ArticleArchives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition2024
Does extremely early expression of colostrum after very preterm birth improve mother's own milk quantity? A cohort study.
Article in Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- Oral care with human milk is associated with increased human milk feeding and breastfeeding for newborns with critical congenital heart disease.Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association · 2026Article
- Early Postpartum Milk-Expression and Expressed-Milk Feeding Practices in Relation to Breastfeeding Outcomes: A Systematic Review.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Human Milk Practices in Swedish Neonatal Units: Results From a Nationwide Survey.Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992) · 2026Article
- Breast Milk Expression Frequency and Production, Na Concentrations and Na:K Ratios in the First 4 Weeks After Preterm Birth.Nutrients · 2026Article
- Recruitment, retention and reporting of ethnic representativeness in maternity trials: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2025Article
- Association between maternal sociodemographic characteristics and exclusive mother's own milk feeding in preterm infants: a cohort study using data from the National Neonatal Research Database.Archives of disease in childhood. Fetal and neonatal edition · 2025Article
- Effect of early establishment of full enteral feeding with exclusive mother's own milk in preterm babies: a retrospective cohort study.BMJ paediatrics open · 2025Article
- Differences between neonatal units with high and low rates of breast milk feeding for very preterm babies at discharge: a qualitative study of staff experiences.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- What supports mothers of very preterm babies to start and continue breast milk feeding neonatal units? A qualitative COM-B analysis of mothers' experiences.BMC pregnancy and childbirth · 2024Article
- The relationship of milk expression pattern and lactation outcomes after very premature birth: A cohort study.PloS one · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors.
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Abstract
objectiveAssess the relationship of time to first expression after very preterm birth and mothers' own milk quantity.
designA cohort study (nested within a randomised trial).
settingFour neonatal units in the UK. PATIENTS: 132 mothers of single or twin infants born at 23+0 to 31+6 weeks postmenstrual age. EXPOSURES: Time to the first attempt to express after birth. PRIMARY OUTCOMES: 24-hour mother's own milk yield on days 4, 14 and 21 after birth.
resultsMedian time to first expression attempt was 6 hours. 51.7% expressed within 6 hours of birth (62/120) and 48.3% expressed more than 6 hours after birth (58/120). Expressing within 6 hours of birth was associated with higher milk yield on day 4 (88.3 g, 95% CI 7.1 to 169.4) and day 14 (155.7 g, 95% CI 12.2 to 299.3) but not on day 21 (73.6 g, 95% CI -91.4 to 238.7). There was an interaction between expressing frequency and time to first expression (p<0.005), with increased expressing frequency being associated with higher yield only in those who expressed within 6 hours. Expressing within 2 hours of birth was not associated with further milk yield increase.
conclusionsMothers who expressed within 6 hours of birth had higher milk yield, and a greater yield per expressing session, in the first 3 weeks after birth. This information will be highly motivating for families and the clinicians supporting them. There was no evidence of further benefit of extremely early expression (first 2 hours after birth). TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN 16356650.
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