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Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?

Laura Galante Orcid Logo, Eriko Kobayashi Orcid Logo, Miyu Nishikawa

Maternal & Child Nutrition, Volume: 22, Issue: 1, Start page: e70153

Swansea University Author: Laura Galante Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1111/mcn.70153

Abstract

Despite lactation being a natural occurrence in mammals, many structural barriers and individual factors can impact the ability of a woman to breastfeed her newborn. At the individual level, evidence has widely documented several risk factors and societal barriers for impaired lactation, many of whi...

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Published in: Maternal & Child Nutrition
ISSN: 1740-8695 1740-8709
Published: Wiley 2026
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa71043
first_indexed 2025-12-01T14:31:17Z
last_indexed 2025-12-20T05:28:51Z
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spelling 2025-12-19T14:36:48.8714773 v2 71043 2025-12-01 Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand? d1c6c22f6a863ef2050ed9768566884b 0000-0002-6190-7955 Laura Galante Laura Galante true false 2025-12-01 MEDS Despite lactation being a natural occurrence in mammals, many structural barriers and individual factors can impact the ability of a woman to breastfeed her newborn. At the individual level, evidence has widely documented several risk factors and societal barriers for impaired lactation, many of which have been steeply increasing in human societies in the past few decades (e.g., psychosocial stress, metabolic disorders, births interventions, etc.). Yet the healthcare system worldwide does not seem to be prepared to support women facing such breastfeeding difficulties. Pregnant women are often provided with unrealistic expectations of how the breastfeeding experience should unfold, which can then translate into negative feelings when they encounter difficulties. In this context, the development of objective diagnostic tools able to help healthcare professionals and women identify breastfeeding difficulties that could then be treated accordingly would seem an ideal solution. Previous studies have tried to provide evidence for the use of milk compositional variations during early lactation as a tool to identify delayed secretory activation of the mammary gland, which often results in impaired lactation. However, despite portable technology for this purpose being successfully developed and/or validated, a consistent research gap remains around the true diagnostic power of such biomarkers in relation to clinically significant outcomes. This obstructs the development of effective diagnostic tools that could be employed in clinical practice to improve breastfeeding outcomes and breastfeeding rates. Journal Article Maternal & Child Nutrition 22 1 e70153 Wiley 1740-8695 1740-8709 breastfeeding difficulties, breastfeeding support, human milk, impaired lactation, lactation biomarkers, milk biomarkers, secretory activation 1 3 2026 2026-03-01 10.1111/mcn.70153 COLLEGE NANME Medical School COLLEGE CODE MEDS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2025-12-19T14:36:48.8714773 2025-12-01T14:29:21.2842901 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences Swansea University Medical School - Medicine Laura Galante 0000-0002-6190-7955 1 Eriko Kobayashi 0000-0002-7211-1194 2 Miyu Nishikawa 3 71043__35875__b982e0a493e44b20b1e12861dfdabea5.pdf 71043.VOR.pdf 2025-12-19T14:34:13.4898751 Output 412890 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?
spellingShingle Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?
Laura Galante
title_short Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?
title_full Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?
title_fullStr Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?
title_full_unstemmed Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?
title_sort Diagnosing Breastfeeding Difficulties: Where Do We Stand?
author_id_str_mv d1c6c22f6a863ef2050ed9768566884b
author_id_fullname_str_mv d1c6c22f6a863ef2050ed9768566884b_***_Laura Galante
author Laura Galante
author2 Laura Galante
Eriko Kobayashi
Miyu Nishikawa
format Journal article
container_title Maternal & Child Nutrition
container_volume 22
container_issue 1
container_start_page e70153
publishDate 2026
institution Swansea University
issn 1740-8695
1740-8709
doi_str_mv 10.1111/mcn.70153
publisher Wiley
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str Swansea University Medical School - Medicine{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Swansea University Medical School - Medicine
document_store_str 1
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description Despite lactation being a natural occurrence in mammals, many structural barriers and individual factors can impact the ability of a woman to breastfeed her newborn. At the individual level, evidence has widely documented several risk factors and societal barriers for impaired lactation, many of which have been steeply increasing in human societies in the past few decades (e.g., psychosocial stress, metabolic disorders, births interventions, etc.). Yet the healthcare system worldwide does not seem to be prepared to support women facing such breastfeeding difficulties. Pregnant women are often provided with unrealistic expectations of how the breastfeeding experience should unfold, which can then translate into negative feelings when they encounter difficulties. In this context, the development of objective diagnostic tools able to help healthcare professionals and women identify breastfeeding difficulties that could then be treated accordingly would seem an ideal solution. Previous studies have tried to provide evidence for the use of milk compositional variations during early lactation as a tool to identify delayed secretory activation of the mammary gland, which often results in impaired lactation. However, despite portable technology for this purpose being successfully developed and/or validated, a consistent research gap remains around the true diagnostic power of such biomarkers in relation to clinically significant outcomes. This obstructs the development of effective diagnostic tools that could be employed in clinical practice to improve breastfeeding outcomes and breastfeeding rates.
published_date 2026-03-01T05:34:17Z
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