Joylyn, I was recently working as a doula for a mom who had 35 week twins. I was surprised in my reading to learn the ways that premies NEED to be handled is different than term babies. Not that the hospital should be discouraging breastfeeding!! In Breastfeeding and Human Lactation (Riordan & Aurbach) it is recommended that premies NOT be awakened to feed except at the 3 hour mark. Because they're premies they need the extra sleep. In the NICUs here they are often given pacifiers and I was told (by ??) it was because their need to suck is higher (?). I do think it is a mistake to introduce formula (or breastmilk in bottles) unless absolutely necessary with the excuse or conclusion that she can just breastfeed once she gets home. My client had one twin released on day two and the other in the NICU for 16 days. It was awful (they lived 45 minutes away with no traffic), by the end they (the parents) would have done almost ANYTHING to get the second baby home (formula, fortifiers, monitor, meds, frequent f/u's). Both are doing great now, nursing like champs, off all interventions and gaining well. Good luck to your friend, she's lucky to have you for support! Dawn Martin Austin, TX *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html