Mothers who get breastfeeding support that includes relaxation therapy may be less stressed and their babies may eat and sleep more than women who don’t get this extra help, a small study suggests.

After two weeks using the therapy, women in the relaxation group had lower levels of cortisol in their breastmilk, the authors reported.

And after three months, their babies consumed an average of 227g more breastmilk each day than the infants of those who didn’t have the relaxation exercise.

For the experiment, researchers offered 64 new mothers who were exclusively breastfeeding traditional help, including educational pamphlets and information on support groups and lactation specialists.