Human Milk Studies

There have been few detailed and extended observations on the milk of individual women. Knowledge concerning the physiologic changes experienced by woman throughout lactation and the limits of variation in the quantity of the different nutrients in the milk and their significance in the nutritional welfare of the infant is still incomplete. The difficulties involved in such investigations explain the fragmentary nature of observations in this field. The interest and cooperation of three women who secreted sufficient milk to meet the demands of both their infants and the laboratory studies have made it possible for us to make continuous detailed observations on the chemical constituents of breast milk over an extended interval of time. We have attempted to gain further information on the modus operandi of milk secretion through detailed dietary, emotional and physiologic observations on these three subjects, conducting our studies under standardized procedures of milk sampling and analysis.