An American study of 68 mothers of newborns 12-36 hours old who were latching or sucking poorly were randomly assigned to either 15 minutes of bilateral electric pumping or 15 minutes of hand expression. Milk transfer, maternal pain, breastfeeding confidence and breastmilk expression experience immediately after the intervention were measured, as well as breastfeeding rates at 2 months after birth.
The median volume of expressed milk was higher from the electric pumping, range 1ml (0-40) compared to range 0.5ml (0-5) for hand expression (p=0.07). Outcome measures for milk transfer, maternal pain and breastmilk expression experience did not differ between intervention groups. However, mothers assigned to hand expression were more likely to be breastfeeding at 2 months, 96.1% compared to 72.7% (p=0.02).
The authors conclude that hand expression in the early postpartum period may improve breastfeeding outcomes and call for more research.
Valerie J Flaherman, Barbara Gay, Cheryl Scott, Andrew Avins, Kathryn A Lee, and Thomas B Newman. Randomised trial comparing hand expression with breast pumping for mothers of term newborns feeding poorly. Arch. Dis. Child. Fetal Neonatal Ed. published 11 July 2011, 10.1136/adc.2010.209213
