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Breastfeeding Your Preemie

Breastfeeding Premature Infants

By Gail Pirics

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

Following a pregnancy filled with complications, Regina Szpak of Huntley, Ill., gave birth to twins at Lutheran General Hospital just two days shy of 27 weeks gestation. It had been nearly four weeks since one of her water bags broke, and her babies were given no chance of survival. Now she was delivering Jennifer, a 12-inch, 1-pound, 8 1/2-ounce miracle and her "big" brother Ryan, 12 1/2 inches long, who weighed 1 pound, 13 3/4 ounces.

"Jennifer was born without a sac around her (hers was the ruptured bag) and her lungs were much more developmentally premature than his," Szpak says. "There was nothing I could do for them and I had to put them in God's hands."

All along Szpak had been committed to breastfeeding. "I didn't have luck breastfeeding my first child – I couldn't figure out what to do," she says. "I was determined with the second pregnancy to nurse."

Although it would be months before she would actually nurse, Szpak began pumping her breasts almost immediately after the delivery. "I started out with 2-ounce bottles," she says. "They tested my milk, and once I got the OK they did everything to help me continue pumping. They had pumps available at the hospital and freeer storage so I could bring my milk in. Soon I graduated to filling 4-ounce water bottles. I was a great producer."

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

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