When a nursing mother develops an infection, the woman worries whether bacteria will get into her breast milk. Can a milk sterility test help in this case and how is it carried out?

What is this?

Breast milk can be tested in a laboratory to determine the amount of bacteria in it. Also, such an analysis is aimed at determining which antimicrobial agents Pathological microorganisms cultured from milk are sensitive to bacteriophages.

Causes

A nursing mother should be especially careful about her breasts, since very often mastitis forms after childbirth

Why do the analysis?

The study is very important for women who have developed this postpartum complication like mastitis. Initial stages of this disease, called infiltrative and serous forms, can quickly turn into purulent form, which poses a danger to the nursing mother, as well as to the baby.

Main pathogens this complication are staphylococci, enterobacteria, streptococci, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and others. They are often resistant to a number of antibacterial agents, therefore, simultaneously with identifying the bacteria that cause mastitis, it is important to find out the sensitivity of microorganisms to therapeutic agents.

Culture of milk for sterility

Using this analysis, microorganisms and fungi in human milk are identified, and their quantity is determined. It is important to carry out milk analysis before appointment antibacterial treatment, and are also recommended to repeat after the treatment is completed.

Milk culture for sterility is necessary to identify dangerous microorganisms in its composition

Preparation

Milk from different mammary glands submitted for analysis separately. It is best to collect it in sterile containers, which are provided by the laboratory that tests milk for sterility.

Before expressing a milk sample, the breasts and hands should be washed with soap, and then the mammary glands in the area around the nipple should be wiped with cotton swabs and alcohol (a separate swab for each breast). The first 5-10 ml of milk obtained from the breast is not taken for analysis, so it should be expressed separately and discarded.

Next, 5-10 ml of milk from each breast is collected in two sterile containers, tightly closed with lids and labeled, indicating not only the woman’s last name and date of birth, but also from which breast the analysis was taken.

Before sending the milk to the laboratory, it can be kept at home in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. However, it is best to bring the milk sample containers to the laboratory within two hours of expressing.

How is the analysis carried out?

To determine sterility breast milk, the provided samples are sown on a special nutrient medium. The inoculated medium is placed in an incubator and colonies of microorganisms are waited for to appear. These colonies are counted and the number of bacteria in human milk is determined.

Colonies are counted only for Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, coli and other representatives of pathological flora. Milk contamination can be non-massive, as well as with massive growth - more than 250 CFU/ml. The interpretation of the results is given by the doctor, taking into account clinical data.

Expressed milk is analyzed for the presence of pathological microorganisms.

Is sterility accurately determined?

Although this analysis is very popular, but the principles of evidence-based medicine indicate that its results do not have much value without taking into account the clinical picture. It is also bad that it is often a reason for prescribing antibiotics to a woman and child, which could have been avoided. Normally, breast milk is not sterile, because it is excreted on the surface of the skin, which is inhabited even by healthy women different types microbes And their passage into breast milk is not at all surprising. So, it is impossible to prescribe antibiotics to a nursing mother based on the deciphering of such a sterility test.

The results of the analysis can confirm the presence of the disease if the nursing mother has other symptoms of infection - redness of the breast, intense pain in the mammary gland, elevated temperature bodies. In other cases, the determination of bacteria in human milk is not important criterion and should not be carried out.

What to do if staphylococci or other microbes are found?

There is no need to worry that microorganisms found in breast milk will cause dysbiosis in the baby. The change in the ratio of bacteria inside the baby’s intestines is in no way related to the ingestion of microbes with food, since they are destroyed in the stomach under the influence of of hydrochloric acid. Studies have confirmed that microorganisms from human milk do not enter the baby's stool. In addition, all the bacteria found in mother's milk are also in large quantities on other objects that surround the baby. And trying to eliminate bacteria in milk to protect the baby is pointless.

There is no need to interrupt breastfeeding due to the detection of bacteria in milk. Along with the milk, the baby receives special factors against these bacteria (including antibodies). It is also not recommended to boil human milk so that the microbes in it are destroyed, because milk is made from female breast loses after boiling significant amount useful properties.

So, if the mother does not have signs of mastitis, then the detection of microbes in milk should not be the reason for prescribing treatment. Children should also not be treated.

Sterile milk is an ideal food for a newborn. But even such food sometimes gets harmful bacteria and infections. Some bacteria are safe and will not harm the baby or mother, especially if in a nursing woman strong immunity. Antibodies block harmful substances and stop reproduction.

However, after childbirth, a woman loses a lot useful vitamins and elements, the immune system weakens and the body cannot cope with the load. In this case, bacteria quickly multiply and spread, causing infections and leading to complications.

To find out about the presence of bacteria, a nursing mother can have her breast milk tested. This will protect the woman and baby and prevent illness. In addition, there are a number of cases when it is mandatory to take a breast milk test.

When is the analysis done?

• Purulent mastitis in a nursing woman;
• Recurrent mastitis in the mother during lactation;
• Inflammation and pain in the chest, purulent discharge from nipples;
• Disruption of digestion and nutrition in infants for no apparent reason;
• Negative and unstable stool in an infant during the first two months of life. If there are admixtures of blood and mucus, and the feces themselves dark green. Read what a baby's stool should be like;
• Constant colic in infants, constipation or diarrhea. At the same time, the baby does not gain or even lose weight. You can find out about the weight norms for a newborn up to one year in;
• The baby developed pustules and blisters on his body.

How to collect milk for analysis

To get reliable results, you need to perform a number of steps. First of all, you need to prepare the dishes. To collect milk, take two jars or test tubes, which must be disinfected! To do this, rinse the container with soda, rinse in running water and boil for 30-40 minutes. In addition, you can take special sterile tubes directly to the laboratory where breast milk is analyzed.

Wash your hands and breasts thoroughly before pumping. Wash your chest with liquid neutral soap and dry with a napkin. Towels and regular soap irritate the nipples, which leads to cracks and abrasions! Wipe the nipples and areola with a 70% alcohol solution. The “” section will tell you how to express milk correctly. Skip the first 10 ml and only then express it into a container.

It is important to express milk from each breast into a separate jar! Label the jars. where is the milk from right breast, and where from the left. For analysis, it is enough to collect 5-10 ml of milk from each breast. The milk must be delivered to the laboratory within three hours! You need to wait about a week for the result.

results

Often, a mother’s fears are unfounded, and digestive disorders are associated with other problems. For example, with poor nutrition a nursing woman or a baby may be allergic to the product. And colic in a newborn is a temporary phenomenon that is typical for 80-90% of babies. They do not mean at all that harmful microorganisms have settled in breast milk.

Sometimes breast milk is tested for sterility and shows the presence of bacteria. However, not all substances are harmful to mother and baby. Antibodies in breast milk block germs, protect the baby and build immunity in the baby.

The most common bacteria are staphylococci. They form on the skin, mucous membranes and in the intestines. They enter breast milk through cracks and wounds on the nipples. Antibodies also neutralize staphylococcus. However, with a weakened immune system, harmful bacteria can spread throughout the body.

Bad analysis: what to do

These diseases can be treated and do not even require interruption breastfeeding. Breastfeeding should only be interrupted when purulent mastitis And long-term treatment using drugs that are incompatible with lactation.

Prevention of infections

The main cause of infections is cracks and abrasions on the nipples. To avoid the appearance of wounds, it is necessary to carefully monitor the hygiene and condition of the breast. For prevention, use the following methods:

• Wash your nipples with neutral liquid soap and dry with a paper towel or napkin;
• Choose the right bra when breastfeeding. Bones and fabric should not rub delicate skin nipples;
• Lubricate nipples with vegetable or olive oil;
• Solutions of vitamins A and E are well suited for the prevention of wounds and cracks. They protect and restore skin covering, improve skin elasticity. Purelan ointment is also suitable as a preventive measure;
• If cracks have already appeared, use special ointments for the treatment of nipples during breastfeeding. Videstim and Bepanten are effective and safe. If you use furatsilin solution, be sure to wash off the mixture before feeding!;
• Massage your breasts using circular movements clockwise for 2-4 minutes a day;
• Take a warm shower morning and evening. By the way, massage can be done while showering;
• Compresses made from cabbage leaves relieve chest pain. To enhance and facilitate lactation, use warm compress before feeding, and cool after;
• Make sure that the baby grasps both the nipple and the areola!;
• Monitor your breasts carefully. If lumps appear, milk stagnation or pus discharge from the nipples, consult a doctor! Even the usual stagnation of milk (lactostasis) and microcracks that are not noticeable to the eye, in the absence proper treatment, lead to complications and serious illnesses;
• In case of lactostasis, mastitis and other breast problems, it is necessary to undergo a breast milk test.

Plays an important role in the baby's health proper nutrition nursing mother. .Dishes containing vitamins and useful elements will help a woman recover faster after childbirth and strengthen her immune system, which is important when fighting harmful microbes.

It is recommended to breastfeed a newborn baby, because breast milk promotes the rapid development of the baby. However, even it can contain harmful bacteria that affect the child’s health. Testing breast milk for sterility is a process that is currently in high demand. After all, if an infection is detected in the mother, it can be transmitted to the child. You can get tested, for example, at medical center"Invitro".

Benefits of Breastfeeding

The peculiarity of breast milk is that when it enters the baby’s body, it provides him with all necessary components, promoting the full growth and development of the baby.

In addition, they are transmitted biologically from mother to child. active substances, performing a protective function. Breast milk contains components that protect the intestines from inflammation and reduce the likelihood of bacterial development.

And the longer the mother breastfeeds the baby, the more protected he will be from the influence of negative factors. Doctors recommend stopping breastfeeding if a woman has infectious mastitis. When the disease proceeds without the formation of pus, breastfeeding can be continued. To detect whether there are infections in the milk, a special analysis is carried out. It can be taken at the Invitro clinic or at another institution recommended by the attending physician.

How to prepare for the test?

Before donating breast milk for analysis at the Invitro center, you need to be well prepared. To achieve this, a number of hygiene procedures are carried out:

• Hands and chest are washed thoroughly laundry soap. Then the woman wipes them with a soft, washed towel or alcohol wipes.
• The nipple is treated with a solution based on alcohol and water or hydrogen peroxide.
• You must purchase two sterile test tubes from the pharmacy in advance. At the Invitro clinic they are given directly to the laboratory. Milk from each breast is expressed into a separate tube. Please note that the first portion of milk is not suitable for analysis, so it can be expressed into another container.
• The material must be collected no earlier than 2 hours before breast milk is analyzed at the private clinic “Invitro”. Otherwise, the results of the study may not be entirely accurate.
• Jars of milk are labeled with the numbers 1 and 2 so that you know which material is from which breast.

At the Invitro clinic, the results of the examination will be known in exactly a week. It will not be possible to find out the result faster, since bacteria need time to reproduce. Ensuring complete sterility of test tubes at home is not easy. To do this, they are washed with a soda solution and boiled for 40 minutes. If you take the material for analysis directly in the hospital, such manipulations are not required.

The medical center "Invitro" conducts comprehensive analysis breast milk. Not only the presence of bacteria is determined, but also their quantity, as well as resistance to the effects of various medicines. Due to this, after the analysis, an Invitro employee will be able to select the most suitable method treatment of the disease.

Staphylococcus test

After submitting the material for analysis, specialists begin searching for harmful microorganisms in it. At the same time, a number of studies are being carried out to determine which microbes are present in it and whether they exist at all. Invitro employees check milk for the presence of the following bacteria: staphylococcus, coli and others.

As a rule, harmful microbes enter milk through microcracks in the nipple. If a woman has large cracks and they cause painful sensations, she must have her breast milk tested for antibodies. Microcracks often do not cause discomfort for a nursing mother, but they appear in almost every woman who puts a baby to her breast.

In general, if the mother’s immunity is not weakened, then staphylococcus does not infect breast milk. But if a woman has suffered infection, then the problem will most likely appear. It is recommended to carry out treatment and diagnosis at the Invitro clinic, where only qualified employees work.

If Staphylococcus aureus appears in the baby’s body, a number of unpleasant symptoms. In particular, the child’s digestion will be disrupted. He will diarrhea, he will vomit and vomit. The baby will become restless and start crying often. Pimples with pus inside will appear on his skin. Staphylococcal tonsillitis is often observed in children. The child urgently needs to be shown to a pediatrician from the Invitro clinic, otherwise there is a possibility of developing sinusitis or otitis media.

Treatment

When a woman experiences pain in the nipple area, she urgently needs to be tested for the sterility of her milk. Such an examination can be carried out at any time without a doctor’s prescription. The doors of the Invitro clinic are open to everyone. You can view the results and prescribe treatment right here. The advantage of the private hospital "Invitro" is obvious: here each patient is treated carefully, delving into the essence of the problem.

If a woman does not have mastitis, her doctor will prescribe her a course of treatment based on anti-inflammatory drugs. The baby is prescribed lactobacilli to reduce the likelihood of dysbacteriosis. A gastroenterologist prescribes herbal antiseptics to a woman. Antibiotics are used in as a last resort. After all, the mother will have to stop breastfeeding, since antibiotics will get into children's body undesirable.

Doctor from private clinic Invitro can recommend medications to a woman that will not affect lactation in any way. In general, it is not recommended to stop breastfeeding after microbes are detected in milk during a sterility test. After all, it is quite possible to combine treatment and lactation.

Preventive measures

To avoid problems with the quality of breast milk, you must adhere to a number of rules:

• If cracks appear in the nipple area, they should not be used. More attention needs to be paid to breast hygiene. It is washed with laundry or baby soap, wiping the top with sterile napkins. It is not recommended to use a hard towel, as it can cause cracks to become even more pronounced.
• A woman should pay special attention to her diet. Microbes love a sweet environment, so a nursing mother should consume industrial sugar to a minimum. It is better that it enters the body from fresh fruits and juices.
• For prevention, nipples are lubricated with solutions of vitamins A and E, which can be purchased at the pharmacy. Under their influence, the skin becomes more elastic, so that cracks do not form.

Breast milk is the main protector of the infant body. Pathogenic microorganisms must not be allowed to appear in it. It is recommended to carry out an analysis at the Invitro clinic every month so that the child always remains healthy. Although research conducted by scientists has shown that bacteria that enter the baby’s intestines along with milk are absent in the feces.

Contents:

When can the presence of microbes in milk be a sign of illness?

The presence of various microbes in breast milk should be considered a sign of illness only if the woman who took the test also has other signs of infection (mastitis): fever, strong pain in the chest, redness and inflammation of the chest. In all other cases, the determination of microbes in milk should not be carried out, and if it was carried out and revealed the presence of microbes in breast milk, it should be considered a completely normal phenomenon.

What should I do if I have staphylococci or other microbes in my breast milk? Is it necessary to stop breastfeeding?

Under no circumstances should breastfeeding be interrupted if microbes are detected in breast milk! In the body of healthy women, the development of these microbes is inhibited by work immune system, which produces special factors that inhibit the development of microbes. These factors (for example, IgA antibodies) are also present in the milk itself. Consequently, children who drink mother's milk, along with the milk, also acquire protection against these microbes.

It is also impossible to boil breast milk in order to destroy the microbes present in it. Mother's milk is a unique living product, which loses most of its beneficial properties when boiled.

What treatment is necessary for the presence of staphylococcus or other microbes in breast milk?

In the case of healthy women without any signs of mastitis, treatment if any amount of microbes is detected in breast milk is completely useless and even dangerous.

There is also no need to treat children.

If a child has any symptoms that are allegedly associated with his “infection through mother’s milk”, this theory should be completely rejected and find real reasons diseases.

Description

Material under study Breast milk

Home visit available

Determination of contamination of mother's milk and rationale for the choice of antibiotics.

The study is especially necessary for women suffering from postpartum (lactation) mastitis. Exactly this common complication after childbirth. It is extremely dangerous that its initial forms, serous and infiltrative, can quickly turn into a purulent form, even gangrenous.

The main pathogen is Staphylococcus aureus, which is characterized by high virulence and resistance to many antibacterial drugs. No less dangerous are Staphylococcus epidermidis, Streptococcus, Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, etc. All of them are characterized by high virulence and multiresistance to antibiotics. That's why precise definition pathogen and its sensitivity to antibiotics are extremely important.

This is due to the fact that, regardless of the pathogen clinical picture almost identical: usually at 2 - 4 weeks postpartum period The temperature quickly rises to 38 - 39 degrees, chills occur. Mastitis often turns into a purulent form after 2 - 4 days.

If breastfeeding continues, infected mother's milk and especially necessary antibiotic therapy can have an adverse effect on the newborn (dysbacteriosis).

We draw your attention to the need to purchase a sterile container for collecting urine and other biological fluids, which must be purchased in advance at any INVITRO medical office with a deposit. Deposit funds are returned upon completion of the analysis and subject to a receipt for the deposit.

Literature

1. Guidelines on bacteriological control of breast milk. Main Directorate of Treatment and Preventive Care for Children and Mothers. USSR Ministry of Health, 1984
2. Medical microbiology, virology and immunology: Textbook / Ed. A.A. Vorobyova. - M.: Medical Information Agency, 2004. - 691 p.

Preparation

The study is carried out before antibiotics are prescribed for mastitis and a few days after the end of treatment. Milk from the right and left mammary glands is examined separately. Before expressing, hands and mammary glands are treated with soap, nipples and the area around the nipple with 70% alcohol (each gland is treated with a separate tampon). The initial portion (5 - 10 ml) is not used for analysis; it is decanted into a separate container and poured out.

Indications for use

• Mastitis in nursing women.
• Monitoring the effectiveness of antibacterial therapy.
• Dysbacteriosis in breastfed and mixed-fed children.

Interpretation of results

Interpretation of research results contains information for the attending physician and is not a diagnosis. The information in this section should not be used for self-diagnosis or self-treatment. The doctor makes an accurate diagnosis using both the results of this examination and necessary information from other sources: medical history, results of other examinations, etc.

The presence or absence of growth, general contamination, type of grown microorganisms, sensitivity to antimicrobial drugs and bacteriophages.

The choice of AMP is determined by the type of pathogens identified; the lists can be found

The choice of bacteriophages is determined by the type of pathogens identified; the lists can be found

Determination of sensitivity is possible only if microbes are identified for which the industrial production of bacteriophages has been established.

Interpretation: normal - no growth. When contaminated with accompanying flora, 1 or more types of bacteria are isolated in low titer (most often it is S. epidermidis). Etiologically significant are considered Staphylococcus aureus, coliform bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The total contamination is indicated as follows:

Massive growth: if the bacterial growth in breast milk is more than 250 CFU/ml;

Non-massive growth: If the bacterial growth in breast milk is less than 250 CFU/ml.

The question of stopping breastfeeding is decided by the attending physician, based on test results and existing signs of the disease.