Mother's breast milk supplemented with donor milk reduces hospital and health service usage costs in low-birthweight infants.

Objective: to compare hospital and health service usage costs of feeding low-birthweight (LBW) infants predominantly with their mother's milk, supplemented with donor milk, with donor milk and preterm formula.

Design: prospective matching study.

Setting: tertiary public perinatal centre, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and donor human milk bank.

Participants: 100LBW infants (Group I) fed predominantly with their mother's milk from the first hour of life, supplemented (mainly for the first week of life) with donor milk, were matched on a 1:1 basis with 100LBW infants (Group II) who were fed with donor milk for the first 3 weeks of life followed by preterm formula until hospital discharge. Individualised targeted fortification of human milk was implemented in both study groups.

Findings: the costs of hospitalisation, doctor visits and prescription drugs for viral infections until 8 months of age were calculated for each infant. Infants fed predominantly with their mother's milk had significantly shorter hospital stays and lower hospitalisation costs. In Group I infants, the duration of enteral gavage feeding was shorter, resulting in significantly lower costs. Up to 8 months of age, Group I infants experienced fewer episodes of viral infections, and the cost of each doctor visit and drug prescription was lower for these infants.

Conclusions: feeding LBW infants predominantly with their mother's milk reduces hospital and health service usage costs.

Implications For Practice: feeding LBW infants predominantly with their mother's milk, supplemented with donor milk, followed by exclusive breast feeding seems to result in potential savings in hospital and health service usage costs.