Abstract
Although many mothers delivering prematurely wish to provide expressed milk for their infants, their milk volume is reported to be low. We therefore investigated the relationship between frequency of expression and milk output in 25 healthy mothers of premature infants(GA27to37wks). Mothers expressed milk from day 5 to day 11 postpartum based on card selection, either ⩾4 times/day or ⩽3 times/day using an electric pump. Based on a second card selection, milk expression was either maintained at the same frequency or changed to the opposite frequency for a second week. On days 11 and 18 all milk expressed was quantitated. Of the 25 mothers studied, 9 changed expression frequency from ⩾4 times/day to ⩽3 times/day or vice versa, while 9 expressed at the same frequency both weeks. Of the 7 remaining women, 5 withdrew because their infants began directly nursing and 2 because they chose not to complete the study. Milk production by the 9 mothers who alternated from frequent to infrequent expression(5) or vice versa(4) demonstrated that frequent expression was associated with a significantly (p<.02) greater milk volume than infrequent expression. Of the 9 mothers who expressed at the same frequency both weeks (1 frequent, 8 infrequent), all had a decline in milk production from week 1 to week 2. The 1 frequent expresser produced the largest milk volumes (651ml and 424ml respectively) in this group. Thus, a low cost, noninvasive method of enhancing milk production by mothers of non-nursing, prematurely delivered infants is to encourage frequent milk expression.
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DeCarvalho, M., Anderson, D., Giangreco, A. et al. FREQUENCY OF MILK EXPRESSION BY MOTHERS OF PREMATURE NEONATES AND MILK PRODUCTION. Pediatr Res 18 (Suppl 4), 229 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00816
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1203/00006450-198404001-00816