I have a current case that I would like some guidance with. Mom was my prenatal patient, but delivered by c-section at 34 weeks when she went into labor and was breech presentation. Baby was 2500 grams at birth, but had respiratory distress syndrome and required oxygen for the first 3 days of life. We originally fed him by NG tube. Once he was well enough, he went to breast, but was unable to feed effectively. He was basically unable to move any milk, despite a pretty nice looking latch. With a small shield, he could transfer a little milk, but not enough to support growth. He went home being fed my bottle, mostly breastmilk. Mom pumped from the beginning, and is now making his needs, so he is getting only breastmilk. Corrected age is now about 35 weeks 4 days. Baby shows interest in the breast and latches, but still can't transfer enough milk. The situation is complicated by the fact that this first time mom originally during her pregnancy thought she wanted to pump and bottlefeed her milk. Then she decided to at least start off breastfeeding, but she is nervous about it. Add in a poorly feeding, premature baby, and she doesn't have much confidence that her baby will ever be able to breastfeed. Can I expect this baby as he gets stronger to become more effective at the breast? Any words of wisdom to share with this mom to help her confidence? She is now putting him to breast at most feedings during the day, with a small shield, then feeding him pumped milk by bottle. Baby's weight gain is good. Jennifer Tieman Family Physician Mom to 4, including nursling Caroline Rose born 5/31/03 *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html