Preterm birth relates to long-term alterations in cardiac morphology and function. Understanding whether preterm postnatal life is a tractable period of cardiovascular development that can be positively altered by nutrition is relevant to long-term outcomes. We hypothesized that being fed human breast milk during early postnatal life is beneficial to long-term cardiac structure and function in preterm-born individuals compared with infant formulas.
A total of 926 preterm-born infants originally took part in a randomized controlled trial of postnatal milk-feeding regimens between 1982 and 1985 across 5 different UK centers. Preterm-born individuals were randomly assigned to either breast milk donated by unrelated lactating women or nutrient-enriched formulas. We followed 102 individuals from this cohort: 30 of whom had been randomized to being fed exclusively human milk and 16 to being fed exclusively formula. As a comparison group, we recruited an additional 102 individuals born term to uncomplicated pregnancies. Cardiac morphology and function were assessed by MRI.
Preterm-born individuals fed exclusively human milk as infants had increased left and right ventricular end-diastolic volume index (+9.73%, P = .04 and +18.2%, P < .001) and stroke volume index (+9.79%, P = .05 and +22.1%, P = .01) compared with preterm-born individuals who were exclusively formula fed as infants.
This study provides the first evidence of a beneficial association between breast milk and cardiac morphology and function in adult life in those born preterm and supports promotion of human milk for the care of preterm infants to reduce long-term cardiovascular risk.
BREASTFEEDING BONDING ALSO PREVENTS INFANT MORTALITY.
The remarkable study Breast Milk Consumption in Preterm Neonates and Cardiac Shape in Adulthood by Lewandowski, et al documents the adult benefits of breastmilk and breastfeeding bonding that gives added urgency to a national program to promote the universal significance of breastfeeding in neonatal and postnatal life that has life-long consequences, recognized by WHO and UNICEF in their 1990 Innocenti Declaration. http://www.violence.de/prescott/letters/WHO_Innocenti_Declaration.pdf
Adult cardiovascular health is not the only benefit of breastmilk/breastfeeding as the Center for Disease Control (CDC) MAP of Breastfeeding States in 2004 documents: PERCENT CHILDREN BREASTFED AT 12 MONTHS BY STATE (2004) AND STATE INFANT MORTALTY RATE (2004) N = 51: 2007 FD
< 15 % 15-19 % 20-24 % >25 %
N = 10 N = 15 N = 14 N = 12
M: 2258 6518 4477 1314
F: 2178 6187 4196 1297
å: 4436 12705 8673 2611; Total: = 28425
%: 15 45 31 9
This writer provided the infant mortality data and the CDC provided the number of subjects in the four categories of breastfeeding states that was not provided with the publication of the MAP with the following results:
90% (9/10) States With Less Than 15% of Children Breastfeeding At 12 Months Have Highest Infant Mortality Rates
83% (10/12) States With Greater Than 25% of Children Breastfeeding At 12 Months Have Lowest Infant Mortality Rates
For the year 2014, The United States ranks 55th in having the highest infant mortality rate among the 224 Nations evaluated by the CIA World FactBook https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/20...
Premature Births and insufficient breastfeeding bonding are the leading causes of infant mortality, which require this nation’s highest priority.
Minino, A.M , et al (2007) Deaths: Final Data for 2004. CDC. National Vital Statistics Report. V55(19). Table 32.. Hyattsville, MD http://www.cdc.gov/nchs August 21.
CDC (2008). Breastfeeding Practices—Results from the National Immunization Survey. Center for Disease Control. http://www.cdc.gov/breastfeeding/data/NIS_data/index.htm