NANT community, meet Maj-Brit Birch Lykkegaard!
Discipline/Credentials: Occupational Therapist (OT), International Board-Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC), Master of Science in Health (MSc in Health)
Workplace: AmmeErgo, her private practice since 2018
Location: Denmark
Globally, neonatal therapists share a desire to help babies. Maj-Brit Birch Lykkegaard, an occupational therapist from Denmark, is no exception. We had the privilege of meeting Maj-Brit, the International Scholarship recipient for NANT 14, and she immediately left an imprint on the hearts of many Members of our community.
As part of our International Neonatal Therapy Week (INTW) celebration, we asked Maj-Brit to share a glimpse of her work in Denmark and how the NANT community has impacted her journey along the way. Here are her responses:
How did you become interested in the NICU? I’ve been working within the pediatric area since 2009, but the first 4 years only with children from around 1.5 years old and up. Many of these children had eating/feeding disorders and sensory issues that interfered with their participation in everyday life. In 2013 I participated in a project, where I or a physiotherapist did home visits together with a nurse for all infants born before 32 weeks. This opened my eyes to how much I had to offer these families. I started my journey in becoming the first OT with an IBCLC certification in Denmark and obtained it in 2020. In 2018 I became self-employed in my company AmmeErgo, and have been a geek within the area since
What initiatives are you working on right now? I’m very passionate about making the eating experience comfortable for the breastfeeding infant. To do that, I believe that the focus on the infant’s experience should increase in breastfeeding consultations. Right now, I’m working on trying out the Newborn Eating Outcome (NEO) in a Danish setting. Up until now we have not been using any standardized tools for assessing the infants oral-motor skills in the breastfeeding dyad. How to assess for this is not a part of the curriculum in the IBCLC education, which came as a big surprise for me. I see the breastfeeding dyad as two participants in a dynamic interaction, therefore in my opinion the infant’s role should occupy half of the lactation consultant’s focus. Within the last 5 years, the focus on this has increased within the lactation area in Denmark and I’m now doing courses for other health professionals about what to look and listen for to determine whether or not the breastfeeding challenges are due to problems with the infant’s sensory-oral-motor skills or not.
What made you decide to become a Member of NANT? After participating in a wonderful course with Emily Hills and Lindsay Hardy from Sensory Beginnings in 2020, I was made aware that NANT existed. I’ve been using the free content for some years, but decided to become a member as my interest in researching the area expanded. In 2023 I finished my master’s degree in Health and wrote my thesis on dysphagia in breastfeeding infants. I realized how much knowledge I still lack and decided to pay for a membership to increase my knowledge.
If therapists around the globe are reading this, what would you tell them about your experience of belonging to this community? I feel like I’ve been fighting a battle alone to prove the need for therapists within the NICUs in Denmark. This community has given me somebody to fight alongside with and easy access to evidence that support the effect of therapy in the NICU. In NANT it seems we’re all on the same page. We have a mutual understanding of developmental care that is not found elsewhere.
You received one of NANT’s International Scholarships to attend the in-person conference in 2024. What was the most valuable part of that experience? I feel very honored to have received the international scholarship. Attending in person was valuable both on a professional level and on a private level. Being with more than 500 people who are all passionate about the same thing brought me to tears more than once. I felt that I got to know people on a personal level very fast. Everybody was so openminded and truly interested in connecting and sharing. Since the conference I’ve already met with 3 of the other participants from both the US and Europe, who have come to visit me in Denmark and we’ve started professional cooperation. The conference exceeded my expectations.
We glean so much from our international Members. What do you want the world to know about the practice of neonatal occupational therapy in Denmark? In Denmark occupational therapists are the ones who do both the sensory- and the oral-motor assessments and training. That gives us a unique role to play. Unfortunately, we still don’t have any occupational therapists who are employed directly at the NICU, and it varies from hospital to hospital how much, or even if at all, occupational therapists are used in the NICU. The occupational therapists are typically working in another ward at the hospital, often within the neurological adult area, and are only called upon from nurses or doctors if there is a severe oral-motor issue to be solved for an infant in the NICU. Often this is after several other things have been tried out first and the problem has grown big. This also come with the consequence that only very few occupational therapists have experience working with premature and/or sick infants and therefor spreading the word on the positive effect the therapy can have on the infant’s developmental care is sparse.
I believe we still have a lot of work to do to get occupational therapy to be available in the NICU wards at all times. That being said, there are many fine initiatives being done in a multiprofessional setting. Rooming in and skin-to-skin is standard from birth and tools like NIDCAP and/or FINE are being used by nurses. Also breastfeeding rates are high and the use of the tool “The Milkyway” which has been developed by Danish nurses, gives the premature infant the possibility of being put at breast (to smell it and taste a little bit) as soon as it is stable in a horizontal position. I value the multiprofessional team spirit and believe that just as well as therapists have things to share, we also do have things to learn.
