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When the @heartsmilkbank has surplus #donormilk (DHM) to hospital need, parents facing breastfeeding challenges can access it. But is this safe, and do the babies grow?
Here, the first infant growth study on DHM suggests yes.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mcn.13128
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Here, the first infant growth study on DHM suggests yes.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/mcn.13128
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Solange Bramer, an @ImperialMed student who blew our socks off with her tenacity, contacted every family who had received donor milk in the first year of @heartsmilkbank existing. She collected growth data and lots of information from parents about using DHM.
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In the end, complete data was gained from 31 families. 17 had received only DHM as their sole feed, for example where the mother had cancer or no breast tissue, and 14 had received it as a supplement.
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This was a motivated group of parents - we don't advertise this as a service because, well, the team get overwhelmed. So these are families that either sought us out, or had got in touch after being signposted by a healthcare professional. The study was also retrospective.
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But in full recognition of the limitations, the results were clear - all babies grew as expected according to @WHO growth standards. There were no adverse events, and the main negative feature experienced by parents were uncertainty about being able to access more.
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Beyond the growth data, Solange looked at BF rates in the supplemented group. Each mother facing BF challenges received support from an IBCLC to ensure maternal milk was maximised. 5 out of 8 mothers where full lactation was possible established exclusive BF.
That's a lot.
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That's a lot.
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But what I remember most from Solange's time at the milk bank was her coming into my office saying 'I just spoke to another one'. She was talking about mothers who told her how much they felt having access to DHM helped them avoid depression. Even the mothers who did...
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...not go on to fully breastfeed were telling Solange that they felt better, that they felt all had been done. That isn't in this paper, but we wanted to understand if supporting maternal mental health was also an added impact of the support that milk banks can facilitate.
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@Prof_AmyBrown and I then developed a prospective study to examine exactly these questions, which ran throughout 2020 (interesting timing), and the data is now being analysed. #watchthisspace #ukriflf #collaboration
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And @heartsmilkbank is now working with ~30 families a month, thanks to Herts Valley #ccg funding, with a clinical trial coming down the track later this year.
Plenty more to understand, but congrats Solange - here she is winning Best Poster at #ABM2019 for this work!
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Plenty more to understand, but congrats Solange - here she is winning Best Poster at #ABM2019 for this work!
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