Storage of Unfed and Leftover Mothers' Own Milk

The objective was to examine the bacteriological and immunological properties of freshly expressed, previously frozen, and leftover mothers' own milk during storage.

In the first of two pilot studies, 12 mother-infant dyads participated. The milk studied included freshly expressed unfed and freshly expressed leftover milk. Milk samples were stored at 24°C, 4°C, or -20°C. In the second pilot study, 11 mother-infant dyads participated. The milk studied included milk that had been previously frozen, including previously frozen leftover milk. Milk samples were stored at 24°C and 4°C. After storage in both studies, the milk was analyzed for bacteriological and immunological properties.

Bacteriological and immunological characteristics of freshly expressed unfed and freshly expressed leftover milk and previously frozen unfed and previously frozen leftover milk remained stable during storage at 4°C for at least 6 days. The quality of all groups of mothers' milk declined when stored at 24°C for longer than 3 hours.

While this study provides evidence that human milk might be safe at longer storage times, storage guidelines should not be revised until more research is performed. This study serves as a call to action for more research on the topic of human milk storage, specifically leftover human milk. The study provides information to inform future study designs on the topic of unpasteurized human milk storage. More research is needed regarding leftover human milk storage with a greater number of participants, determination of the quality of human milk, and the storage of human milk in a real-life setting.