Donor Stories
Parents spend weeks in the NICU sitting with their infants, overwhelmed by the amount of equipment, and frightened by the noises, activity, and alarms. It can sometimes make parents feel disconnected from their tiny miracles. Whether your baby is born prematurely or they are rushed due to a medical problem, it can be overwhelming.
Kylie pictured the birth of her first baby as a happy and miraculous time. She thought she’d never have problems conceiving a child, and she’d bring home a perfect little one. However what she experienced was quite different.
She spent two years doing infertility treatments, and had a rather rough pregnancy. She was thrilled to welcome her bundle of joy, but unfortunately right after her son was born, he was whisked off to the “level two” nursery and she wasn’t able to see him for hours.
He wasn’t born prematurely, but he had a collapsed lung. Kylie spent her fifth wedding anniversary in the NICU. “I watched helplessly as my brand new baby boy fought for oxygen to his lungs, hooked up to all kinds of frightening machinery.”
We all know the saying, “breast is best”; however things don’t always go as planned. Such was the case for Kylie. “For me, nursing wasn’t possible right away. My baby got all of his nutrition from an IV.” Today, Kylie’s son is happy and healthy. “I’m proud to say that after our initial struggles, he was nursed for 13 months. I feel so blessed that I had that chance, and I know it will benefit him for years to come.”
When a baby is born prematurely, mom’s milk might not be ready, and breastfeeding isn’t always an option. Breast or nipple feedings can be too strenuous for their tiny bodies, or they might not be able to swallow or suck on their own.
“When babies are extremely underweight (two pounds 12 ounces or less), they need more than their mother’s milk to thrive. Once they are able to take milk, (either through a feeding tube or bottle), a fortifier is added to breastmilk to ensure the babies get the nutrition they need in their tiny stomachs,” says Kylie.
“There is a way that mothers all over the country can help these tiny babies,” Kylie says. By donating your excess milk supply, nursing moms can help save lives. Prolacta Bioscience partners with a number of milk banks, providing mothers with the option to choose.
After extensive screening, the donations are processed into human milk products, made exclusively from pasteurized breastmilk, which helps meet the needs of very low birth weight babies during the first 30 days of life. Prolacta products are only available to hospitalized preemies. They are the only products that provide all- human milk protein.
They are standardized so the doctor knows exactly how many calories he or she is providing at this critical stage. Without these products, these fragile babies would get formula products made from cow milk. Human milk carries significant benefits for premature infants’ immune, gastrointestinal, and brain development. Studies have indicated they have a lower risk of necrotizing enterocolitis, and they also benefit from the right amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrates to support organ maturity and brain development.
According to a report by Save the Children, over 800,000 babies could be saved worldwide if new mothers breastfed in the baby’s first hour of life, and even more could be saved if breastfed exclusively for the first six months.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in nine babies in the United States is born prematurely. Having a premature baby is an emotional and challenging experience. Medical advances continue to improve outcomes for preemies, but we’re just now beginning to understand and address the psychological and emotional effects it has on the parents and` babies themselves.