Lay summary
Donor human milk (DHM) is recommended as the next best alternative if the mother’s milk is temporarily unavailable. In New Zealand, preterm infants are fed with pasteurised DHM (PDHM). It is mis-timed, since the current practice in milk banks is to combine DHM for pasturisation, regardless of the time of milk donation. This creates a mismatch between the time of DHM expression and the time of feeding. Evidence has shown that feeding mis-timed human milk may increase the risk of late sleep problems and the risk of being obese in later life. The proposed research will use a mixed method to explore the feasibility of using time-matched DHM and hypothesise that providing time-matched PDHM will improve infant sleep patterns, reduce the length of hospital stays, and support infant growth. If effective, this research will contribute to transforming current milk banking practices and ultimately improve the well-being of preterm infants.