Breast milk may help babies’ brain development: Study

Experts say that helping mothers to provide breast milk in the weeks after giving birth could improve long-term outcomes for children born pre-term.

Pre-term birth

Premature birth has been linked to an increased possibility of problems with learning and thinking skills in later life, which are thought to be linked to alterations in brain development.

Studies have shown that pre-term birth is associated with changes in the part of the brain’s structure that helps brain cells to communicate with one another, known as white matter.

Brain scans

Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied MRI brain scans from 47 babies from a study group known as the Theirworld Edinburgh Birth Cohort.

The babies had been born before 33 weeks gestation and scans took place when they reached term-equivalent age, an average of 40 weeks from conception.

Feed history

The team also collected information about how the infants had been fed while in intensive care – either formula milk or breast milk from either the mother or a donor.

Babies who exclusively received breast milk for at least three-quarters of the days they spent in hospital showed improved brain connectivity compared with others.

The effects were greatest in babies who were fed breast milk for a greater proportion of their time spent in intensive care.

Nutrition studies

The researchers say the study highlights the need for more research to understand the role of early life nutrition for improving long-term outcomes for pre-term babies.

Valuable evidence

The study was funded by the charity Theirworld and was carried out in the Jennifer Brown Research Laboratory at the University’s Medical Research Council Centre for Reproductive Health. It is published in the journal NeuroImage.