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Local hospital providing human based milk in NICU

Posted at 2:57 PM, Aug 08, 2018
and last updated 2018-08-08 15:57:23-04

Women’s & Children’s Hospital announced today in a press release that the hospital will provide an exclusive human milk-based nutritional diet for the most critically ill, premature infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Premature infants require more protein, calcium and other minerals than what breast milk alone can supply, according to a press release from the hospital. As a result, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends fortifying mother’s milk or pasteurized donor milk with protein, minerals and vitamins to ensure optimal nutrient intake for preemies weighing less than 3 pounds 4 ounces (1,500g)1.

Women’s & Children’s Hospital for years has provided donor breast milk to premature babies whose mothers were unable to provide breast milk.

The NICU at Women’s & Children’s previously used cow’s milk-based fortifier with breast milk to improve nutrition for premature infants. Since March, the NICU team has been able to take that one step further and fortify either mom’s own milk or donor breast milk with human-milk based fortifier rather than the cow’s milk-based fortifier, according to the press release.

Prolacta Bioscience provides the human milk-based fortifier for Women’s & Children’s Hospital.