Early pumping frequency and coming to volume for mother's own milk feeding in hospitalized infants

Objective: To identify daily pumping frequencies associated with coming to volume (CTV: producing > 500 milliliters of milk per day by postnatal day 14) for mothers of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Study design: We compared demographics and daily pumping frequencies for mothers who did and did not experience CTV.

Results: Of 427 mothers who produced milk, 201 (50.1%) experienced CTV. Race, insurance, delivery type and birthweight were associated with CTV. For mothers who experienced CTV, average pumping episodes increased daily, stabilizing at 5 pumping episodes per day by postnatal day 5 (5 × 5). Women who experienced CTV were also more likely to have pumped between 0100 and 0500 (AM pumping). In multivariable analysis birthweight, 5 × 5 and AM pumping were each independently associated with CTV.

Conclusion: Supporting mothers of NICU infants to achieve 5 or more daily pumping sessions by postnatal day 5 could improve likelihood of achieving CTV.