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Breastfeeding a premature baby

Posted in premmie baby

I was reading a Nuvo Maternity Blog tonight about breastfeeding and it made me think about breastfeeding my premature baby. Breastfeeding preemie babies is very challenging. My daughter was born @27weeks weighing 861grams and I was unable to feed her straight away because she was just too tiny and fragile at the start. Also babies born that early are born without their sucking reflex. I expressed every 3 hours untill she was fully breastfed at 35weeks gestation (8weeks old) She started to have her first suck feed at 32weeks gestation when she was still well under 3 pounds. premature baby dummy, premmie girl, nicu, gavage tube fed,

premature baby dummy, premmie girl, nicu, gavage tube fed,

Breastfeeding and expressing was very important to me because it was one of the only things I could do for her.She was feed by a tube and a syringe that was pushed either by myself or by a nurse and each time I was there (almost always unless I was sleeping) I would put her dummy in her mouth and encourage her to suck hoping that she would learn that sucking will make your tummy full! I was told that premature babies who are breastfeed tend to have less gut issues so I always did my best to express and then to breastfeed her. I was always very lucky and had a great supply of milk so much so I could have fed half the babies in the NICU. It was still tough waking up to a machine every 3 hours and those early morning feeds were even harder when you had to wake up to a machine and not your baby.
I went on to breastfeed my daughter for a total of 21months and it was only because I gave it up that we stopped. It was a lovely experience and I would do it again because I loved breastfeeding. I never had to try too hard at keeping up my supply but I always tried to drink water and eat as healthy as possible.
preemie baby girl in nicu, tube fed, incubator

preemie baby girl in nicu, tube fed, incubator

Were you able to breastfeed your premature baby? If so how long did you express and breastfeed your premmie for? What gestational age did they have their first breastfeeding experience and when did they become fully breastfed?
If you were not able to feed how did this make you feel? I know Mum's who did everything they could do breastfeed but the circumstances just didn't allow it. Everyone has their own choices to make and everyone is entitled to them.Sadly though there are lots of Mums who would love to breastfeed their premmie baby but were unable to. Maybe in the future if milkbanks were made available then all babies would get breastmilk to help them fight off nasty diseases and infections. Do you support milkbanks? please give your reasons.
I would also love to see more help for mothers in the nicu when it comes to breastfeeding. We have just gone through a major unexpected delivery and then we have to find pumps, hire them, sterilize them etc I would love to see those types of items made available to Mums for free hire basis and when they were finished they could give it back to the org or hospital that made it available to them.

7:45 PM - Friday 29 February 2008 - post comment

Milk Banks
Thank you Fiona for sharing your story here and on the Nuvo Blog. How inspiring! I think Milkbanks are a great idea and would be a great resource for mums who can't breastfeed for whatever reason.
Kelly
www.nuvomaternity.com.au

Anonymous - 5:54 PM - Saturday 1 March 2008

I agree
Hi Kelly,

Thanks. Yes I agree. I am a huge believer in them and like anything if its given the time to be studied and tested it will make its way back. I think there is a bit issue surrounding ways that babies could contract viruses through breast milk. It was practiced here but in the 80's it was stopped due to HIV/AIDS There are 3 places in Australia that I know of that have milk banks. 1 hospital in WA that is a leader in what they do, 1 in QLD and 1 smaller operation (from what I understand) in NSW
People often have vision of someone wet nursing their baby but thats not what happens and I can honestly say if I was not able to breastfeed or express for Airlie I would have given her other breast milk if given the chance too. Its one thing to not do it if you think that it would be someone else breastfeeding them but I just look at it as a source of medicine that can help babies grow. I look at milk banks the same way as I look at the blood bank. When given the choice I too allowed Airlie to have blood because her hemoglobin was so low she was almost enemic. Having the blood donated by someone else saved her life and I too believe that milk banks can work in a similar way.

Thanks for the comment Kelly.

Fiona
Anonymous - 6:51 PM - Saturday 1 March 2008

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