Impact of human donor milk on maternal milk use at discharge: assessment using control charts

The number of human milk banks is increasing around the world. In many countries, preterm infants born at <32 weeks’ gestation routinely receive donor milk as supplementary feeds. High-quality evidence supports this practice in reducing the risk of necrotising enterocolitis. However, there are concerns donor milk could displace lactation support with unintentional adverse effects on maternal breastfeeding rates on discharge home. A recent systematic review found small improvements in any breastmilk intake on discharge. Pooled estimates of four observational studies examining this outcome preintroduction and postintroduction of donor milk indicate a relative risk of 1.19 (1.05–1.35, p=0.005) for increased breast feeding when infants received donor milk. However, this is predominantly based on low-quality evidence...