Donor human milk in preterm infant feeding: evidence and recommendations
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Sertac Arslanoglu
Abstract
In preterm infants, feeding with human milk (HM) is a very effective intervention for the prevention of infections and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), and for potentially improved neurocognitive and cardiovascular outcomes in the long-term. Hospitals and physicians are advised to recommend HM for preterm and other high-risk infants either by direct breastfeeding and/or using the mother's own expressed milk. Donor HM is the preferred feeding when the mother's own milk is not available in sufficient quantity. While in some countries donor HM has been considered an effective tool in the delivery of health care to infants, skepticism regarding its nutritional and immunological quality has limited its distribution in other countries. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the clinical benefits of donor HM in preterm infants, and to discuss common concerns limiting its distribution as standard care. Clinically, the use of donor HM has been shown to prevent NEC, reduce feeding intolerance and improve long-term outcomes in premature infants. Common concerns, such as slow growth and loss of important biological components of donor HM due to storage and pasteurization, should not be a reason for denial of donor milk. Optimization of banking procedures and of HM fortification is available and should be applied. Banked donor milk should be promoted as standard component of health care for premature infants.
©2010 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin New York
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- WAPM-Newsletter No 1/2010
Articles in the same Issue
- Recommendations and guidelines for perinatal practice
- Donor human milk in preterm infant feeding: evidence and recommendations
- Original articles – Obstetrics
- Pregnancy and delivery outcomes of HIV infected women in Switzerland 2003–2008
- Maternal plasma retinol binding protein 4 in acute pyelonephritis during pregnancy
- Occult inflammation and/or ischemia may be responsible for the false positivity of biochemical Down syndrome screening test
- Genital group B streptococcus carrier rate and serotype distribution in Korean pregnant women: implications for group B streptococcal disease in Korean neonates
- Pregnancy-induced antithrombin deficiency
- Cardiac output and blood flow volume redistribution during acute maternal hypoxia in fetal sheep
- Original articles – Fetus
- Epigenetic malprogramming of the insulin receptor promoter due to developmental overfeeding
- Prognosis of isolated mild to moderate fetal cerebral ventriculomegaly: a systematic review
- Original articles – Newborn
- Validation of a model to predict hospitalization due to RSV of infants born at 33–35 weeks' gestation
- Outcomes of extremely low birth weight infants with varying doses and intervals of antenatal steroid exposure
- Dependence of neonatal small and large for gestational age rates on maternal height and weight – an analysis of the German Perinatal Survey
- Clinical characteristics of nosocomial infections in neonatal intensive care unit in eastern China
- Short Communication
- Maternal complications of fetoscopic laser photocoagulation (FLP) for treatment of twin-twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS)
- Letter to the Editor
- A newborn with Down syndrome-transient myeloproliferative disorder
- Congress Calender
- Congress Calendar
- WAPM-Newsletter
- WAPM-Newsletter No 1/2010
