Abstract
BackgroundMilk ejection is a transient episode critical to milk removal and women typically have multiple milk ejections during breastfeeding and pumping. Recently it was found that milk ejection characteristics such as number of milk ejections and periodicity were consistent throughout 12 months of lactation in women who expressed their milk with an electric breast pump. It is not known whether the stimulation of an infant at the breast influences milk ejection patterns or whether this is a programmed event. The aim of this study was to compare milk ejection patterns during breastfeeding and expressing milk with an electric pump within mothers.MethodsTwelve lactating mothers with normal milk production (502–1356 mL) had milk ejection recorded by measuring the diameter of a major milk duct with ultrasound imaging throughout an entire breastfeed and a 15-min pumping session. Scans were analysed for timing, duration of duct dilation and maximum duct diameter.ResultsThe initial milk ejection defined as the first increase in duct diameter was observed earlier during breastfeeding than during two phase pumping sessions but was not statistically significant (p = .057). There were no significant differences between the duration of the first or second milk ejection for mothers when breastfeeding or pumping at their maximum comfortable vacuum (p = .18; p = .99). The times taken to reach the peak duct diameter, or the first half of the milk ejection were also not found to be significantly different between breastfeeding and pumping.ConclusionThis study suggests that milk ejection patterns remain consistent within individual mothers regardless of whether the mother is breastfeeding or expressing milk indicating a likelihood of the process either being programmed or innate to the individual.
Highlights
Milk ejection is a transient episode critical to milk removal and women typically have multiple milk ejections during breastfeeding and pumping
There was no significant difference in relation to the time to first milk ejection associated with parity (P = .6)
These results indicate that milk ejection characteristics are similar in the short term; monitoring over twelve months is necessary to confirm that these remain consistent in the long term
Summary
Milk ejection is a transient episode critical to milk removal and women typically have multiple milk ejections during breastfeeding and pumping. It was found that milk ejection characteristics such as number of milk ejections and periodicity were consistent throughout 12 months of lactation in women who expressed their milk with an electric breast pump. Unlike other species that possess cisterns such as the goat and cow [6, 7], the majority of milk in the human mammary gland is stored in the alveolar region [8] and requires active expulsion for successful lactation, such that the absence of the milk ejection reflex results in very little milk removed from the breast [1, 5]
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