The calming effect of a maternal breast milk odor on the human newborn infant

We examined the effects of the odors from mother's milk, other mother's milk and formula milk on pain responses in newborns undergoing routine heelsticks. Forty-eight healthy infants were assigned to four groups, an own mother's breast milk odor group (Own MM), another mother's b...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Neuroscience research 2009, Vol.63 (1), p.66-71
Main Authors: Nishitani, Shota, Miyamura, Tsunetake, Tagawa, Masato, Sumi, Muneichiro, Takase, Ryuta, Doi, Hirokazu, Moriuchi, Hiroyuki, Shinohara, Kazuyuki
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anxiety - physiopathology
Anxiety - psychology
Behavior
Breast Feeding - psychology
Crying - physiology
Crying - psychology
Facial Expression
Female
Humans
Hydrocortisone - antagonists & inhibitors
Hydrocortisone - metabolism
Infant Behavior - physiology
Infant Behavior - psychology
Infant, Newborn
Male
Milk odors
Milk, Human - chemistry
Milk, Human - physiology
Mother-Child Relations
Newborns
Odorants
Olfaction
Pain - physiopathology
Pain - psychology
Pain Measurement
Pain relief
Smell - physiology
Stress
Stress, Psychological - physiopathology
Stress, Psychological - psychology
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Summary:We examined the effects of the odors from mother's milk, other mother's milk and formula milk on pain responses in newborns undergoing routine heelsticks. Forty-eight healthy infants were assigned to four groups, an own mother's breast milk odor group (Own MM), another mother's breast milk odor group (Other MM), a formula milk odor group (Formula M) and a control group. To assess infant distress in response to the heelsticks, their crying, grimacing and motor activities were recorded during the experiment as behavioral indices of the pain response. After the heelstick, the behavioral indices of the Own MM group were lower than those of other groups. By contrast, the Other MM and Formula M groups showed no significant changes compared with the Control group. We also measured salivary cortisol concentration as a biochemical index in Control and Own MM infants before and after heelstick. After the heelstick, the level of salivary cortisol was significantly increased in Control infants, but not in Own MM infants. These results suggest that pain is relieved in human newborns when they are exposed to odors from their mother's milk.
ISSN:0168-0102
1872-8111
DOI:10.1016/j.neures.2008.10.007