All about breastfeeding

In November, both Alison and Malina attended Abreast conference at the University of Western Australia (UWA).  Abreast is a one-day showcase of research presentations exploring breastfeeding in many of it’s wondrous facets.  Topics were broadly categorised into milk production, mastitis, milk composition and outcomes.  This year’s conference opening also marked the opening of the Centre for Human Lactation Research and Translation at UWA – a world-leading centre of excellence for breastfeeding research.  Consano is proud to have sponsored this conference.   We are grateful to have benefited over many years from the translation of this quality research into our clinical practice – helping women at the coalface, to work their way through breastfeeding challenges.  A few take-home ‘nuggets’ that stayed with us:

-colostrum IS breast milk!  So often we hear about waiting for a woman’s milk to ‘come in’ after she has first birthed her baby.  However as Professor Valerie Verhasselt (UWA and Telethon Kids Institute) shared passionately with us all, this beautiful protein-rich fluid is the FIRST milk, and is the ideal ‘body-builder’ nutrition for newborn babies!

-a mother’s own milk is the best nutrition for preterm babies, and is unique for each baby.  Dr Marie Bendix Simonsen (University of Southern Denmark) made a case for antenatal expression of colostrum to facilitate feeding of preterm babies immediately post-birth, where their mothers may not otherwise be able to provide this valuable source of nutrition.

-a new point-of-care breastmilk testing device may help better target treatment for mastitis.  As Melbourne physiotherapist Emma Heron (UWA and Curtin University) completes her PhD we will hear more about this interesting device which easily measures both sodium and potassium concentrations in breastmilk, to determine the presence of mastitis in breastfeeding women.

-over the past century most of the research into lactation and breastmilk has been in cows, due to the importance of milk production in this industry.  Dr Luoyang Ding (UWA) explored whether we can transfer some of the research findings from low milk supply in cattle, to humans.  Watch this space!