Is Breastfeeding A Micro Preemie Possible?

There are so many challenges that come with being the mom of a preemie, and figuring out how you will feed your preemie in the end is one that can be most distressing. Will you bottle feed or nurse?

I believe it is the goal for many to be able to nurse, but there are many things to consider and hurdles to jump when you are in the NICU. Is it realistic to believe you can actually nurse your baby, let alone never see a bottle feeding?

Being in the NICU isn't very conducive to nursing, that is for sure. BUT with A LOT of determination it can be done, even for the tiniest of preemies. How can I say that? I watched my daughter with her 26.5 weeker, who never saw a bottle feeding!

My daughter had fierce determination that this whole preemie experience was going to have something go as it "naturally" should. She wanted to nurse her little girl and right off she made that very clear to her daughter's medical team. Some were thrilled with the idea and others were less than optimistic, after all this little one started out at 1 lb 15 oz.

So what did my daughter do? One of the greatest problems with preemies that makes it so difficult for them to nurse is that they are just simply to smal and weak, and nursing takes a lot of energy. For many weeks, nursing isn't a consideration, but then neither is a bottle. Preemies are feed with a gavage tube. That time was used to prepare for nursing and no time was wasted. Immediately after Ava was taken off the vent, after about 5 days, she was given a pacifier and this is an important key. We worked with her day and night whenever we were there in order to get her sucking down and get those little facial muscles strong for nursing. Particularly when she was being tube feed, she was given the pacifier. That way the feeling of full tummy was connected with sucking.

That went on for many weeks all the while my daughter was pumping for Ava and she was a real tropper, every three hours, around the clock, just like reality when home. Eventually the first "real" hurdle came along. The doctors wanted Ava to start bottle feeding. She was still to tiny to nurse and bottle feeding is so much easier. So what now? My daughter insisted, begged, and pleaded, she wanted no bottles, she was going to nurse this little girl successfully! Amazingly the doctors said ok, with the nurses backing up my daughter. All you may have to do is ask to try something different.

The lactaion nurse was thrilled that my daughter was taking this stand. It was something they believe can happen for more mom's and babies than it does. The NICU is intimidating to say the least, remember, even the doctor's are just people like you and me, but they often just see things from a more clinical standpoint, and are actually open at times to trying new things as long as there little patients are not in any danger. So they were willing to give this a try and continued to gavauge feed Ava.

Eventually we got to the point where it was believed Ava might be strong enough, at about 4.5 lbs. to begin nursing. This is where things start getting a bit more complicated and just how bad you want this will be tested to the fullest extent. Ava's medical team said, "let's start out with one feeding a day, and see how it goes." Oh, my daughter was so nervous, but so exceited at the same time. Would her little girl be able to do this? One question though, how will they know if ahe was getting anything while nursing? Nurses devised a plan to weigh Ava before nursing and then weigh her after! Simple solution, a bit more time consuming, but they were willing and happy to see if this worked.

The moment arrived, I was not present as I was with Ava's big sister just outside the hospital. My daughter was gone for about an hour, and I will never forget her face when she came out of the hosptial after trying to nurse Ava for the first time...............she was beaming! glowing! smiling ear to ear! Ava had done it!!! She latched right on and nursed! Everyone was so exceited, including the doctors! After about 2.5 mths of being in the NICU Ava did it.

For the first couple of days, Ava was nursed just once a day so as to not tire her out, and she was gavage feed the remainder of the feedings. Eventually Ava was being nursed during all of the day time feedings and some one got the idea that instead of weighing Ava at every feeding, they could pull back what she had eaten through the gavage tube that was still in place and measure her intake that way, now that was really easy.

My daughter eventually nursed her at all feedings except one in the middle of the night, where she slept and the nurse gavage feed Ava. This was not easy, but my daughter was determined and we were staying in a hotel about a half a mile from the hospital. We were in and out all day long, every 3 hours.

It was truly an amazing thing how supportive everyone turned out to be, all that really had to be done was to ask with determination. This will never be possible for everyone, and that is ok, you do what you must to get through this really tough time. But, for those of you who are in a position to do this and can, go for it! Even a micro preemie can be nursed and never, ever see a bottle feeding!!