Babies born before their due date need special care, especially if they were very small at birth (less than 3 pounds).  Feeding premature babies is a unique challenge; it mainly depends on how early they were born, whether they have any medical issues and the severity of those issues.  It is also important to track how often your baby eats so you can share this information with healthcare providers and other caregivers.

Breast milk is ultimately the best source of nutrition for a new baby; it has proteins in it that can help fight infection and to promote growth.  If your baby was born before 34 weeks they often can’t feed from a bottle or breast due to the fact that they have trouble coordinating sucking, breathing and swallowing all at the same time.  However those born after 34 weeks may be able to feed from a bottle or the mother’s breast.

A good rule of thumb is to feed your premature baby 8 to 10 times per day and that will help prevent dehydration.  Six to 8 wet diapers a day is one indication that your baby is getting enough fluids.  If your head is now spinning with the “how many”, the “when” and the “how much” you may find it helpful to take a moment and track this information.  Premature babies tend to sleep more often than full-term ones but the duration is usually shorter.  In addition, with premature babies, sometimes you need to awaken them to feed them.

Soon after the birth of your premature baby start pumping if your baby is not able to breast feed.  Don’t be afraid to ask for help and do not hesitate to make sure those caring for you know your desire to breastfeed.   Once your milk supply is strong enough you can decrease how often you pump.  At 36 to 40 weeks, premature babies usually are able to suck and will most likely breast feed every 3 to 4 hours, but they may still need additional formula.  Once your baby is able to start nursing be prepared to nurse frequently and since they cannot take in much as milk at each feeding until they’re closer to term pump afterward to keep your milk supply up.  Some new mothers find it helpful to track this; either how often pumping occurs and how much, how much formula is given at each feeding and information on whether or not the baby was content, fussy or tired.

The video below shows you how to track breast and bottle feedings using the Babble Soft Baby Insights Day Tracker. These online tools are meant to help new parents easily track feedings and monitor baby’s fluid intake. There is also a feed tracking worksheet that you can print out to quickly write down feeding information to input later. By entering the feeding and intake data into Baby Insights, then parents can take advantage of the various graphs and reporting that is readily available and can help you identify patterns and monitor baby’s weekly intake or intake across multiple days. Parents of premature infants have found these charts and graphs especially helpful when meeting with baby’s pediatrician.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Being a new mom is full of choices.  If you’ve made the choice to breastfeed your new baby rest assured that that is one of the most important decisions you will make as a new mother.  It’s hard to refute the benefits of breastfeeding and nowadays there are a lot of resources out there to help you along on this new journey such as how to find a certified lactation consultants, workplace accommodations for breastfeeding moms in the new health care law and health insurance plans that may cover breastfeeding related expenses.

The past few years has seen resurgence in the popularity of breastfeeding.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that mothers feed their babies only breast milk for the first six months. Breastfeeding is associated with a lower risk of many issues including ear and respiratory infections, diabetes and sudden infant death syndrome for babies and a lower risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer for mothers.  More recent is the study published in the journal Pediatrics, which states that if most new moms would breastfeed their babies for the first six months of life, it would save nearly 1,000 lives and billions of dollars each year.

If you are a new mom returning to work who does breastfeed then you probably are already thinking about what to do.  The need for a reliable, efficient and easy to use breast pump is almost essential to keep up with breastfeeding at work.  A good breast pump is also a necessity for moms of premature infants who may initially be unable to breastfeed and need to express their milk.  A high quality breast pump can be an additional expense for families that they might not have counted on. At this point you may want to contact your health insurance company to find out if they offer any assistance/programs for new moms; surprisingly many of them do.  And be sure to look into using your health-care flexible spending account (FSA) for breastfeeding related expenses too – many will cover breast pumps with a doctor’s note.

You may also want to consider having a visit from a certified lactation consultant either prior to returning to work for tips on pumping or at any point after baby has come home.  A lactation consultant is a health care professional who is knowledgeable, skilled, and experienced in lactation (breastfeeding). The lactation consultant’s primary focus is to provide education, assistance and support to breastfeeding women, including how to help and support those new moms returning to work. Services and visits from a lactation consultant may also be covered by your insurance.

One really good source of breastfeeding information on whether or not health insurance will cover a breast pump or a visit from a certified lactation consultant recently became available on Medela’s website. While Medela is best known for its breast pumps and accessories, they are also very invested in helping moms succeed in breastfeeding.  This online resource will help new moms with their questions about whether or not their health insurance will cover certain breastfeeding-related expenses, including for example, lactation consultant services, breast pump rental/purchase and other costs.

Image via Wikipedia

I can tell you that your state did not earn an “A” in the Premature Births Report Card released this week and I don’t even know where you live. That’s because, sadly, no state earned an “A” this year.

According to the government’s Healthy People 2010 campaign, the goal is to reduce preterm births down to 7.6% and the overall U.S. rate in 2007 was 12.7%! That earned the U.S., on the whole, a “D” grade on the report card. Vermont was the ONLY state to earn a “B”. According to Health.com, “Seven states — Arizona, Indiana, Missouri, Idaho, Massachusetts, Utah and Wisconsin — improved their grade year over year. However, Ohio’s and Oklahoma’s grades dropped.” I’m embarrassed to say the state I live in, Ohio, earned an “F” even though our facilities are supposedly very good. However, the statistics are delayed by two years (which is why I am citing 2007 numbers) and in March 2007, Ohio created Ohio Perinatal Quality Collaborative, whose sole purpose is to reduce preterm births in Ohio.

Since we don’t know all the reasons why babies are born premature, most states have been targeting the things they can influence such as pregnant women who smoke and elective inductions or c-sections before 34 weeks of pregnancy.

Since last time I already went over the fact that 1,400 babies are born premature every single day, in the U.S. alone, and what you can do to reduce your risk for a premature birth, today I thought I’d share a few stories I found during the March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness Month Fight for Preemies Bloggers Unite Event:

Kerry –
A wonderful and touching story looking at both the negatives and positives about having a premature twins.

Phoebe –
A courageous post from a teen mom who went through a very scary and painful ordeal. Her story is still in progress, and I can’t wait to read the rest.

Melissa –
A mom who bravely shares her story of how her son was born 5 weeks early because she smoked in pregnancy and had an eating disorder. She shares how it actually saved her life.

Jael –
Shares a story of her best friend whose baby came early, struggled to breathe on his own, was jaundiced, and spent months in the NICU.

 
Please take time this month for the March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness Month and share knowledge you have gained with other parents. You can save a life! Thank you!

November is March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness Month! It is a good time to share some facts about babies born premature (born before 37 weeks of pregnancy), share what pregnant women can do to prevent premature birth, and tell you how you can help raise awareness.

Babies Born Premature Facts

Every day, there are over 11,000 babies born in the U.S. alone and out of those, 1,400 babies will be born premature (or over 540,000 babies born premature per year). Unfortunately, the rate of babies born premature is actually increasing rather than decreasing and it’s alarming. Premature births increased 36% comparing early 1980′s and 2006, according to The March of Dimes. Fortunately, due to advancement in technology, chance of survival has increased, but sadly, after weeks and sometimes months in the NICU, some babies will grow up to have lasting disabilities.

Preventing Babies Being Born Premature

Most babies born premature will be due to unknown reasons (roughly 40%). Studies have shown four primary paths that may cause premature birth including infections, mom or baby under stress, bleeding (such as placental abruption), and over-stretching of the uterus (such as when there are multiple babies or excess amniotic fluid).

No pregnant woman is completely risk-free when it comes to premature birth. Any woman can have a baby who is premature, unfortunately. There are things that you can do to limit your risk such as not smoking, drinking, doing drugs, high stress, and getting prenatal care. You can also be more at risk if you have diabetes, high blood pressure, are obese, or underweight before pregnancy.

Although there is nothing definitive that can be done to prevent premature birth, in 2003, they did find giving women who previously had a baby born premature progesterone during pregnancy decreased another premature birth. There have also been studies that show giving the pregnant woman antibiotics if she previously had her water break before 37 weeks can reduce the chance of another premature birth. Lastly, there are also studies that show a woman’s cervix can be stitched who have a short cervix. This procedure is called cerclage.

How Baby Insights Can Help

When babies are born premature, there is so much to worry about. Parents of all newborns need to make sure their baby eats enough and have enough wet and dirty diapers, but when your baby is premature, extra care needs to be taken as there is higher potential for complications. By using Baby Insights to track your baby’s schedule, you can ensure she has enough wet and dirty diapers, eats and sleeps enough, and takes any medication on time, too, just like Kerry did when she found out her baby had a heart condition when she was just one week old. With Baby Insights she was able to track her baby’s medication doses very closely. Having information stored all in one place helps you worry less and enjoy your baby more!

Raise Awareness About Babies Born Premature

You can help raise awareness about babies born premature by sharing this article, considering a donation to the March of Dimes, or volunteer today!

Learn more about March of Dimes Prematurity Awareness month and what you can do by visiting The March of Dimes Website today!

We welcome guest posts on The Babble Soft Blog and here is one by Sandy Naidu from Dot Com Mothers about her experience having a premature baby.

My daughter, Sneha, turned 7 last June. She is growing up fast – especially since the arrival of my son two years ago. She is very patient with my son and loves playing with him (not always but most of the time). Sneha was born in Hong Kong in 2001. She arrived a bit early – 5 weeks to be precise.

I still remember that Saturday. Those days I was working in a 9 to 5 job and I had a very hectic Friday. Most of the Chinese companies have a six day working week. Luckily I was working for a European company (based in Hong Kong). So I only had a 5 day working week. My husband on the other hand was working for a Chinese company and so on that Saturday, just like any other working day, he headed off to work. I had a very lazy and relaxing day.

That evening we were invited to a friend’s place for dinner. These were my husband’s friends and I was meeting them for the first time. They were lovely hosts and they had a beautiful house. I remember looking at the carpets and thinking that these are the cleanest carpets I have seen in a long time. The dinner was lovely – very yummy. And after dinner we all sat down on the sofa and were enjoying a couple of drinks. We were having great fun and then it happened – my water broke and the ‘cleanest carpets’ were not clean anymore. It was quite embarrassing…But luckily my hosts were very understandable – very comforting. They drove us to the hospital.

I had an emergency c-section. And out came my beautiful daughter. She weighed 4.2 pounds. She was tiny but stunning. All her organs were fully developed. She was still declared premature because she came 5 weeks early. She was not placed in an incubator and was allowed to go home with us 5 days after her birth. She was however not feeding well. This led the doctors to worry because she was already tiny and any further drop in her weight would be of concern. The problem was that her mouth was very tiny and hence she could not latch on. We fed her using a spoon.

Sneha was our first child and naturally we were terribly worried and inexperienced. For the first few weeks Sneha was losing weight. We were told by the doctors to seek help from a lactation consultant. We found one and she was extremely helpful. She visited us once in three days. We started recoding Sneha’s food intake in a small notebook and during her visits, the lactation consultant would go through the notebook and monitor Sneha’s progress. She would then weigh Sneha and record the weight in the notebook. The lactation consultant would give us some suggestions and then help Sneha to latch on.  This went on for almost 6 weeks and after that Sneha’s weight started increasing steadily. Things became a bit more relaxed and we started truly enjoying the birth of our daughter. I still have the tiny notebook with me and 6 months ago I was showing it to my daughter. She was amazed at how little she was consuming during her first few days – 15 ml to 20 ml and sometimes even less.  It would have been great if we had access to a web based application like Baby Insights to help us keep up with her feedings and diaper changes but nothing like that existed when Sneha was born.

Parents of premature parents go though a lot of stress, tension and pain. Though it was hard for us, it definitely was not as bad as it is for a lot of other parents of premature babies. Though Sneha was premature and tiny, her weight was still reasonable for premature babies. She was only 5 weeks premature. Things would have been lot harder had she arrived even earlier. Anyways, they are all memories now…Difficult time but has still enriched our lives in many ways.

If you have a premature baby, you can use Babble Soft’s web and mobile application, Baby Insights, to keep track of his/her feedings, sleep periods, and diaper changes, as well as mom’s breast milk pumping both during and after their stay in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).  You can note your preemie baby’s height, weight, and head circumference in Baby Say Cheese whenever you want to record a baby growth or baby development milestone!

A premature baby, or preemie, is born before the 37th week of pregnancy. Approximately 12 percent of babies in the United States — or 1 in 8 — are born prematurely each year. In 2003, more than 490,000 babies in the U.S. were born prematurely. (source: Wikipedia)  In fact, the rate of premature birth increased almost 35 percent between 1981 and 2005 (9.4 to 12.7 percent). (source: March of Dimes)

Because they are born too early, preemies may have health problems because their organs did not have enough time to develop. Preemies often need special medical care in a neonatal intensive care unit, or NICU.  And they need special care when they are released to finally go home.  Things that need to be monitored closely are:

1. Feedings.  Whether you are feeding them breast milk pumped from mom, breast milk from a Mother’s Milk Bank, or specially formulated formula, it’s important to note how much they are eating and when.  Keeping track of their feeding times and amounts in a central location can help you determine when they eat, how often they eat, and even when they tend to eat more.
2. Diapers.  Keeping track of how many wet and soiled diapers a premature baby is having is a great way to see if they are eating enough.  Making sure your baby has enough wet diapers can prevent dehydration.  Seeing soiled diapers is a good indication that your baby is getting enough food to grow.
3. Growth.  If your premature baby is getting enough to eat and having a good amount of wet and soiled diapers, then the next thing that’s important to keep track of is his/her growth.  All pediatricians will look for weight gain, height gain, and growth in head circumference.
4. Sleep.  How much and how often your preemie baby sleeps can help you determine the best feeding times and when to wake him/her. 

If you know someone who has a premature baby, Babble Soft applications make for a unique baby gift.  You can easily send them an Email Gift no matter where they might be in the world!  It will be the most useful gift they to help them through those often worry filled days while their baby is in the NICU or soon after they bring him/her home.