Here is a NIH press release that was posted yesterday, please share
with your at risk moms-to-be.



REAST MILK ASSOCIATED WITH GREATER MENTAL DEVELOPMENT IN PRETERM
INFANTS, FEWER RE-HOSPITALIZATIONS Extremely low birth weight
premature infants who received breast milk shortly after birth, while
still in intensive care units, had greater mental development scores
at 30 months than did infants who were not fed breast milk, reported
researchers in an NIH network. Moreover, infants fed breast milk were
less likely to have been re-hospitalized after their initial discharge
than were the infants not fed breast milk.



The study is a follow up to a previous study in which the same infants
were tested at 18 months, showing that the breast-fed infants held the
developmental gains seen in the earlier study.



"These findings strongly suggest that, whenever possible, preterm
infants should routinely be given breast milk during their stay in the
intensive care unit," said Duane Alexander, M.D., Director of the
NICHD, the NIH institute that conducted the study.



The study appears in the October 1 issue of "Pediatrics". Betty R.
Vohr, M.D., of the Department of Pediatrics at Brown Medical School ,
led a team of researchers in the NICHD Neonatal Research Network, at
her own and other institutions, to conduct the study.



Extremely low birth weight infants are the tiniest and most fragile of
premature infants, weighing less than 1,000 grams, or 2.2 pounds, at
birth, explained Rose Higgins, M.D., the NICHD author of the current
study and the program officer for the NICHD Neonatal Research Network.
This category of infants makes up about 1 percent of all U.S. births,
or roughly 40,000 each year.



Researchers have long known the benefits of breast milk for full term
infants, but its potential effects in preterm infants had not been
well studied, Dr.

Higgins added. Full term infants given breast milk are less likely to
develop diarrheal diseases, skin allergies, ear infections, or upper
respiratory infections.

Some studies indicate that they are less likely to be overweight or
obese as adults. To conduct the study, the researchers tracked the
breast milk intake of 773 extremely low birth weight infants in the
neonatal intensive care units at 12 sites in the NICHD Neonatal
Research Network, between 1999 and 2001.



The children in the current study were divided into five groups by the
quantity of breast milk they had ingested while in the NICU. The
majority of the infants had been given at least some breast milk while
in the NICU. Only about one- fifth of the children in the study had
not been fed any breast milk.



The researchers found that the benefits of breast milk first seen at
18 months were still present at 30 months. Children who had been given
breast milk received higher scores on the Mental Developmental Index
(MDI), a test measuring the children's overall intelligence. The
average MDI score was 76.5 for children who had not received any milk
in the NICU, compared to a score of 89.7 for children who had received
the greatest amount of breast milk.

Children who had been given breast milk also showed greater ability to
control and appropriately respond to emotions and were also less
likely to have been readmitted to the hospital after their discharge
and before 30 months.



There was no difference in the amount of growth or the rate of
cerebral palsy in children who had received breast milk in the NICU
compared with those who had not.



The researchers hypothesized that breast milk may boost the children's
immunity against respiratory infections, the principal reason children
who had not received breast milk were hospitalized.



"Breast milk offers immune advantages for the infant. It has natural
substances that protect against infection," said Dr. Higgins.



Because they are unable to feed themselves, premature infants receive
fluids and nutrients intravenously. Gradually, breast milk is dripped
into their stomachs through a feeding tube. When the infants are
healthy enough, the intravenous tube can be removed and the baby can
receive all its nutrition from the feeding tube. In the previous
study, the researchers found that infants who had ingested breast milk
were able to leave the neonatal intensive care unit sooner and were
able to make the transition faster from intravenous feeding to
receiving all their nutrition through a feeding tube than were infants
receiving formula.



Dr. Higgins explained that earlier studies of term infants had found
that infants who were breastfed tended to score higher on tests of
mental development than did those who were not. She noted that mothers
who breast feed their infants tend to have more education than those
who do not breast feed. For this reason, the researchers were unsure
whether the breast fed infants'

higher test scores resulted from their consumption of breast milk or
from the fact that their more educated mothers were able to provide
them with greater intellectual stimulation.



In the current study, mothers who provided breast milk for their
infants also tended to have more education than those who did not.
However, in their analysis of the data, the researchers mathematically
compensated for the mothers' educational levels. With this adjustment,
the researchers concluded that consumption of breast milk had a
positive effect on infants' mental development scales, independent of
mothers' educational levels.



The researchers concluded that all health care professionals --
obstetricians, neonatologists, lactation consultants and primary care
providers -- who come in contact with pregnant women and with new
mothers should explain to them the benefits of breast feeding.



Ellen Penchuk, IBCLC, RLC