From Mammae to Mouth: Unravelling the Morphology and Mechanics of Mammalian Milk Transfer

Mammals are named for their mammae. However, despite their fundamental role in mammalian reproduction, surprisingly little research has focussed on how milk gets from the mammae to the infant. While research has investigated the physiology of lactation and the composition of milk, the morphology of mammae and mechanics of suckling have been overlooked. However, variation in both mammae and suckling have implications for infants' success; if some infants are more efficient at transferring milk from their mothers, they may grow faster and have better early life outcomes.
This project will explore inter-individual varaition in maternal and infant morphology and its impact on suckling success. One source of variation in infants’ suckling could be the mothers' and infants’ morphology. This project will pioneer in situ measurement of maternal morphology and infant suckling behaviour in domestic pigs, a model organism whose rapid growth allows high-throughput data collection. The project has scope to be broadened to other taxa, and to involve comparative or longitudinal approaches. 
This project’s finding has implications for human health and wellbeing: Mothers who struggle to breastfeed frequently report feelings of failure and are more likely to suffer post-partum depression. Part of this feeling may arise from the current rhetoric about breastfeeding being ‘natural’, which places blame on mother-infant dyads’ lack of knowledge or experience. However, this project can challenge these assumptions, demonstrating that variation in infant suckling success could arise naturally through differences in morphology, not a mother’s ‘failure’.