Breast milk is very nourishing and contains valuable antibodies to help ward of illness and so is especially beneficial to a premature baby. Even if your preemie cannot feed properly at the hospital, breast milk can be frozen and stored ready for when feeding commences. Or it can be given via the feeding tube. Even if you had not planned to breastfeed, expressing milk for a little while will really help your baby to avoid illness and give him the best possible start in life.
Many antibodies that the baby needs are transferred through the placenta during those last three months before birth and the supply is continued through breastfeeding. When a baby is born prematurely he will not have received the full amount of antibodies via the placenta; that is why breast milk is so important to a premature baby.
Many preemies are tube fed when they are first born, however, once you have your preemie at home, breastfeeding in the normal manner can be aimed for. The main difference will be that a preemie must be fed more often because they can only ingest a little at a time. Breast milk is much easier to digest than a formula and so is ideal for a premature baby.
Experts have found that having the close contact of breast feeding is also beneficial to the preemie baby. But breast feeding also helps the mother. Breast feeding will help to restore your figure and prevent breast and ovarian cancer.
The main trouble with breastfeeding a preemie once you get back home is that he may not be able to suck very strongly. If your milk takes a little time to start flowing, baby might be too tired to continue sucking long enough to take in the proper amount. There are two solutions to this problem.
Firstly, you can express your milk and feed it to baby in a bottle with a soft teat. Many mothers have become used to expressing their milk for baby while he was still in the hospital, so continuing to do so is no problem. The thing is that is does take double the time. Some mothers find that if expressing is done for the next feed straight after feeding baby with a bottle it seems to combine the two jobs and be easier to fit into the schedule.
Secondly, you can stimulate your milk flow before putting baby to the breast, to ensure there is immediate flow. This can be done with a warm compress, or simply by drawing the areola and nipple gently through the fingers until milk begins to flow. Some mothers find that using a nipple shield helps, especially if the baby has been fed with a bottle in the hospital and has become used to the taste of a synthetic teat.
The stress of having a baby prematurely often interferes with breastfeeding, especially if accompanied by sickness or injury. If you cannot breast feed your baby, do not feel guilty or sad, but simply accept the fact. It does not mean that your baby will become sickly or that you are a failure. You will love and care for your baby in many other ways.