Covenant Children’s Hospital is incorporating a human milk-based product for premature babies in their neonatal intensive care unit.
Babies in the NICU are now using a standardized neonatal nutritional product made by Prolacta Bioscience.
NICU clinical dietitian Sarah Brown wants premature babies to stay healthy while they’re in the NICU and after they are taken home.
“Even in the three months that we’ve been using it here, we’re actually starting to discharge babies that we first started it on,” Brown said. “They’re being discharged healthier, they are discharging sooner, which is a huge thing for parents.”
This is different than the donor breast milk program already in place.
“It’s more concentrated, and we’re able to fortify mom’s milk or give straight Prolacta if mom can’t breastfeed, isn’t able to or shouldn’t,” Brown said.
She says it is also supposed to make digestion easier for babies.
“A lot of research is done on exclusive milk diets on premature infants, and they have shorter length of stays, they have less time on ventilators, they have less GI complications, which is a big issue for these premature infants,” Brown said.
Brown’s ultimate goal is for babies to have shorter stays in the NICU with fewer complications.
“I would like to see these infants just get home sooner to their families, and this is definitely a way to have an easier stay and less heartache for the families,” Brown said.
To become a breast with milk donor with Prolacta, there is a rigorous screening process. For more on how to become a donor, visit www.prolacta.com/.
