The story of River, as told by her mom, Andi

At 21 weeks and 6 days, my husband and I went to our OB for a routine ultrasound. After being told that the baby looked great, the ultrasonographer became quiet and excused herself to get the doctor. I was informed that my cervix was dilated and my amniotic sac was bulging out. They immediately admitted me to the hospital for bed rest and at 24 weeks I went into labor and delivered my baby girl, River.

River was 11” long and weighed only 1 lb 7 oz. Immediately, she was transferred to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). On day 5 in the NICU, her nurse noticed that her belly looked “a little off” and an X-ray revealed her bowel had a perforation and that air was leaking into her abdomen. River underwent surgery to have a tube placed in her abdomen to drain the air. As she was recovering from the surgery, it was discovered that River had a hole in her heart and was whisked away into the operating room, again. It was extremely terrifying to hand our tiny baby over to surgeons twice, but luckily she made it through successfully both times.

In the beginning, River received all of her nutrition from IV fluids. Although I had extreme difficulty in getting my milk to come in (which is common for moms who deliver prematurely), I was determined to give her my breast milk. I pumped every 2-3 hours while consuming every supplement, lactation cookie, and herbal tea known to boost lactation. When it came time to transition from IV fluids to breast milk, I was informed that River’s care team would add a fortifier to my milk in order to increase the calorie content and help her gain weight. I researched the fortifier that they first prescribed and found that it was made from cow's milk. I explained to the head neonatologist that we wanted to use Prolact+ H2MF instead, the only fortifier made from 100% human milk. He told me that the hospital didn’t carry Prolacta and that it wasn’t an option for me. But I did not take no for an answer. If Prolact+ H2MF could reduce her risk of NEC, this was the only thing that I would approve of going into her body. I provided the neonatologist with study results showing that Prolacta helped reduce the risk of NEC, decrease the time spent in the NICU and could lead to cost savings for the hospital.

They approved Prolacta and River began to show steady weight gain, tolerate her feeds (both breast and bottle) and was weaned down to low oxygen flow.  After 129 days in the hospital, we were able to bring baby River home at 7 pounds! Through this journey, I learned the importance of not staying silent. I encourage other parents going through what we went through to do their research (real research with actual studies) and demand access to whatever your baby needs to thrive. You are your child’s number one advocate!