What happens in the breast while breastfeeding?

Are you currently breastfeeding? If so, you can participate in a study on the breast during breastfeeding. For this study, we would like to scan the breast to observe how it changes before, during, and after pumping milk. We use two harmless and painless scanning methods for this: MRI and optical imaging with light.

We are also looking for women who are not breastfeeding and not pregnant to use as comparison for the scans. These women, of course, do not need to pump during the study.

What are we working on? 

Breastfeeding provides many health benefits for both mother and child. However, much is still unknown about how breastfeeding actually works, and many women experience difficulties with breastfeeding. That’s why we are researching what happens in the breast during the pumping of breast milk. Our goal is to understand why some mothers produce more milk than others. We are specifically looking at how the breast tissue changes through pumping, including blood flow and the amount of glandular tissue, and whether these changes are connected to the amount of milk produced.

What do we ask of you?

For this study, you’ll come to the University of Twente (located between Enschede and Hengelo) for a single visit. The study takes about 1.5 to 2 hours.

During the session, we’ll scan both breasts before and after pumping. We’ll also place a few sensors on the breast during pumping and measure the amount of milk expressed. The milk you pump can be taken home and remains safe to feed your baby.

For women who are not breastfeeding and participate in the control group, we’ll perform the same measurements. The only difference is that there’s no need to pump.

Who can participate and when? 

We are looking for two groups of women:

Group 1. Healthy, adult women (aged 18 to 45) who are breastfeeding. You gave birth between 1 and 12 months ago. At the time of the study, you are not experiencing any breastfeeding issues, such as nipple cracks or mastitis

Group 2. Healthy, adult women (aged 18 to 45) who are not breastfeeding and have not been pregnant or breastfed in the past 9 months.

Requirements for both groups:

• You are not pregnant.
• You have not had any breast surgeries, such as reconstruction, augmentation, or reduction.
• You do not have tattoos or piercings on your breasts.
• You do not have or have not had breast cancer.

This study will run from January 2024 to mid-2026.

Meet the researcher 

sign up

Thank you for your interest in signing up for the breastfeeding study. Please fill in your details below, and the researcher will contact you.

• Participation in scientific research is always voluntary. 
• When you sign up for a study, you will receive an automatic confirmation email. This email will inform you when to expect further contact from the researcher.
• The researcher will then reach out to provide more details about the study and answer any questions you may have.
• After speaking with the researcher, you can confirm whether you’d like to participate by completing a "Consent Form."
• Once you give your consent, you’ll receive a copy of the consent form.
• An ethics committee has reviewed this study and given a positive recommendation, meaning that the research is conducted with scientific rigor and in accordance with participants' rights.
• Your contact information will only be used as you have specified. We share this information solely with the researcher of the study in which you wish to participate. If you have indicated that you would like to stay informed about new research opportunities, you will receive updates no more than once per month. Should this frequency change, we will contact you first. Please read here for more information on how we handle personal data.