Stress and Breast Milk Study In the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The overall goal of this research is to clarify the relationship between reported maternal stress, biological measures of maternal stress, breast milk biomarkers and milk quantity. Our primary hypothesis is that measures of maternal stress are associated with cortisol, cytokines, and other stress markers in the blood, which impacts breast milk quantity and composition and which may impact infant health.

Official Title
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A Pilot Test to Evaluate the Effect of Maternal Stress on Breastmilk Quantity and Stress Biomarkers in Mothers and Their Infants

Conditions
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Breast Feeding, Breast Milk Expression, Stress

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Baby will remain in mom's legal custody Intends to exclusively breastfeed during the NICU stay Has kept a daily log of milk expression (pump or hand expression) with date/time/quantity since birth of their child Less than 7 days postpartum Exclusion Criteria: Baby and mother are to be separated due to legal custody issues Medical contraindication to breastfeeding Non-English speaking Unable to answer a written survey in English More than 50% of infant intake is not mother's own milk at 4 weeks postpartum
Sexes Eligible for Study
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Female

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| All Participants<br>Mothers of singleton moderate preterm appropriate for Gestational Age (AGA) infants (29-32+6 weeks gestation in the neonatal intensive care unit at the Golisano Children's Hospital | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Correlation between secretory IgA levels in mother's serum and reported stress | Mother's stress will be measured using the The Parent Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This scale ranges from 1-130 with higher numbers indicating more stress. Serum will be collected from mothers at enrollment and 4 weeks postpartum. Maternal venipuncture will be used to collect an 0.5mL aliquot of whole blood at the time of mother's first morning pump session in the neonatal intensive care unit. IgA will be quantitated using the Millipore Magpix 100 System. Multivariate regression analysis will be used to test for correlations. | baseline | 
| Correlation between secretory IgA levels in mother's serum and reported stress | Mother's stress will be measured using the The Parent Stress Scale: Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. This scale ranges from 1-130 with higher numbers indicating more stress. Serum will be collected from mothers at enrollment and 4 weeks postpartum. Maternal venipuncture will be used to collect an 0.5mL aliquot of whole blood at the time of mother's first morning pump session in the neonatal intensive care unit. IgA will be quantitated using the Millipore Magpix 100 System. Multivariate regression analysis will be used to test for correlations. | 1 month | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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neonatal intensive care