PurposeIn Kyung Hee East-West Neo Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, efforts to raise rooming-in care success rate have been undertaken since when the hospital was established in 2006. We intended to analyze our experience over the past 3 years of period and to discuss the advantages of rooming-in.MethodsWe analyzed the rooming-in practice rate, failure rate, and the breast feeding rate. Subjects were 860 normal healthy neonates from June 2006 to June 2009.ResultsAmong these 860 cases, 83 babies were required separation out of rooming-in in the middle of the course. Among these 83 cases, 70 cases had to stop the course due to poor condition of babies and 13 cases due to maternal condition. 70 cases of infant's causes consist of 68 cases of NICU admission and 2 cases of poor feeding support. The other 13 cases of separation include refusal by maternal condition. Therefore the success rate of rooming-in for the last 3 years was 90.3%, that is 777 cases among the total 860 cases. The percentage of exclusive breast feeding was 64%, that of mixed feeding with breast and formula feeding was 25%, and formula feeding only was 11%.ConclusionWe experienced successful rooming-in care for the last 3 years. Nursery facilities should educate and encourage the advantages of rooming-in, including the good formation of attachment between mother and infant, emotional stability, protection from infection, and increased breast feeding rate so that rooming-in care can be fully established.

Purpose : A human milk bank collects, processes, eliminates, and stores breast milk from donors and provides breast milk to those in need. The authors hereby present the experiences and the objective lessons obtained through operating a nationwide human milk bank over a period of 2 years. Methods : The characteristics of the donors and the recipients and the amounts of breast milk donated, processed, and received at the East-West Neo Medical Center Human Milk Bank were investigated from August 2007 to August 2009. Results : The donor pool consisted of 131 first-time donors and 39 repeat donors who made 341 and 127 donations, respectively. Seventy-nine percent of the donors resided in the Seoul-Kyunggi area, and 60% of the donors were in their 30s. Most information and motivation came from the Internet (66%) or television (14%). A total of 2,736 L of breast milk was collected, and 1,979 L were processed. The cumulative number of recipients was 160 preterm or full-term infants and 21 adults, each group receiving the breast milk 337 and 41 times, respectively. In total, infants received 1,663 L and adults received 179 L. Conclusion : Through the present study, the role and importance of a human milk bank in collecting, pasteurizing, and storing surplus breast milk in through sanitary, medically proven methods and providing this breast milk to recipients could be appreciated and reevaluated. The authors believe that a national support system is necessary to expand this practice to a nationwide scale. (Korean J Pediatr 2010;53:488-494)