Human Milk, Nutrition, Growth, and Breastfeeding (Hummingbird)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Human Milk, Nutrition, Growth, and Breastfeeding Rates at Discharge: The Hummingbird Study
IRAS ID
281071
Contact name
Nicholas D Embleton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN57339063
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 8 months, 1 days
Research summary
This is a non-blinded, randomised trial exploring two currently used diets in preterm infants which both involve fully supporting mothers to provide their own breast milk and standard use of donor human milk to make up any shortfall in mothers' breast milk supply. The primary outcome is breastfeeding at discharge. Mothers will be approached by the clinical team and infants enrolled after signed informed consent. Infants do not undergo any additional interventions or tests, and all data used are routinely collected. Mothers will complete short questionnaires and a subset invited to take part in qualitative interviews. The intervention finishes at hospital discharge, but up to two telephone calls post-discharge will be made to ascertain duration of prolonged breastfeeding.
The study compare diets routinely used in neonatal units in UK by comparing the use of DHM to make up any shortfall until full feeds (control) to that of using DHM for a longer duration up to the pre-discharge period (intervention).
There are no changes to the patient journey except for the duration of donor milk use. Most babies get good amounts of their own mother's milk over first few weeks but the amount typically decreases over time. Almost all babies will likely receive at least small amounts of donor milk until around day 10. After that, half the babies will continue to receive some donor milk if they are in the intervention arm for another 1-4 weeks on average; whereas in the control arm they receive standard care which is to use a preterm formula milk. There are no obvious risks or ethical issues.
REC name
East Midlands - Nottingham 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
21/EM/0041
Date of REC Opinion
25 Feb 2021
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion