Greetings All,

Four new studies follow, three of which have been published: 

1)  New mothers are increasingly using expressed breast milk rather than directly breastfeeding their babies, according to a new study at the University of British Columbia at Okanagan.

The ScienceDaily news release: 
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161207092831.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fhealth_medicine%2Fbreastfeeding+%28Breastfeeding+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Authors:  Dorothy Li Bai, Daniel Yee Tak Fong, Kris Yuet Wan Lok, Janet Yuen Ha Wong, Marie Tarrant
Title:  Practices, predictors and consequences of expressed breast-milk feeding in healthy full-term infants
In:  Public Health Nutrition 2016; 1 DOI: 10.1017/S136898001600241X


2)  "Lack of paid leave and outdated maternity care are barriers to breastfeeding that disproportionately impact families of color. This is the first study to show how these disparities translate into differences in health outcomes."  

The ScienceDaily news release:  
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161122131934.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fhealth_medicine%2Fbreastfeeding+%28Breastfeeding+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Authors:  Melissa C. Bartick, Briana J. Jegier, Brittany D. Green, Eleanor Bimla Schwarz, Arnold G. Reinhold, Alison M. Stuebe
Title:  Disparities in Breastfeeding: Impact on Maternal and Child Health Outcomes and Costs
In:  The Journal of Pediatrics 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2016.10.028


3) "Mothers can experience negative emotions such as guilt, stigma and the need to defend their feeding choices regardless of how they feed their baby," according to researchers at the University of Liverpool.

The ScienceDaily news release:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161116101900.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fhealth_medicine%2Fbreastfeeding+%28Breastfeeding+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Authors:  Victoria Fallon, Sophia Komninou, Kate M. Bennett, Jason C.G. Halford, Joanne A. Harrold
Title:  The emotional and practical experiences of formula-feeding mothers
In:  Maternal & Child Nutrition, 2016; DOI: 10.1111/mcn.12392


4) "Does successful infant feeding depend on the mechanics of the breast and, conversely, does breast health depend on breastfeeding? It has been virtually impossible to study these complex dynamics and the delicate interplay that makes breastfeeding possible, but a pair of researchers are working together to build a biomimetic breast that will allow scientists to study how the breast behaves during its primary function: infant feeding.  Nicole Danos, an assistant professor of biology at the University of San Diego, and her collaborator, Rebecca Z. German, a professor of anatomy and neurobiology at Northeastern Ohio Medical University, are working together to address a gap in our understanding of breastfeeding mechanics." 

The ScienceDaily news release:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/11/161121090708.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily%2Fhealth_medicine%2Fbreastfeeding+%28Breastfeeding+News+--+ScienceDaily%29

Authors:  Nicole Danos, Rebecca German 
Status:  study in development; discussed at the 69th Annual Meeting of the American Physical Society Division of Fluid Dynamics held in Portland, Oregon, Nov. 20-22, 2016.

The abstract:  
"The function of the mammary gland, a key anatomical innovation that led to the rise of mammals, is governed by solid-fluid mechanics. There is strong evidence that these mechanical interactions regulate the production of milk and the transport of milk through the lactiferous ducts and into the infant’s mouth. Solid-fluid mechanics determine the rate of milk flow and therefore may affect the safe coordination of sucking, swallowing and breathing in the infant. Additionally, links between breastfeeding, the material properties of the gland and breast cancer have been shown repeatedly. However, there is to date no direct way of characterizing breast mechanics during the physiological function for which it has evolved: infant feeding. We are developing an engineered biomimetic breast in which we can experimentally manipulate both structural and material properties of the gland. The device will be tested with an animal model of infant feeding, the pig, to measure the direct effect of gland mechanics on infant feeding. Data from these studies may lead to better designed feeding bottles for infants, milk pumps for both humans and agricultural mammals, and will provide the control mechanical environmental for studies of breast cancer mechanobiology."

*My note (from Debra Swank):  From my awareness of the seminal work conducted on the lactating human breast by Kent, Geddes, Hartmann and colleagues, I believe the above approach underscores the greater need to study skill acquisition, skill decay, and skill reacquisition from the point of view of the infant's motor learning toward motor control for the oral grasp and effective suckling, measuring infant feeding performance via reaction time, movement time, response time, and inhibition of return.  There is also the need to study how learning constraints may impact the infant's motor learning experiences toward skill acquisition.  Learning constraints are differentiated as task constraints, such as inverted nipple anatomy, pronounced breast engorgement, or off-centered nipple-areolar anatomy following breast reduction, which is dependent upon and subsequent to the surgeon's technique; individual constraints, such as ankyloglossia, recessed chin, torticollis, or complete cleft of the lip and palate; and environmental constraints, such as constricting clothing worn by the mother that temporarily impedes the infant's ability to orally grasp the nipple-areolar complex, until the constricting clothing is released or removed).  Learning constraints may be mild, moderate, or pronounced, and many learning constraints are transient, such as constricting clothing or pronounced breast engorgement.  I do not know if Danos and German are at all familiar with the groundbreaking work of Kent, Geddes, Hartmann, and colleagues.

With best regards, 

Debra Swank, RN BSN IBCLC
Ocala, Florida USA
More Than Reflexes Education
http://www.MoreThanReflexes.org

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