Research summary
Donor human milk (DHM) is milk that is voluntarily collected from a breastfeeding mother and used as an alternative to formula for preterm babies when their own mother’s milk is not available. Dr. Meredith Brockway, Canada Research Chair in Early Life Exposures and Child Health Outcomes, is exploring DHM as a means of achieving beneficial gut microbiome composition and improving health outcomes for infants who experience microbiome vulnerability.
Beginning at birth, the microbes in the gut perform essential duties related not only to digestion and metabolism, but to the immune system, and behaviour and cognitive function. Brockway and her research team are conducting clinical trials that bridge the existing evidence of DHM efficacy with the infant gut microbiome and child health outcomes in full-term infants. They aim to enhance health outcomes for children by supporting evidence-based practices to protect the developing gut microbiome in infants and to gather information about the use of DHM to promote its use.