http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory?id=886460
Breast-Feeding Is Urged for Preemies
Specialists Are Trying to Get Frightened Mothers With Premature Babies to
Breast-Feed More
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
WASHINGTON Jun 27, 2005 — Specialists are trying to promote breast-feeding
among mothers of premature babies. Breast milk is considered especially
important for the most vulnerable babies, those born smaller than 3 1/2
pounds. But they're the least likely to get it, especially if they're born
to low-income or black mothers.
Now specialists are targeting frightened mothers of the smallest preemies
to try to change that with strategies that range from free breast pumps to
bringing breast-feeding "peer counselors" into the intensive care unit to
train moms to nurse.
Jameca Benjamin was scared to even hold her premature baby, who weighed
just under 2 pounds. The nurses were urging the teen mother to breast-feed
yet Benjamin had never known a woman who'd breast-fed a healthy baby, much
less one hooked to machines in intensive care.
"This baby has all these tubes, and they're so small. It's scary," says
Benjamin, who now is the first salaried ICU peer counselor at Rush
University Medical Center in Chicago, part of a study to see how well the
training program works. "But when the baby does well and is sucking,
they're surprised, and it's a good experience."
She remembers watching her own daughter, now 4, fatten up. "It's a good
feeling to say, 'I made this baby grow.'"
Such programs are a big change for neonatal intensive care, brought about
because of research in just the last few years proving that breast milk
markedly lowers the chances of infection and a life-threatening bowel
inflammation in very low birthweight babies.
At Rush, 97 percent of the smallest preemies are breast-fed for at least a
while far better than the national average for healthy babies and 64
percent still get some breast milk once they go home.
"We emphasize to the mothers how the milk is really a medication for their
babies," says Paula Meier, a Rush nursing professor who heads the
hospital's lactation program and recently published its techniques in a
medical journal.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be breast-fed
exclusively for the first six months. Breast-fed babies suffer fewer
illnesses such as diarrhea, earache and respiratory infections; their
brains seem to develop faster; and they may be less likely to develop
asthma, diabetes or get fat later in life.
The government's goal is to have half of mothers following that advice by
2010. Today, 70 percent of mothers initiate breast-feeding for the first
weeks of life, but only 33 percent breast-feed for six months. Even fewer
black mothers do, 22 percent.
Those figures track all babies; there are no national statistics on the
tiniest preemies. Some hospitals, however, report rates than range from 20
percent to 80 percent of preemies receiving at least some breast milk,
says Meier.
Undoubtedly, these mothers face more hurdles.
At first, they must pump their milk babies so tiny can't suckle. The milk
is stored and dripped into a stomach tube.
Often they're told to skip the more watery first milk from each pumping
for the more fat-laden hindmilk. At Rush, Benjamin helps teach mothers to
bring in milk with about 30 calories per ounce, measured by putting a few
drops into a machine called the creamatocrit.
As soon as babies are taken off the ventilator, they'll get their first
taste, just a drop or two, of milk while carefully cradled at mom's
breast. As the babies strengthen, they'll learn to suckle and regular
breast-feeding can take off, Meier says.
But the challenges are more than medical and that's where peer-counseling
comes in. While often offered to mothers of full-term infants, only a
handful of hospitals are experimenting with peer counselors in the
neonatal ICU. Meier calls it particularly effective for low-income black
women, who are most likely to have very low birthweight babies but less
likely to have relatives or friends who can offer breast-feeding advice.
It can cost $1 to $2 a day to rent an electric pump; some hospitals and
health departments, including the Rush Mother's Milk Club, provide free
pumps for low-income women. And establishing a good milk supply means
pumping every two to three hours, hard for mothers trying to hold a job.
Benjamin had her daughter, Jamia Johnson, at age 17, and says she would
have opted for easier bottle-feeding had Rush nurses not declared breast
milk best. Benjamin's experiences pumping while working at McDonald's and
on her high school diploma encouraged Sene Garrett, a bus driver, that she
could make breast-feeding work, too.
"Jameca just kept on me, … telling me, 'Your baby needs everything from
you,'" said Garrett, of Sauk Village, Ill., who learned to discreetly pump
while sitting alone on her bus. Last month, she brought 5-month-old Jamari
home from the hospital, a healthy 6 pounds, five more than at birth.
Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press
in Washington.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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