For many, it was crucial to do something for their child in such a difficult moment.
When oxygen fails to reach a newborn's brain at the moment of birth, the consequences can define an entire life — or end it. Researchers in Budapest are asking whether one of nature's oldest substances, breast milk, delivered through the nasal passage rather than the gut, might offer the injured brain a path toward repair. A small but carefully conducted pilot study has shown that the approach is safe, placing a quiet but significant marker on the road toward a therapy that could one day complement the cooling treatments that currently stand as medicine's best answer to neonatal brain injury.
- Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy remains one of the most devastating events a newborn can suffer, leaving little time and fewer tools for intervention.
- A Budapest research team tested whether fresh maternal breast milk, administered through the nose, could safely reach the injured brains of ten critically ill newborns over 28 days — and found no harmful complications.
- The greatest friction was not medical but human: collecting milk from a remote farm, supporting traumatized mothers, and coordinating logistics that no clinical protocol had anticipated.
- Families who were trained to administer the therapy themselves found unexpected meaning in the act, transforming a frightening vigil into a form of active participation.
- Safety has been established, but efficacy remains an open question — larger trials must now determine whether this biological intervention can genuinely alter outcomes for children born into crisis.
When a newborn's brain is deprived of oxygen during birth, the damage can be both swift and permanent. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy is among the leading causes of neonatal death and lasting neurological harm, and for decades the primary response has been therapeutic hypothermia — cooling the infant's body to slow cellular destruction. Now, researchers at Semmelweis University in Budapest are exploring whether fresh breast milk, delivered through the nose rather than the digestive tract, might offer an additional layer of neuroprotection.
The biological rationale is solid: breast milk contains stem cells and neurotrophic factors that, when routed through the nasal passages, can reach the central nervous system more directly than through the gut. Between December 2024 and February 2025, associate professor Ünoke Méder and colleague Eszter Tarjányi enrolled ten newborns with moderate to severe brain injury. All received standard cooling therapy, but also received intranasally administered fresh maternal milk within 48 hours of birth. The treatment continued for 28 days, with parents trained to administer it at home under continuous medical monitoring. No respiratory, circulatory, or neurological complications arose in any of the infants.
The harder challenges proved to be logistical and emotional rather than clinical. Méder described traveling 80 kilometers to a remote farm to collect milk — a journey taxi drivers refused to make — while the team simultaneously provided psychological support to mothers navigating the trauma of a complicated birth. Yet parental involvement ultimately exceeded expectations: once families understood the procedure and saw that it caused no distress to their child, many found deep meaning in being able to contribute actively to the treatment.
The researchers were deliberate in framing their conclusions narrowly. This study addressed safety alone. Whether intranasal breast milk genuinely improves neurological outcomes remains unproven, and earlier promising signals from animal studies and trials in Germany and Canada will need to be confirmed through larger, longer investigations. What Méder and Tarjányi have established is that the path is open — and that the next steps must be taken with greater numbers, longer follow-up, and the same careful attention to the families at the center of it all.
When a newborn's brain is starved of oxygen during birth, the damage can be swift and catastrophic. Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy—the medical term for brain injury caused by insufficient oxygen and poor blood flow—ranks among the leading causes of death and permanent neurological harm in newborns. For decades, the standard response has been therapeutic hypothermia: cooling the infant's body to 33 or 34 degrees Celsius to slow the cascade of cellular damage. But researchers in Budapest are now exploring whether fresh breast milk, delivered through the nose rather than the mouth, might offer an additional layer of protection.
The idea sounds unconventional, but the biology is sound. Breast milk contains stem cells and neurotrophic factors—compounds that support nerve growth and repair. When these substances travel through the nasal passages instead of the digestive tract, they can reach the central nervous system more directly and efficiently. A team led by Ünoke Méder, an associate professor of pediatrics at Semmelweis University in Budapest, decided to test whether this approach was safe enough to use in real clinical settings and in family homes.
Between December 2024 and February 2025, Méder and his colleague Eszter Tarjányi enrolled ten newborns with moderate to severe hypoxic-ischemic brain injury in their study. All received the standard therapeutic hypothermia treatment. But they also received fresh breast milk—extracted from their own mothers—delivered intranasally within 48 hours of birth. The therapy continued for 28 days, with parents trained to administer it themselves while medical staff monitored the infants continuously. The results were reassuring: no respiratory complications, no circulatory problems, no neurological side effects emerged in any of the ten babies.
Yet the real obstacles turned out to be less medical than logistical and emotional. Méder recounts traveling to a farm near Cegléd, a city 80 kilometers from Budapest, to collect milk—a journey so remote that taxi drivers refused to make it. Coordinating milk collection and transport proved exhausting. More delicate still was the psychological work of supporting mothers who had just experienced the trauma of a birth complication. Initiating and maintaining milk expression required substantial emotional and practical support. Tarjányi noted, however, that involving parents ultimately proved easier than anticipated. For many families, the ability to actively participate in their child's treatment during such a frightening moment became deeply meaningful. Once parents understood the procedure and saw that it caused no pain, they administered it with confidence.
The researchers were careful to frame their findings modestly. This study examined safety alone—whether the method could be performed without harm. The question of whether intranasal breast milk actually improves outcomes remains unanswered. Previous work in animal models and studies in Germany and Canada involving premature infants with brain bleeding have suggested promise, but larger, longer trials will be needed to confirm whether this therapy truly reduces neurological damage or improves survival. For now, what Méder and Tarjányi have shown is that the door is open. The next step is to walk through it carefully, with larger numbers of infants and longer follow-up, to see whether this simple, biological intervention can make a measurable difference in the lives of children born into crisis.
Citas Notables
I had to travel to a farm near Cegléd to collect milk, to a place where even taxi drivers refused to go because there was no proper road.— Dr. Ünoke Méder, Semmelweis University
For many families, being able to do something for their child in such a difficult situation was very important.— Eszter Tarjányi, pediatric resident
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why deliver it through the nose instead of just having mothers nurse or bottle-feed?
The nasal route bypasses the digestive system entirely. When milk goes through the stomach, those delicate stem cells and growth factors get broken down by stomach acid. Through the nose, they travel directly toward the brain tissue that's been injured.
So this isn't about nutrition—it's about medicine.
Exactly. The milk is being used as a delivery vehicle for compounds that repair nerve tissue, not as food. That's a fundamental shift in how we think about breast milk in crisis situations.
The study sounds small—just ten babies. Why publish at all?
Because safety is the first gate. You have to prove you're not making things worse before you can ask whether you're making things better. These ten infants showed no harm. That's the permission slip to move forward.
What struck you most about the logistics problem?
That a doctor had to drive to a remote farm because the infrastructure didn't exist to support what should be a simple medical procedure. It exposed how much of medical innovation depends on systems we don't usually think about—transportation, coordination, trust.
And the parents—did they feel like they were helping or like they were being asked to do the hospital's work?
Both, I think. The trauma of having a brain-injured child is paralyzing. Being given a concrete role, something to do with their hands and their milk, transformed helplessness into agency. That matters as much as the biology.
What happens next?
Larger trials. Longer follow-up. And if it works, figuring out how to make it accessible—because right now it's only possible in places with the resources and expertise to support it.