Will Maternal Breastmilk Become an Analgesic for Newborns?
Because there was no significant change in the reaction of the newborns to the heel stick between the control group and the non-maternal milk or formula groups, there may be a particular component to a mother’s milk that her baby recognizes and responds to. If smelling the milk relieves pain and calms the infant, it is reasonable to assume that this research may have clinical applications. It is possible that this calming effect comes from the infant’s recognition of the individual smell of the breastmilk, as the infants involved in the study were only breastfed babies. The researchers suggest, however, that the infants may be calmed by the presence of certain (major histocompatibility complex) genes in the milk that are familiar and comforting to them, and that another mother’s milk with similar genes may have a similar calming effect. Because it is unclear as to why the maternal breastmilk reduces distress in newborns, there are few immediate direct clinical implications of this rese
