Breastfeeding is important for all babies. But it is especially important for premature babies or babies with health problems. Your milk is medicine for your baby. You may need to pump for the first few days or weeks until your baby is strong enough to eat at the breast. If you don’t already have a pump, then you may want to invest in one. In the long run it can prove inexpensive since in the U.S. the IRS and the affordable care act (ACA) offer more in the way of coverage for breastfeeding supplies.
Holding your baby skin-to-skin or practicing Kangaroo Mother Care are good for both you and your baby.
- Traumatic stress symptoms in parents of premature infants
- The Importance of Skin-to-Skin
- Kangaroo Care (U.S.)
- Kangaroo Mother Care (Nils Bergman)
- World Health Organization Technical Review: Optimal Feeding of Low Birth Weight Infants
- Prematurity Facts (March of Dimes)
- Children's Disabilities
- Premature Baby, Premature Child
- Medline Plus
- Video of Hand Expression of Breast Milk