Breast milk the key to preemie care

Breast milk is now considered essential for the care of premature babies in neonatal intensive care.

“Breast milk is a living organ of the body, like blood and formula is a poor substitute,” said Alberlito’s paediatric pulmonologist Prof Andre van Niekerk speaking to an intimate group of parents and staff at Netcare Alberlito Hospital on World Preemie Day last Friday.

Van Niekerk explained that premature babies were usually not fully developed and needed the incredible properties of breastmilk to thrive.

Breast milk takes over the role of the placenta to continue the baby’s development. Every year, 15 million babies are born premature worldwide.

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More than one million of these babies die, and many more face serious, lifelong health challenges. Having access to breast milk can dramatically increase their chances of overcoming these obstacles.

“We now insist that mothers either feed their babies their own breast milk or allow the infants to have donor milk.”

He lamented the low supplies of donated breast milk and begged the audience to encourage friends and family to donate if they were able (mothers of premature babies are often unable to produce milk due to the baby’s early arrival).

Among the many parents of preemies attending was Ballito mother Elrize Kruger with her one-year-old daughter Tayla Grace.

Tayla was born at only 31 weeks and two days and weighed a meagre 995 grams.

After suffering a placenta failure during her pregnancy, Tayla stopped growing at just 27 weeks and Elrize had no choice but to have a c-section.

With Elrize unable to breastfeed, and formula not being an option, the family appealed to the community for breast milk donors.

“The doctors said she was too little to digest formula. It would have killed her” said Elrize.

The mother’s plea went viral and donations flooded in.

Netcare Alberlito Hospital will soon be able to accept donated breast milk in order for it to be sent to milk banks in Durban. Mothers are only able to donate to preemies for a short window, until their own baby is three months old, as the make-up of breast milk changes as the baby grows.

As with blood donations, donors must be screened.

For more information contact Lorna at 032-946 6838.

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