Fueling VLBW Infants: Making Sense of Maternal vs Donor Human Milk
Miami Neonatology 2025—49th Annual International Conference

This education is about:

• Differences in nutrient composition and bioactive properties between preterm maternal milk and donor milk
• Processing and pasteurization effects on human milk
• Nutritional gaps with unfortified human milk in preterm infants
• Human milk fortification strategies
• Timing and duration of human milk fortification

Why it matters:

Preterm infants have high nutritional demands that cannot be met by human milk alone. This activity equips neonatal clinicians with evidence-based insights to differentiate the composition of maternal and donor milk, recognize macronutrient gaps, and optimize fortification strategies to support growth, safety, and individualized nutritional care in VLBW infants.

What will you learn:

This activity reviews contemporary evidence on the use of maternal and donor human milk in the nutritional management of preterm infants. Learners explore how milk source, lactation stage, processing, and maternal factors influence nutrient composition and growth outcomes. Dr. Stansfield’s presentation integrates the results of recent studies and guideline recommendations to illustrate practical decision points for fortification, including protein targets, timing of initiation, and fortifier selection. Emphasis is placed on individualized fortification strategies that optimize growth while preserving the benefits of human milk by avoiding maternal milk displacement.

Faculty

• Profile

  Brian K. Stansfield, MD

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  Brian K. Stansfield, MD, is vice chair for research and an associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Augusta University in Georgia. He completed his residency in pediatrics at Children’s Hospital of Georgia, followed by a fellowship in neonatal-perinatal medicine and a postdoctoral pediatric research fellowship at Indiana University.

  Dr. Stansfield’s research on early life growth is robust and includes factors affecting human milk composition, human milk fortification, and the effects of prematurity and other neonatal factors on adult diseases. Dr. Stansfield has published more than 100 journal articles, abstracts and book chapters on these and other topics related to neonatology, pediatrics, and biochemistry.

  At Augusta University, Dr. Stansfield’s academic responsibilities encompass curriculum development in neonatal physiology, research study design, and professional development. He serves as a section editor on the editorial board of Pediatric Research, as a reviewer for the Journal of Perinatology and Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences, and an ad hoc reviewer for numerous other medical journals.

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  Brian K. Stansfield, MD

  Associate Professor and Vice Chair of Research
  Department of Pediatrics
  Member, Vascular Biology Center
  Medical College of Georgia
  Augusta University
  Augusta, Georgia