NIH

It has been suggested that stress interferes with lactation. However, little attention has focused on the correlation between maternal stress level, as measured psychologically and hormonally, and lactation performance. As mother's milk offers benefits that cannot be replicated by formulas, it is reasoned that improving lactation by modulating maternal stress level may be of great benefit to the infant. This is particularly important for mothers with hospitalized infants. Potential stressors that mothers experience may include their own physical condition, psychological state such as anxiety and/or depression, their infant's condition, their perceived or actual family support environment.

It is hypothesized that the stress level of mothers with hospitalized infant is negatively correlated with lactation. Thus decreasing postpartum stress wil be beneficial as their lactation performance will be enhanced. More specifically, the objective of this study is to investigate the extent to which stress level of the nursing mother can interfere with decreased milk secretion.

Questionnaire/survey/interview

No expected risk or discomfort is expected. Mothers who want to provide milk for their infant need to pump whether they participate in the study or not. The scores of maternal stress tests are not given to the subjects.There may be a slight risk that answering these questionnaires would be stressful to the subjects.

The subjects are not expected to benefit from participating in this study.