The important role of deep attachment in the uniform drainage of breast milk from mammary lobe.

Aim: To determine if the degree of attachment affects uniformity in the drainage of breast milk from mammary lobe during breastfeeding.
Methods: Thirty-seven pairs of healthy breast-fed infants and mothers were the subjects. A total of 48 measurements were obtained. Foremilk was obtained from three nipple openings. After the breastfeeding session, hindmilk was sampled from the same three nipple openings and creamatocrit (CrCt) was measured. The difference in CrCt values of hindmilk, which corresponds to the degree of emptying of the lobe, and the difference in CrCt values between fore- and hindmilk samples (delta CrCt), which corresponds to the change in the degree of emptying among the lobe were calculated.
Results: The maximum difference in the CrCt value of hindmilk samples among nipple ducts was 7.0 +/- 4.1% in the shallow attachment (S) group (n = 23) and 2.9 +/- 1.2% in the deep attachment (D) group (n = 25) in the left breast and 5.4 +/- 2.2% in the S group (n = 21) and 3.6 +/- 1.9% in the D group (n = 27) in the right breast. The mean maximum difference in delta CrCt values among nipple ducts was 7.6 +/- 2.9% and 2.6 +/- 1.3% in the left and 5.8 +/- 2.3% and 3.4 +/- 1.4% in the right breast, in the S group and D group, respectively. These differences were significantly smaller in the D group than the S group (p < 0.01).
Conclusion: The results revealed that deep attachment is helpful in draining milk from all mammary lobe uniformly, which may contribute to successful breastfeeding.