Explorer Grants provide seed support for researchers with transformative, innovative, exploratory or unconventional research ideas that have a good chance of making a revolutionary change to how we manage health in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Dr Jin’s project will explore an innovative approach to expressing and feeding vulnerable infants with time-matched donor human milk (DHM). This means, for example, during morning feeding, infants will be given DHM expressed in the morning.
New Zealand human milk banks currently batch DHM expressed at different times of day together for pasteurisation, aggregating away from the circadian rhythm in human milk. Some evidence shows that feeding mis-timed human milk may increase the risk of late sleep problems and later life obesity.
If effective, the research could change current milk banking practices and improve preterm infant wellbeing.
“A low-cost intervention of labelling DHM with the time of expression, processing it accordingly and then feeding time-matched pasteurised DHM may help preterm infants develop their circadian rhythms, which would improve sleep, and may shorten their hospital stay and promote growth,” Dr Jin explains.
This transformative research will support the local community and build connections with Palmerston North Hospital and Whāngai Ora Milk Bank, generating collaborative networks for further DHM research to promote maternal and infant health.
Dr Jin says the grant will provide her with the opportunity to establish a maternal and child health track record with interdisciplinary support from multiple investigators, including Massey’s Dr Linda Murray, Professor Lisa Te Morenga and Associate Professor Louise Brough, and Dr Lauren Booker of La Trobe University, Australia.
Read more about the 2024 Explorer Grants here.
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