Scientists may have found a surprisingly simple way to boost breast milk production

A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials exploring the effects of music on breastfeeding found that women who listened to music produced more breast milk both immediately and over time. Music also improved breast milk fat content and reduced participating mothers’ levels of the stress hormone cortisol. The paper was published in International Breastfeeding Journal.

Breastfeeding provides infants with nutrients tailored to their early development and antibodies that help protect them from infections. It is also associated with health benefits for mothers and can strengthen physical and emotional closeness between mother and child. However, successful breastfeeding depends on more than a mother’s motivation or knowledge, as lactation is a complex process deeply connected to maternal psychological health and emotional relaxation.

The infant’s ability to latch and suck effectively, the mother’s milk production, pain, illness, premature birth, and complications during delivery can all influence the process. Early skin-to-skin contact and skilled guidance from healthcare professionals can help establish breastfeeding and address problems before they lead to the discontinuation of breastfeeding.

Support from partners, relatives, employers, and the wider community is also important, especially when mothers are tired, uncertain, or returning to work. Cultural expectations, access to parental leave, opportunities to breastfeed, and exposure to infant formula marketing can further shape breastfeeding decisions and duration.

These physical and emotional challenges frequently trigger psychological stress, activating the body’s “fight-or-flight” response. This reaction elevates cortisol and adrenaline levels, which constrict blood vessels in the breasts and block the release of oxytocin, the essential hormone responsible for the neuroendocrine let-down, or milk ejection, reflex. Perceived insufficient milk supply often creates anxiety that further inhibits milk flow, while Postpartum Depression, which affects roughly 17 percent of mothers globally, can severely undermine a mother’s breastfeeding confidence and self-efficacy.

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Listening to music serves as a psychological relaxation tool, stimulating mood-regulating neurotransmitters like dopamine and serotonin. This shifts the nervous system into a “rest-and-digest” state, lowering cortisol and allowing oxytocin to facilitate milk release.

Study author Shalin Lee Wan Fei and her colleagues conducted their systematic review and meta-analysis aiming to integrate existing evidence on the effects of music on breastfeeding mothers with term and preterm infants. A systematic review comprehensively gathers all existing high-quality studies on a specific topic, while a meta-analysis mathematically combines their data to identify overall statistical trends.

The researchers were interested in how music affects objective breastfeeding metrics such as milk volume and breast milk composition, alongside psychological outcomes like maternal stress and anxiety. Maternal stress was assessed through salivary cortisol levels and the Perceived Stress Scale, a standardized psychological questionnaire, while anxiety was measured using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory.

These authors conducted a comprehensive search across four major electronic databases: Scopus, PubMed (MEDLINE), CINAHL (EBSCOhost), and Web of Science. For the search, they used combinations of keywords that included terms related to music interventions, such as music, music therapy, auditory stimulation, and lullaby, alongside breastfeeding terms like breastfeeding, lactation, breast milk, and postpartum.

They were looking for studies conducted on postpartum women who were breastfeeding that involved exposure to any form of music compared to standard care without music or silence. The studies needed to be experiments, specifically randomized controlled trials with quantitative outcomes. Qualitative studies, case reports, editorials, and conference abstracts were excluded from the analysis.

The search initially identified 429 studies matching the study authors’ keywords, but a more detailed inspection revealed only six studies that matched all their criteria. One of these studies was conducted in India, one in the USA, one in Iran, one in Turkey, one in Brazil, and one in Thailand. The number of breastfeeding mothers participating in each study ranged between 30 in India and 304 in Thailand, totaling 696 participants across all trials.

The meta-analysis of the results of these studies indicated that music increased breast milk volume, both immediately and cumulatively over time. Music also improved breast milk fat content, as psychological relaxation helped mothers achieve a more complete let-down reflex that thoroughly emptied the breast, yielding milk with higher lipid concentration. Additionally, music consistently lowered maternal stress levels, as indicated by reduced concentrations of salivary cortisol.

The review also highlighted long-term and multi-sensory benefits beyond immediate milk yield. One included trial demonstrated that mothers who received music therapy maintained significantly higher exclusive breastfeeding rates 15 to 60 days after hospital discharge. Another study found that combining soothing music with a visual cue, such as looking at a photograph of the baby while pumping, produced even higher milk volumes and protein levels than music alone.

“Findings suggest music therapy is a promising, non-invasive adjunct to lactation care. By potentially reducing maternal stress, it may improve milk quantity and composition. However, further high-quality, standardized trials are necessary to carefully evaluate its true clinical magnitude and determine its appropriate integration into routine protocols for long-term breastfeeding success,” the study authors concluded. In this context, an adjunct refers to a supportive, non-pharmacological addition to standard medical care.

The study contributes significantly to the scientific understanding of music interventions on breastfeeding, though the authors note several limitations. The quality of measures of milk output varied across studies and their validity was uncertain, with many trials lacking standardized breast pumps or 24-hour volume tracking. Consequently, under the GRADE framework, the overall certainty of evidence was rated as moderate to low.

Furthermore, because participants could hear the music, they could not be blinded to the intervention, leaving room for expectancy effects, which occur when participants experience psychological or physical changes simply because they know what researchers are testing.

The paper, “The effect of music on breastfeeding: a systematic review and meta-analysis of breast milk production, composition, and maternal stress,” was authored by Shalin Lee Wan Fei, Chai Li Sze, and Saloma Pawi.