When a breastfeeding mother develops an infection, the woman is worried if bacteria will get into breast milk. Can sterility analysis of milk help in this case and how is it done?
What is it?
Breast milk can be tested in a laboratory to determine the number of bacteria in it. Also, such an analysis is aimed at determining to which antimicrobial agents and bacteriophages pathological microorganisms sown from milk are sensitive.
Causes
It is necessary to take a milk test for sterility if:
- The breastfeeding woman developed mastitis.
- It is necessary to monitor the effectiveness of antibiotic treatment.
- There is a prolonged diarrhea in a child up to 2 months, which is combined with insufficient weight gain.
Why is the analysis done?
The study is very important for women who develop a postpartum complication such as mastitis. The initial stages of this disease, called infiltrative and serous forms, can quickly turn into a purulent form, which poses a danger to a nursing mother, as well as to a baby.
The main causative agents of this complication are staphylococci, enterobacteria, streptococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and others. They are often resistant to a number of antibacterial agents, therefore, simultaneously with the identification of bacteria that caused mastitis, it is important to know the sensitivity of microorganisms to medicinal agents.
Sowing milk for sterility
With the help of this analysis, microorganisms and fungi in human milk are detected, and their quantity is also determined. It is important to analyze milk before prescribing antibacterial treatment, and it is also recommended to repeat it after the treatment is over.
Training
Milk from different mammary glands is taken for analysis separately. It is best to collect it in sterile containers, which are issued in a laboratory that tests milk for sterility.
Before expressing a milk sample, wash your breasts and hands with soap and then wipe the mammary glands in the areola area with alcohol cotton swabs (a separate swab for each breast). The first 5-10 ml of milk taken from the breast is not taken for analysis, so they should be expressed separately and discarded.
Next, 5-10 ml of milk from each breast is collected in two sterile containers, tightly closed with lids and marked, indicating not only the woman's surname and date of birth, but also from which breast the analysis was taken.
Before sending milk to the laboratory, it can be kept at home in a refrigerator for up to 24 hours. However, it is best to bring containers of milk samples to the laboratory within two hours of expressing.
How is the analysis done?
To determine the sterility of breast milk, the provided samples are plated on a special culture medium. The inoculated medium is placed in an incubator and the appearance of colonies of microorganisms is awaited. These colonies are counted and the number of bacteria in human milk is determined.
Colonies are counted only for Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and other representatives of the pathological flora. Milk seeding can be non-massive, as well as with massive growth - more than 250 CFU / ml. The interpretation of the results is given by the doctor, taking into account the clinical data.
Is sterility accurately determined?
Although this analysis is very popular, the principles of evidence-based medicine indicate that its results are not of great value without taking into account the clinical picture. It is also bad that it is often a reason for prescribing antibiotics for a woman and a child, which could have been avoided. Normally, breast milk is not sterile, because it is excreted on the surface of the skin, inhabited even in healthy women by different types of microbes. And their ingestion into breast milk is not surprising at all. So only by decoding such an analysis for sterility, it is impossible to prescribe antibiotics to a nursing mother.
The results of the analysis can confirm the presence of the disease if the nursing mother has other symptoms of infection - reddening of the breast, intense pain in the mammary gland, increased body temperature. In other cases, the determination of bacteria in human milk is not an important criterion and should not be carried out.
What to do if staphylococci or other microbes are found?
It is not worth worrying that microorganisms found in breast milk will cause dysbiosis in an infant. The change in the ratio of bacteria inside the intestines of the baby is in no way connected with the ingress of microbes with food, since they are destroyed in the stomach by the action of hydrochloric acid. Studies have confirmed that microorganisms from human milk do not enter the baby's feces. In addition, all the bacteria found in mother's milk are also abundant on other objects that surround the baby. And trying to eliminate bacteria in milk in order to protect the baby is pointless.
There is no need to interrupt breastfeeding due to the detection of bacteria in milk. Along with milk, the baby receives special factors against these bacteria (including antibodies). It is also not recommended to boil human milk so that microbes are destroyed in it, because milk from a woman's breast after boiling loses a significant amount of useful properties.
So, if the mother does not have signs of mastitis, then the detection of microbes in milk should not be the reason for the appointment of treatment. Children should not be treated either.
