that your work was worthwhile, I heard the worst, most tragic story
today.

A friend had a premie baby and was in hospital with 7 other babies,
ranging from 25 week twins (the youngest), to 29-32 weeks, to her own
IUGR/34 week baby. The hospital was not as supportive of breastfeeding
as they would have liked to present themselves and the twin mother and
herself, alone, pumped. They were given little encouragement and were
actually teased by the other mothers for being "cows".

The mothers that were on the unit tried to keep in touch, and my friend
recently received a letter from two of them. The twin mum's twins are
5mo and nursing at the breast. She enclosed a photograph of them -
bouncing, healthy babies (if a little small). But she said she'd heard
some bad news about the others. The second letter confirmed this - all 4
of the ABM fed babies had died of infections. This mother's child had
hydrocephaly and other problems, so probably wasn't meant for this
world, but the others...? The latest died at 5mo from a stomach
infection.
--
Anna H. Breastfeeding advocate and would-be writer with a heavy heart
http://www.ratbag.demon.co.uk/anna/

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