Breast Milk Receipt Rates Vary by Gestational Age in 2017 U.S. Birth Cohort

This observational analysis examined rates of breast milk receipt among infants delivered to residents of 48 states and the District of Columbia in 2017. The study categorized infants by gestational age: extremely preterm, early preterm, late preterm, and term. No specific intervention, exposure, or comparator was reported, and the sample size was not provided.

The main finding was a gradient in breast milk receipt rates by gestational age. The rate was 71.3% for extremely preterm infants, 76.0% for early preterm infants, 77.3% for late preterm infants, and 84.6% for term infants. No effect sizes, absolute numbers, p-values, or confidence intervals were reported for these percentages, limiting statistical interpretation. Safety, tolerability, and adverse event data were not reported.

Key limitations include the purely descriptive, cross-sectional nature of the data from a single year. The absence of sample size, statistical testing, and adjustment for potential confounders prevents any causal conclusions about why these disparities exist. Funding sources and conflicts of interest were not reported. For practice, this analysis descriptively documents a lower rate of breast milk receipt among preterm infants, particularly the most premature, but does not provide evidence to guide specific clinical interventions to address it.