Manual Method vs Breast Pump for Breast Milk Expression in Mothers of Preterm Babies During First Postnatal Week: A Randomized Controlled Trial

OBJECTIVES: To compare breast milk volume between manual method and breast pump expression in mothers of preterm infants at different time point of first week. DESIGN: Randomized controlled trial. SETTING: Postpartum ward of Obstetrics department and tertiary level neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in a single institution in Orissa between October, 2020 and May, 2021. PARTICIPANTS: Mothers who delivered before 34 completed weeks of gestation. INTERVENTIONS: Manual breastmilk expression (ME) group using Marmet technique and breast pump milk expression (PE) group using pigeon manual breast pump, initiated milk expression within one hour of delivery. OUTCOME MEASURES: Expressed breast milk (EBM) volume in mothers of preterm infants at different time point of first week, and cumulative milk volume. RESULTS: Out of 170 mothers (83 PE and 87 ME group), 7-days milk volume data was available for 137 (71 ME and 66 PE) mothers. In per protocol analysis for 126 mothers (63 in each group), the median (IQR) EBM volume on day 2 and day 7 of ME and PE groups were similar [10 (5,20) vs 12 (5,28), P=0.10] and [280 (220–356) vs 280 (220–360), P=0.66]. The median (IQR) cumulative EBM volume over first 7 days in ME group was not significantly different from PE group [733 (593–995) vs 848.5 (571–1009)] P=0.55). A similar number of mothers in the PE and ME group [56 (88.9%) vs 58 (92%); P=0.14] provided exclusive breast milk for their neonates during the first week. Similar results were found on intention to treat analysis. CONCLUSION: EBM volume expressed was comparable between mothers expressing manually or with breast pump.