No bigger treasure than the ‘white gold’ – Germany
The arrival of twins brings added concerns and responsibilities for new parents who wonder how they will cope with two tiny new lives to care for. When they arrive at 26 weeks gestation the inevitable worries about a vulnerable premature baby and what the immediate and longer term future will bring are doubled.
These tiny sisters were born in the east of Germany where there has been a long and continuous tradition of maintaining human milk banks to provide for babies without access to enough, or indeed sometimes any, of their mother’s own milk. The mum shared with us that during her pregnancy she was very aware of the importance of breastfeeding and why it provides far better nutrition than other forms of baby food.
The twins were able to start to receive tiny volumes of milk feeds on their first day of life and straight away a few mls of donor milk were required. This continued for 10 days in total before their mother was able to catch up with them and her milk became their sole source of breastmilk. During this time the girls received 248 and 191 mls of milk respectively – so less than half a litre between them. Their parents considered themselves very lucky to have had the opportunity to receive donor milk until the mother’s own lactation was sufficient to feed both of her babies. They noted that both babies had no problems with the milk.
The twins mother explained ‘The fact that we knew our babies were receiving human donor milk from a professional human milk bank took so much emotional and physical pressure off and helped me feel that they got the best nutrition possible. It helped me to relax a lot and that showed in the amount of milk I produced. For all children there is no bigger treasure than the ‘white gold’ which offers so much richness for all their life to come.’
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