Abstract
The composition of human milk is dynamic and can vary according to many maternal factors, such as diet and nutritional status. This study investigated the association of maternal nutrition and body composition with human milk composition. All measurements and analyses were done at three time points: during the first (n = 40), third (n = 22), and sixth (n = 15) month of lactation. Human milk was analyzed using the Miris human milk analyzer (HMA), body composition was measured with bioelectrical bioimpedance (BIA) using a Maltron BioScan 920-II, and the assessment of women’s nutrition was based on a three-day dietary record. The correlation coefficient (Pearson’s r) did not show a significant statistical relationship between human milk composition and nutrients in women’s diet at three time points. For women in the third month postpartum, we observed moderate to strong significant correlations (r ranged from 0.47 to 0.64) between total protein content in milk and the majority of body composition measures as follows: positive correlations: % fat mass (r = 0.60; p = 0.003), fat-free mass expressed in kg (r = 0.63; p = 0.001), and muscle mass (r = 0.47; p = 0.027); and negative correlation: % total body water (r = −0.60; p = 0.003). The variance in milk fat content was related to the body mass index (BMI), with a significant positive correlation in the first month postpartum (r = 0.33; p = 0.048). These findings suggest that it is not diet, but rather the maternal body composition that may be associated with the nutritional value of human milk.
Highlights
Human milk is the best source of nutrition for infants, as it contains essential nutrients in the right balance, and other bioactive factors [1,2].It is well documented that exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of life is associated with a decreased incidence of infections and chronic diseases [3,4]
Maternal body mass index (BMI) and adiposity were positively associated with the protein content of milk
The analysis of carbohydrates by human milk analyzer (HMA) MIRIS in human milk is affected by the presence of lactose and nonlactose carbohydrates, primarily human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) [27]
Summary
Human milk is the best source of nutrition for infants, as it contains essential nutrients in the right balance, and other bioactive factors (e.g., hormones, antibodies, bioactive molecules, stem cells) [1,2]. Previous studies assessing the relationship between maternal factors and human milk composition had some limitations, such as no specific time for the expression of milk samples (time of day, hind- or foremilk), and no information about exclusive breastfeeding or analysis of milk composition, excluding nonprotein nitrogen sources, which lead to inflated protein concentrations. Most of the existing studies were conducted in the 1980s and 1990s [16,17,18] and for milk composition analysis, they used separate analytical instruments for protein, fat, and lactose, which may have been flawed and was time-consuming All of these limitations influence a true-value assessment of these associations.
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