Hello everyone,
This article was in our newspaper last night. How would you reply to it?  I
know it mentions some advantages of breastmilk, but it undermines mothers
confidence in their own milk as being suitable for their babies.
A great pre "World Breastfeeding Week" article!!!

BETTER FEED SOUGHT FOR PREMATURE BABIES
Palmerston North hospital paediatrician Jeff Brown has challenged
nutritionists to come up with a better way of feeding premature babies than
giving them unfortified breastmilk.
Dr Brown told the Nutrition Society conference at Massey University recently
there were reasons to question whether human milk was the best possible food
for tiny immature babies.
"There is no doubt that for the full-term infant it is the food of choice,
but is it the most suitable for low birth weight babies?"
He said paediatricians were struggling to create an environment and a way of
providing nutrition for babies as young as 23 to 24 weeks gestation that was
as close as possible to that provided in the womb.
He said the immediate needs for the extremely premature babies in the first
few days were for fluids, glucose, electrolytes and minerals. Their gut and
liver were immature, but they were now being fed by a tube into the stomach
from about a week old.
The race was then on to help them achieve the sort of rapid growth they
would have achieved in the uterus without stress, and get them out of the
neonatal unit as soon as possible.
Breastmilk provided a wealth of advantages- its immunological value was hard
to match, it was easily digested, which reduced the risk of internal
bleeding or regurgitation into the lungs, and for closer to term babies,
studies had showed it improved IQ levels, especially in boys. But balanced
against those advantages were several problems, including practical
difficiulties in collecting and storing breastmilk.
Babies fed breastmilk tended to grow more slowly than those on formula, and
so spent longer in the neonatal unit. The vitamin A in breastmilk degraded
when exposed to light. Fats tended to adhere to the plastic tubing used to
feed the milk into the babies stomachs. Calcium and phosphorus levels were
low, and it was not unusual for premature babies to suffer fractures. Some
other trace elements including zinc, copper and iron also tended to be low.
The quality of breastmilk varied from woman to woman,and the babies of those
who produced more than enough could concentrate more on collecting the
calorie-rich hindmilk rather than the watery foremilk did better. Breastmilk
banks were rarely used because of the HIV and hepatitis risks.


The reporter is breastfeeding friendly so would be willing to write a follow
up article if the resources were credible.
I really appreciate being able to share my frustrations and hear your
combined wisdom.
Robyn Dunning.
NZRGON,RM,IBCLC