CBS Evening News: "Mother's Milk A Lifesaver For Preemies"

[Mrs-Mama]

Saw this on the news last night. It's so great to see breastfeeding encouraged, especially for preemie moms who often face uphill battles to nurse their babies successfully!

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/...n4935867.shtml

[krystyn33]

Great story! Refreshing to hear such strong support for breastmilk over formula, especially after the publicity of the Rosin article, etc.

[Mbella]

: That was a wonderful story! Hopefully it will convince new moms of preemies to breastfeed/pump for their babies.

[slinginhipmama]

I caught this too!! Finally a pro-breastfeeding story!


BTW, Hi Mrs-Mama (small nod to the Nov.Due date club )

[Sagesgirl]

I read an article on NEC a couple of years ago wherein a very small study--basically an observation of the babies in one NICU--found that formula was the determinant in whether a child contracted the infection. Which is to say, not a single one of the breastmilk-only babies contracted NEC. Even the most conservative studies say that formula-fed preemies are five times more likely to contract it than their breastfed brethren. And being that infections are the biggest harbinger of increased morbidity, anything we can do to help prevent them should be promoted as heavily as we can.

I did a class presentation in Lifespan Psychology on prematurity & made sure to hit on the breastfeeding issue a few times. My middle daughter is what they call a "near-term preemie", and she was three years old before I found out that all the advice you're given for breastfeeding a term infant is counterproductive for breastfeeding a near-term preemie. So I hit on that in class too. Lots of other pre-nursing students in there. Hopefully it'll stick with a few of them. Long live evidence-based medicine!

[OGirlieMama]

Glad to see this being covered. When my girls were born at 29 weeks, I was visited by the NICU's LC first thing in the morning (I got out of recovery around 9pm) and it felt like the assumption was "of course you're going to want to breastfeed..." which of course I wanted to! She showed me right away how to use the pump, and that was great. And she told me (and the nurses and neos did) how preemies on breastmilk have much lower rates of NEC.

What NICUs need to get better at is helping preemie moms make the transition from pumping to nursing. Especially moms of multiples. I pumped 50-60 ounces a day but never managed to get my babies to nurse effectively. Still, they grew big and strong and healthy, and I give my milk most of that credit. I'm glad some of the mainstream news is doing so, too!

[RoseDuperre]

Great story!
:

Originally Posted by OGirlieMama

What NICUs need to get better at is helping preemie moms make the transition from pumping to nursing. Especially moms of multiples. I pumped 50-60 ounces a day but never managed to get my babies to nurse effectively. Still, they grew big and strong and healthy, and I give my milk most of that credit. I'm glad some of the mainstream news is doing so, too!

That IS an incredibly tough transition, and I agree!

[proudmomof4]

Originally Posted by krystyn33

Great story! Refreshing to hear such strong support for breastmilk over formula, especially after the publicity of the Rosin article, etc.

That was also my first reaction.

[Siera]

That was such an amazing story! I wish my DD's NICU had been as accepting of breastfeeding as that! Thank you so much for sharing -- it made my day!! :

[Chloebeansmom]

Excellent article! As the mom oof a 31+ weeker, I fought the fight to BF my DD. I started pumping right after I got out of my CS recovery and pumped exclusively for the 6.5 weeks she was in the NICU, including throughout an additional 1 week hospital stay of mine for gallbladder removal/pancreatitis. I saw the benefits of my BM first-hand. The baby next to my DD developed NEC and had to have surgery for it. I saw him "code" twice while visiting my DD. That experience was so traumatic for me and he wasn't even my baby. I still think of him every day. It was a fight to get my DD on the breast, but luckily we were successful and are still BFing. I remember seeing so many young mothers there who weren't pumping at all. I remember feeling so sorry for their LOs.

[yogafeet]

[plantmama]

The importance of breastmilk was very well acknowledged in my ds's NICU as well. Even moms who were not into breastfeeding were encouraged to pump as much as possible. The doctors were very strong in their encouragement of breastmilk for preemies. However, this didn't translate into them knowing the first thing about actual breastfeeding and even lactation. The nurses too were not trained in this. And the lc were not as available.
The emphasis was on how wonderful breastmilk was, not necessarily breastfeeding. I was able to get my ds on the breast through a lot of persistence and because he didn't have trouble with it once he was old enough.
My experience in talking to other moms at the NICU is the same as yours, OGirlieMama, there is no real method for getting babies on the breast so they transition from the tube to breastmilk from bottles. Luckily for us we were able to get ds nursing before he had too many bottles. They wouldn't even use my breastfeeding friendly bottle because "it tired him out too much".

[lactivistmama]

:: Thanks for sharing!!

[homewithtwinsmama]

My letter to the editor about the parents magazine article where their expert doc said you should not provide donor breastmilk for a friend or family member is being published!!!!! I used a friends milk in the NICU until my milk came in. Then I refused all bottles/nipples. We did nasogastric tube feeding until I was able to teach her to nurse with pumped milk and SNS as aides.

[jocelynr]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

My letter to the editor about the parents magazine article where their expert doc said you should not provide donor breastmilk for a friend or family member is being published!!!!! I used a friends milk in the NICU until my milk came in. Then I refused all bottles/nipples. We did nasogastric tube feeding until I was able to teach her to nurse with pumped milk and SNS as aides.

Cool! I'll read it at the library, as I won't buy that mag!

[OGirlieMama]

Originally Posted by homewithtwinsmama

My letter to the editor about the parents magazine article where their expert doc said you should not provide donor breastmilk for a friend or family member is being published!!!!! I used a friends milk in the NICU until my milk came in. Then I refused all bottles/nipples. We did nasogastric tube feeding until I was able to teach her to nurse with pumped milk and SNS as aides.

That is fantastic news! And I have to say, there have been many times I've seen you post in the past couple of years and remembered the story of your NICU journey, and wished I had read it before I gave birth (I think this would have required time travel, so I'm not too hard on myself about it ). I really do think knowing everything you did to breastfeed your daughter would really have helped me make decisions to facilitate that for my children, too. I am certain you have helped others by sharing your story.

[chinchen]

I'm a preemie mom of a now 37 weeker(born at 30 weeks) and we were just discharged after 7 weeks in the Providence Everett NICU. I had a lot of pressure, and some cornering of my dh without me present, by the nurses to bottle feed. we would have been out a fair bit sooner, but i was determined. i am pround to say that we are the first baby in a year to leave that place on all breastfeeding!

[proudmomof4]

Originally Posted by chinchen

I'm a preemie mom of a now 37 weeker(born at 30 weeks) and we were just discharged after 7 weeks in the Providence Everett NICU. I had a lot of pressure, and some cornering of my dh without me present, by the nurses to bottle feed. we would have been out a fair bit sooner, but i was determined. i am pround to say that we are the first baby in a year to leave that place on all breastfeeding!

Good for you! :
It seems to be quite common to talk preemie mothers / parents into bottle feeding so that the baby (or babies) can be released home sooner. Give yourself a pat on the shoulder for standing up to that pressure!