Exp Physiol 81: 861-875 (1996)

Frequency and degree of milk removal and the short-term
control of human milk synthesis

Daly SE, Kent JC, Owens RA, Hartmann PE

Department of Biochemistry, University of Western Australia, Australia.

The effect of the temporal spacing and degree of milk removal by either
expression or breastfeed on
short-term (hour to hour) rates of milk synthesis was investigated. For
four expressing mothers (three of
whom had given birth prematurely), the relationship between milk
produced at an expression and the
time since the last expression showed that proportionally less milk is
produced after intervals of 6-18 h
than after intervals of less than 6 h (P < 0.0002). For five
breastfeeding and four expressing mothers
(three of whom had given birth prematurely), rates of milk synthesis
(ranging from 0 to 56 ml/h) were
linear between breastfeeds and expressions (intervals ranging from < 1 h
to 6 h).Changes in rate of milk
synthesis were not directly associated with the frequency of breastfeeds
but rather with the degree of
emptying of the breast (P < 0.05). These results indicate the importance
of degree, rather than
frequency, of breast emptying in the short-term control of human milk
synthesis.

PMID: 8889483, MUID: 97044412