Why breast is best

FEEDING TIME: Even the tiniest premature babies should get breast milk if possible because it boosts immunity against infections that can overwhelm their tiny bodies, and improves their long-term prognosis.

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Mother's milk is the best medicine for premature babies. Ruth Hill visits the neo-natal unit at Wellington Hospital.

As mother of twin boys, Greta Wenmoth does a lot of running around – but in their first few days of life, she was having to run between different floors of Wellington Hospital.

Flynn had to spend three days in the neo-natal unit while his brother Ari, who was slightly bigger, was allowed to stay with their mother downstairs.

"It was pretty sad having babies in two places and trying to breastfeed them both," says Ms Menzies, 23.

"I had to have them half an hour out of sync."

As well as having to become a mobile milk bar, Ms Wenmoth found breastfeeding painful.

"I had been warned but it wasn't very nice . . . I wasn't used to having my sensitive parts so abused."

When she got disheartened, the neo-natal nurses were a huge source of advice and support. "They were wonderful, just like a whole lot of great aunties."

Now 5½ months, the boys are still motoring on breast milk, and keeping their parents busy.

Ms Wenmoth was in the third year of a degree in textile design at Massey when she got pregnant, which is how she came to answer an ad for a fabric designer for maternity clothing company Womama.

In a nice piece of karmic payback, the designs she created while pregnant are now being enjoyed by other new mums in the neo- natal unit.

Womama is giving away garments free to the unit's mothers during Breastfeeding Awareness Week, and donating $1 from the sale of every bra in its new nursing lingerie range to the Neo-natal Trust to support the purchase of equipment and staff training. Womama co-director Heidi Holbrook, who founded the company with antenatal classmate Juliette George in 2005, also has first-hand experience of the neo-natal staff's dedication.

Her daughter Lola was born five weeks early with dangerously underdeveloped lungs and rushed to Wellington Hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit. "Lola was attached to a ventilator, she had a morphine drip and tubes and wires coming out of her in all directions.

"It was so hard not even being able to touch her. But the staff constantly encouraged us, telling us Lola was a fighter."

Because Lola was too sick to feed, Ms Holbrook had to express her milk.

"I felt like a cow hooked up to the pump but it felt good to be doing something for her because I felt pretty helpless."

Now a romping, healthy three-year-old, Lola is testament to the "breast is best" motto.

The neo-natal unit's lactation consultant Maggie Morgan says even the tiniest premature babies should get breast milk if possible because it boosts immunity against infections that can overwhelm their tiny bodies, and improves their long-term prognosis.

However, though most clinicians agree breastfeeding is incredibly important, "accessibility" is still the biggest barrier for mums trying to breastfeed in the neo-natal unit, she says.

"There are only seven beds for mums in the unit so not everyone can stay here . . . and the separation of mother and baby makes it hard to get breastfeeding going."

Some mothers, particularly older women, find it hard to get "a full supply". "Stress, and, of course, any parent of a baby in intensive care is stressed, can also affect milk supply."

However, the vast majority of women are able, and willing, to breastfeed, she says. "Even mothers who hadn't intended to breastfeed usually decide they will. They see it as treatment for their babies.

"And for the mums it can be very therapeutic because they are doing something to help their babies. Many mums get very attached to their breast pumps." Some mothers have to express milk for up to four months.

"It's really rewarding to see a baby who was born at 23 weeks leaving here exclusively breastfed."

Each year, Wellington's neo-natal unit admits about 1000 babies, who are premature, need surgery or have suffered a traumatic birth. Some weigh as little as 450 grams.

- © Fairfax NZ News