Related Experiment Videos
Sodium in hand and pump expressed human breast milk
S Lang1, C J Lawrence, R L Orme
1Department of Mathematical Statistics and Operational Research, University of Exeter, UK.
Early Human Development
|August 1, 1994
Abstract:
Sodium content was analysed in the expressed breast milk from 30 mothers. Measurements were taken up to 24 days postpartum, during which time the mothers expressed manually or by means of a pump. Statistical analysis has confirmed not only the known decline in sodium levels postpartum but has also shown a significantly higher sodium content in manually expressed milk compared to that from pump expressed milk. This finding suggests that the method of expression may alter the sodium concentration in human breast milk, thus potentially reducing the amount of sodium supplementation required by some preterm infants.