Breast milk is absolutely the best food you can give your newborn. Not only does it provide numerous immunological benefits, but the breast milk of a mother who has given birth too early contains substantially more calorie packing fat than does the breast milk of a mother who has given birth at a full 40 weeks gestation.
One difficulty in breastfeeding a preemie for some mothers is that good practices in giving breast milk to a preemie while he/she is in the NICU may well go against everything that the new mother has read or heard about breastfeeding. Here are a few things to expect that are probably different from what you’ve read:
You may have read not to use a pacifier. . .
But pacifiers are essential for preemies to learn to suck. While the use of a pacifier does depend on how early your preemie made his entrance into the world, it’s almost never a bad thing to use a pacifier for a preemie. Research shows that a baby’s “strength of suck” is almost directly proportional to length of gestation. . .the longer he gestates, the stronger his suck. So to help preemies develop that suck, many NICU nurseries use pacifiers.
You may have read not to supplement. . .
However, I would highly encourage a mother of a preemie not to be concerned about supplementation if it’s necessary. Most mothers do not make ample breast milk via the pump. Not only that but it takes a little practice and know how to be able to get the richer hind milk that contains most of the calories. While some NICU nurses will tell you that a preemie has to have formula because your milk doesn’t have enough calories–that’s not true. Your milk–if you can get it out–does have enough calories for your preemie. However, it is unlikely that you will be able to get enough out right away and it will take work for you to be able to pump exclusively if that‘s what needs to happen. One way to work with the NICU in providing breastmilk for the baby is to pump on a 3 hour schedule as much as you are able and supplement the rest.
You have read to feed on demand. . .
A NICU generally has a schedule that must be followed. It cannot function and care for several critically ill infants at a time and NOT follow a schedule. While it is appropriate to expect a hospital nursery to allow for rooming in and therefore feeding on demand, the NICU simply doesn’t work this way. The best way for you to be able to feed your baby regularly is to work out a schedule with the NICU nurses for pumping and feeding. While you can’t realistically expect to feed your preemie on demand, being a part of his feeding times is crucial for your bonding–regardless of how you feed him.
Related Blogs:
Why You Might Want to Think About Buying Pampers
How To Ask for a Discount When Buying Twins’ Clothing
Surviving the NICU: Questions to Ask
Valorie Delp shares recipes and kitchen tips in the food blog, solves breastfeeding problems, shares parenting tips, and current research in the baby blog, and insight, resources and ideas as a regular guest blogger in the homeschooling blog. To read more articles by Valorie Delp, click here.
Are you subscribed to the Families.com Baby Blog? With the click of a button, you can receive an email notification anytime a new blog is posted in the Families.com Baby Blog! Just look to the right of this blog and find the subscription center (it looks just like this picture). Click on “Subscribe via Email”. You’ll be instantly subscribed and the email address that you registered at Families.com with will receive an instant notification whenever we post a new Baby Blog! Don’t miss a thing – subscribe now!