Manual breast milk expression better than breast pump for poor feeders
Expressing breast milk by hand in the first days after birth is better for boosting breastfeeding rates among poorly feeding newborns than the use of a breast pump, indicates a small study published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Currently, either method may be recommended for newborns who latch or suck poorly to encourage them to breastfeed, say the authors.
They base their findings on 68 mums whose newborns were latching on to the nipple or sucking poorly 12 to 36 hours after birth.
The mums were randomly assigned to either 15 minutes of using a breast pump or 15 minutes of manual breast milk expression in a bid to encourage their babies to breastfeed.
Afterwards, the amount of milk produced and suckled, pain levels, and confidence in breastfeeding were assessed. Breastfeeding rates were then monitored when the babies were 1 week, 1 month, and 2 months old.
There was no difference in the volume of breast milk expressed, pain levels, or confidence in breastfeeding between the two methods.
But mothers who expressed manually said they were more comfortable being seen to do so than mothers who used a breast pump.
And by the age of 2 months, breastfeeding rates were higher among those babies whose mums first expressed their breast milk by hand than those who first used a breast pump.
Almost all the mothers (97%) assigned to manual expression were breastfeeding compared with just under 73% of those assigned to the breast pump.
Most who used a breast pump at 2 months said they did so to store milk for occasions when they would be unable to feed their child in person. Just 15% said they did so to boost their milk supply.
The authors point out that breast pumping is a fast efficient method of milk expression, once the milk supply is established. But they add: "Providers should consider teaching hand expression instead of pumping to mothers of healthy term newborns feeding poorly after birth in cases where either method of expression might be appropriate."
Provided by
British Medical Journal
-
Researcher urges study of effects of breast pumps
Jul 07, 2011 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Breastfeeding after 9 months may be risky
Aug 03, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Breast milk study published by professor
Oct 25, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Even the sickest babies benefit from breast-feeding
Oct 27, 2010 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Researchers look for behavioral link between breastfeeding and lower risk of obesity
Oct 28, 2008 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motion perception revisited: High Phi effect challenges established motion perception assumptions
Apr 23, 2013 |
3 / 5 (2) |
2
-
Anything you can do I can do better: Neuromolecular foundations of the superiority illusion (Update)
Apr 02, 2013 |
4.5 / 5 (11) |
5
-
The visual system as economist: Neural resource allocation in visual adaptation
Mar 30, 2013 |
5 / 5 (2) |
9
-
Separate lives: Neuronal and organismal lifespans decoupled
Mar 27, 2013 |
4.9 / 5 (8) |
0
-
Sizing things up: The evolutionary neurobiology of scale invariance
Feb 28, 2013 |
4.8 / 5 (10) |
14
-
Classical and Quantum Mechanics via Lie algebras
Apr 15, 2011
- More from Physics Forums - Independent Research
More news stories
Survey reveals the success of personal budgets in social care
Over 70 per cent of people who hold a personal budget for social care said it led to greater independence and support according to the latest survey.
Health
1 hour ago |
not rated yet |
0
Scientists develop smartphone 'assistance agent' for older people
A new smartphone application, developed by scientists at the University of Ulster, which could help older people engage fully in an increasingly self-serve society, may be ready for use by the end of the ...
Health
2 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Can you put a price on health?
As health services strive to improve quality and reduce costs, researchers study the benefits – and the pitfalls – of 'pay for performance' in hospitals.
Health
2 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
|
Air travel during pregnancy poses no significant risk, say experts
(Medical Xpress)—There is no significant risk directly associated with air travel during pregnancy, even at advanced gestation, says report by the University of Liverpool.
Health
2 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
50 percent of Australians who oppose vaccination get their information from the Internet
To coincide with the broadcast of Jabbed: Love, Fear and Vaccines (SBS ONE, Sunday 26 May at 8.30pm) the first ever national survey on Australian attitudes to vaccination reveals surprising statistics including half of Australians ...
Health
2 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
New discovery in fight against deadly meningococcal disease
Professor Michael Jennings, Deputy Director of the Institute for Glycomics at Griffith University, was part of an international team that discovered the previously unknown pathway of how the bacterium colonizes people.
Pay attention: How we focus and concentrate
Scientists at Newcastle University have shed new light on how the brain tunes in to relevant information.
New imaging techniques used to help patients suffering from epilepsy
New techniques in imaging of brain activity developed by Jean Gotman, from McGill University's Montreal Neurological Institute, and his colleagues lead to improved treatment of patients suffering from epilepsy. The combination ...
Researchers identify networks of neurons in the brain that are disrupted in psychiatric disease
Studying the networks of connections in the brains of people affected by schizophrenia, bipolar disease or depression has allowed Dr. Peter Williamson, from Western University, to gain a better understanding of the biological ...
Are kids who take music lessons different from other kids?
(Medical Xpress)—Research by U of T Mississauga psychology professor Glenn Schellenberg reveals that two key personality traits – openness-to-experience and conscientiousness—predict better than IQ ...
Study reveals active site of enzyme linked to stuttering
(Medical Xpress)—Scientists from the Joint Center for Structural Genomics (JCSG) at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have determined the 3-D structure of the chemically active part of an enzyme involved ...