Breastfeeding a premmie

[charleymouse]

Been on this thread and it has come out as a myth that you can't BF a premmie so have added a pic of DS BF on my profile to show it can be done.

The pic is taken at 14 days when he is still tube and breast fed and he would be 33+4 gestational age. Expressed minute amounts initially but got there in the end. I was told he could not latch until 35 weeks whilst in hospital, so was not even trying to BF but whilst doing kangaroo care he latched on under my nipple so popped him in the right place and off he went. Alternated breast and tube feeds so as not to tire him out too much in the early days but still going strong 12 months on.

Just thought I would share a positive story.

am still BF Callum at 6 months, he was born at 33+5 and I was told he wouldn;t latch on till 36 weeks, he started feeding at 6 days old

That calendar would be fantastic to have in a SCBU milking room, rather than being handed a breast pump & sitting in a sterile room with only the fire evacuation procedure to look at.

No wonder I could only produce a few drips

Hi, well done SGC, MMM I know what you mean, hardly inspiring places are they. I used to wheel the pump to the side of the incubator and sit with my milking machine when milk came in,, previous to that had a MW milking one side whilst I squeezed the heck out of the other.

fantastic charleymouse. it just goes to show how dire the knowledge of bfing is in SCBU units.

Message withdrawn

My DS born 32 wks started then stopped BF - came home on bottles at 36+4. Started BF at 16 weeks..now 6 months and still loving it.

mymatemax - you are lucky to be staring at a fire evacuation procedure - i only have endless amounts of signs written in german - which i do not understand!!! anyway thats another story! my twins came at 31 weeks - they are 5 weeks old - and am only just trying them on the breast - any tips?

My 31 weeker is still breastfed at 28 months! I'm expecting another premature baby very soon and I'm sure she will be too.

The hospital I am under are brilliant for breastfeeding with the premature babies. The most important rule is nothing in the mouth except the breast. They don't allow you to give up if they know you want to breastfeed and they don't do anything that would put it at risk.

my friend's very premature baby was given a little dummy to suck, I think to encourage him to suck. When he managed that they tried breastfeeding. I'm not sure exactly how old he was when they started but he now gets breastfed and bottle feeds. He certainly couldn't suck when born but he was very premature.

ellac My DS2 was born at 30+5, now 19 wks and bf. I agree with TinkerbellesMum, ask them to do all non-tube feeds with a cup not a bottle. Most importantly don't allow yourself to get discouraged if nurses start constantly asking you "How much did they take?" - some of the nurses at our SCBU seemed to expect an exact answer in mls, sigh. And feed on demand when you are there rather than on the tube feeding schedule.

I wish our SCBU had been as encouraging as Tink's, they weren't actively discouraging but it felt as though they were tolerating me bfing DS2 rather than supporting us! One or two of the nurses were fantastic though, shame they all weren't .

I hope you get the support you need to feed your twins!

I had premature twins (nearly 2 months early), and they were quite different in feeding. DT1 had to learn to even suck, whereas DT2 I could breastfeed from a month old. I could never breastfeed DT1, but breastfed DT2 completely for 10 months. I have to thank the SCBU and HV for the success with DT2, because they were very supportive despite my inexperience and pessimism.

DT1 had physiotherapy to encourage his sucking, and we used to use a particular grip with his bottle/mouth which massaged under his chin and squashed his cheeks together. The hospital said the massaging would stimulate drinking, and the squashed cheeks would keep his mouth shut! It did improve his drinking...

My DD was born at 33+5 & thankfully my hospital was very supportive of me wanting to breastfeed.
There was a special "milking room" available to use, and I was encouraged to have a cuddle with her before going off to express. They also gave me a blanket from her cot to take home & sniff while expressing at home during the night!
She started to nuzzle around 35 weeks, showing varying amounts of interest for about 10 days before a room in SCBU became available so I could move in and do "demand feeding". 2 days later they let us go home! It's 1 week later now, and we're both enjoying breastfeeding every 4-5 hours :-)