>As Dr. Wight stated.... that breastmilk by nature is designed to feed a
term infant. I don't know if =
>nature could predict that we would be saving 50% of babies weighing less =
>than 500 grams!  And in these instances breastmilk helps saves these =
>little lives, but it may need some help.
>Carol L'Esperance RN, MSN, IBCLC



Wow! Nature never intended for us to be BF VLBW and ELBW babies.

I believe that nature/G-d/evolution constructed us to BF, without
problems/issues/fancy footwork, (and have some philisophical problems
understanding why it doesn't always work, but that's a side issue...) but...
It may not be possible to provide for all these little infants' needs - it's
not just a matter of changing pathways for the nutrients from placenta to
breast! These babies are doing a lot of things out of the uterus that they
would NEVER be doing IN the uterus (breathing, digesting, pooping), and it
is possible that our bodies aren't built for that type of intensive
nutritional support.

In the natural world (without NICUs), being able to nutritionally support
such a small baby would probably be counterproductive (it would probably die
anyway, thus wasting valuable mothers resources in the meantime; if it did
live, it probably wouldn't be a contributing member of society...). Now that
we have NICUs, we are already intervening and de-naturalizing the structure.
So, supplements fit in with the picture.

Waxing philisophical,
I. Ditza Silverman
Beit Shemesh, Israel

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