic collection and use of standardized data. Low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) have great potential for improvements in newborn outcomes but serious obstacles to data collection, analysis, and implementation of robust improvement methodologies exist. We review the importance of data collection, internationally recommended neonatal metrics, selected methods of data collection, and reporting. The transformation from data collection to data use is illustrated by several select data system examples from LMIC. Key features include aims and measures important to neonatal team members, co-development with local providers, immediate access to data for review, and multidisciplinary team involvement. The future of neonatal care, use of data, and the trajectory to reach global neonatal improvement targets in resource-limited settings will be dependent on initiatives led by LMIC clinicians and experts.

Achieving the ambitious reduction in global neonatal mortality targeted in the Sustainable Development Goals and Every Newborn Action Plan will require reducing geographic disparities in newborn deaths through targeted implementation of evidence-based practices. Helping Babies Survive, a suite of educational programs targeting the 3 leading causes of neonatal mortality, has been commonly used to educate providers in evidence-based practices in low-resource settings. Quality improvement (QI) can play a pivotal role in translating this education into improved care. Measurement of key process and outcome indicators, derived from the algorithms (“Action Plans”) central to these training programs, can assist health care providers in understanding the baseline quality of their care, identifying gaps, and assessing improvement. Helping Babies Survive has been the focus of QI programs in Kenya, Nepal, Honduras, and Ethiopia, with critical lessons learned regarding the challenge of measurement, necessity of facility-based QI mentorship and multidisciplinary teams, and importance of systemic commitment to improvement in promoting a culture of QI. Complementing education with QI strategies to identify and close remaining gaps in newborn care will be essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and Every Newborn Action Plan targets in the coming decade.