The Importance of Breast Milk

It has always been said that breast milk is very nutritious, but very few times do the mothers of premature babies know until what where it is possible to benefit our children through this type of “feeding cordon”. It is true that in some way or another some type of information on its immunologic effect can be heard about, although most of the times we lose the view of its importance in other aspects, for example in the one with respect to the psychological and emotional development it has.

Although in the last years there have been a numerous amount of debates over if the mother’s milk is better than artificial milk for premature babies, in actuality it has been demonstrated that there are qualities and components in breast milk that are difficult to match.

In the first place, since one of the non nutritional characteristics of your milk, in other words, it’s immunological and anti allergic capacity is of a big help to your baby, since from the moment the baby is born he or she is in need of constant handling – getting blood samples, placing the probes on the baby, the respirator, administering injections, finding a way to feed the baby etc – which without a number of a doubt, increases the baby’s chances of getting an infection or getting sick.

In the second place, and not any least important, it helps because the intimate moment that occurs between you and your baby represents a benefit both socially and emotionally.

In third place, breast milk is something that a baby can easily assimilate, especially the drops of colostrum, which is the clear yellowish milk meant to nourish the baby after delivery and which shows up before the mother actually produces milk. This initial substance, in premature mothers, has an even greater anti infectious capacity if it is compared with the milk the mothers who have full term pregnancies produce.

This is one, amongst many reasons, which the defenders of feeding breast milk insist in that the milk of premature mothers is ideal for the needs of their baby at that specific time. Since it is richer in protein, fat acids, sodium, chloride and iron, it adapts better. Even then, since the levels of this substance can be insufficient for the actual needs of your baby, especially if your baby is very underweight, it may be necessary the baby will need to be given some type of supplement to avoid deficit. In many hospitals, in order to satisfy the needs of growing premature babies, the mother’s milk is used as the base and then the necessary nutrients are added to it. Premature babies that are a little bit bigger though, can be given other supplements with minerals after having drunken directly from the mother’s breast.