PEDIATRICS Vol. 83 No. 1 January 1989, pp. 57-60
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Increasing Breast Milk Production for Premature Infants With a Relaxation/Imagery Audiotape

Stephen D. K. Feher PhD1, Lawrence R. Berger MD, MPH1, John D. Johnson MD1, and Judith B. Wilde PhD1

1 The University of New Mexico, Departments of Education and Pediatrics, and the Lovelace Medical Foundation, Albuquerque

Many women whose premature infants are hospitalized in a newborn intensive care unit choose to express breast milk for their babies. Yet anxiety, fatigue, and emotional stress are powerful inhibitors of lactation. To facilitate the breast-feeding experience, intervention mothers were given a 20-minute audio cassette tape based on relaxation and visual imagery techniques. At a single follow-up expression of milk at the hospital approximately 1 week after enrollment, they expressed 63% more breast milk than a randomized group of control mothers. The fat content of the breast milk in the two groups was not significantly different. Among a small group of mothers whose infants were receiving mechanical ventilation, the increase in milk volume compared with that of control mothers was 121%. Longer-term effects of the relaxation/ imagery approach (such as extending the duration of breast-feeding or reducing parental stress after hospital discharge) and the physiologic basis for the increased volume of expressed milk (improved milk production v more efficient milk ejection) are appropriate topics for future research.

Key Words: lactation • breast milk • prematurity • relaxation techniques

Submitted on July 27, 1987
Accepted on February 9, 1988




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