Benefits of Donor Milk Based Human Milk Fortifier

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 11:27

Posted in category Preemies

Mom’s of preemies and NICU babies are encouraged to express breast milk for their babies, but typically, that milk doesn’t provide enough calories and nutrients to support all the needs of a growing preemie. Because of this, most NICU’s add a powdered cow’s milk based Human Milk Fortifier (HMF) to a mom’s expressed milk to increase calories and certain nutrients. Prolacta Bioscience, a company which specializes in meeting the nutritional needs of preemies in their first 30 days of life, is the only company which makes a HMF derived from 100% human donor milk.

Research suggests that the use of human milk reduces the incidence of certain serious complications like sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature infants. This may be due to the known antibacterial properties of human milk. Recent research from Prolacta shows that using their human milk derived fortifier preserves the antibacterial properties of mother’s milk, which are disrupted by certain bovine derived HMFs.

I find this study particularly interesting, because my own preemie developed an infection in her GI tract and then NEC, less than a week after the NICU started fortifying my milk. Although we don’t know exactly what causes NEC, a triad of factors, including impaired blood flow or oxygenation to the gut, an immature immune system and infection is thought to be involved. If using a bovine milk fortifier increases the chance of infection by decreasing the antibacterial properties of human milk, then commonly used human milk fortifiers could theoretically play a part in the development of NEC.

More research into this issue is clearly required, but at this point, I think I would request the use of the Prolacta HMF if we wound up in the NICU again.

For more information, visit the Prolacta Bioscience website.

5 Responses to “Benefits of Donor Milk Based Human Milk Fortifier”

Janett Burruel says:

June 21st, 2009 at 11:45 pm

My daughter’s pre-term infant recently began receiving a human milk fortifier with her breastmilk feeds & subsequently developed an infection which interupted oral feeds. She was born @ 26 wks. 2lbs. BW. My question is do we have donor milk based human milk fortifiers available for use in NICUs at this time. Your reply would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Janett Burruel IBCLC
Kristie says:

June 22nd, 2009 at 7:42 am

Janett-

I’m sorry to hear about your granddaughter’s troubles with feedings. Prolacta has a whole line of fortifiers on the market with different calories and protein amounts. You can check them out here: http://www.prolacta.com/fortifier.php.

-Kristie
Tanya says:

August 14th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

I would contest that. Research has shown the milk of a mum who has had a preterm baby often has higher amounts of calories than that of the mum of a full term baby. Yes the milk from a ‘full term’ mum wouldn’t have enough calories for a preterm baby, but that is why the first choice of donor milk is from another mother of a baby of similar age and gestation. see webite…
Kristie says:

August 15th, 2009 at 8:23 am

I’m not sure which part you are contesting. Preterm moms do have milk that is different in composition from full term moms, but in many cases, that is still not enough calories to sustain growth in a very preterm infant.
Janett Burruel says:

October 5th, 2009 at 8:20 pm

In response to comments posted, while preterm breastmilk is highter in calories, this is not the only nutritional concern for VLBW (very low birth weight) infants. Fortification is recommended to provide increased amounts of calcium, magnesium phosphorus and protein that are not available in sufficient concentrations. Her feedings began @ 5 mls per hour so these nutrients had to be increased in order to meet her needs. I’m happy to report we were able to find a human milk fortifier in a liquid form ( Similac 30 cal) which is sterile. The infection developed subsequent to the introduction of a powdered fortifier. She tolerated the fortification and continued to grow very well. We used “preterm hindmilk along with the fortifier. As her feeding volumes increased her ave daily weight gain was 40 gms. She stayed on oral and nasal gastric tube feedings until she was able to breastfeed. ALL bottlefeeding was delayed until she was able to breastfeed effectively. We measured her intake at the breast with a Medela babyweigh scale at each feeding. Her feeds were complimented with the tube feeding when needed. She discharged 9/4/09 ( her EDC was 9/10/09). She’s fully breastfeeding, weighs 8 lbs and doing great. I’m one very happy grandma!

Janett Burruel IBCLC