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Subject:
From:
"Michele Cherry, LLL Leader" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 28 Jun 2005 12:16:48 -0400
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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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