Short-term Outcomes of Launching Mother’s Milk Bank in Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: A Retrospective Study

The WHO and UNICEF have suggested pasteurized donor milk (PDM) as the best alternative for infants who do not receive enough milk from their mothers.

This study aimed to assess the short-term outcomes of launching the first mother’s milk bank in North-West of Iran.

The present retrospective study included 366 premature infants (181 pre-launch and 185 post-launch) who were hospitalized in Al-Zahra Hospital of Tabriz, Iran. The study included infants with birth weight ˂2000 g and/or gestation age ˂32 weeks who were born before and after the launch of mother’s milk bank. Frequency of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), late onset sepsis (LOS) and mortality rate were compared. Data were analyzed using SPSS 23 with the chisquare test, Fisher exact test, independent t test, and logistic regression test.

In total, NEC grade ≥2 was reported in 9 cases; 8 cases (4.41%) in pre-launch and one case (0.54%) in post-launch (adjusted OR=0.091; 95% CI=0.010 to 0.849, P=0.035). ROP was reported in 21 cases in two groups. Nineteen cases (10.5%) belonged to the pre-launch group and 2 cases (3.7%) to the post-launch group (adjusted OR=0.105; 95% CI=0.022 to 0.488, P=0.004). LOS was also found in 17 cases (9.39%) in the pre-launch group and 4 cases (2.16%) in the post-launch period, suggesting a significant difference between the two groups (adjusted OR=0.297; 95%CI=0.089 to 0.995, P=0.049). There was no significant difference in mortality of infants during hospitalization between the two groups (P=0.789); however, it was decreased from 15 to 8.

Launching the human milk bank significantly improved the outcomes of premature infants.