The impact of irrigation on different methods of breast milk in mothers of low birth weight infants, in ICU unit of Imam Reza Hospital

Introduction: Breast milk health is one of the most salient elements in feeding of premature infants. Generally in initial of breast feeding, different methods of disinfecting such as irrigation with usual detergents like water and soap are used to eliminate the probable bacteria.  The necessity  of  the  usage  of  such  items  has  not  been  mentioned  in  some  studies, and  even at the time of comparison, different  results  have  been  obtained. Therefore we decided to study the importance of irrigation method in different ways of breast milk, whether manually or by pump, before and after irrigation, on mothers of low birth weight infants. Method: This study is a kind of controlled and by chance trial which evaluates the results  of  samples  collected  from breasts of mothers  of  low  birth  weight  infants.  Sampling from breasts of these mothers was  done on the  basis of  two  ways: Manual with & without  irrigation, pump expression  with  &  without  irrigation. Every sample was collected  in  a  sterile container, and  these  containers  were  sent  to  microbial  laboratory  as  soon  as  possible. Then in that place culture was done from every sample.  If  after  24  hours,  there  was  no  bacteria  in plates  , the  plates  were  incubated  again  for  another  24  hours. And after  48  hours  if  there  was  no  growth  of  bacteria, negative result was recorded.  After gathering the data, they were analyzed by statistical spss software. Results: The results showed that the separated bacteria in samples collected manually, with & without irrigation, were consisted of: Staphylococcus-coagulase negative, Staphyloccus aureus, Enterococcus spp, Klebsiella pneumonia. In one sample of without irrigation and four samples of with irrigation, lack of growth of bacteria was observed. In pump expression samples, with & without irrigation, the separated bacteria were consisted of: Staphylococcus-coagulase negative, Staphyloccus aureus, Enterococcus spp, Klebsiella pneumonia, Enterobacter and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Among the samples, in three samples of without irrigation and two samples of with irrigation, lack of growth of bacteria was observed. Conclusion: The results and surveys showed that bacteria load in pump samples were much more than manual samples. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is the creation of a biofilm which is resistant against irrigation in the pump. The pump device also may follow completely the infecting rule and their disinfections.