Breastfeeding and milk collection are not only good for the
child - they keep the parents actively involved with their
child's care, and give them a sense that they are helping
their baby gain health.
More than
75 percent of the mothers of babies in the hospital's NICU
provide breast milk to their babies - far surpassing the national average of 60 percent of all mothers
that breastfeed.
To encourage moms to participate in their babies' nutrition
while at the hospital, Texas Children's provides lactation
support, including one of the nation's first milk banks: a
state-of-the-art collection, labeling, refrigeration and
dispensing center that stores and prepares deposited breast
milk to feed infants in the Newborn Center nurseries.
The milk
bank is surrounded by comfortable, private rooms where
mothers can go 24 hours a day to use hospital-provided
breast pumps and collection bottles. Nurses are available to
counsel mothers about lactation problems and to evaluate
whether the mom may be too sick to give milk, or is taking
medications that might not be safe for her baby. Lactation
support technicians at the bank prepare every bottle sent to
nurseries - more than 100,000 meals annually - ensuring they
are properly matched with the right infant.
Texas Children's has dozens of ongoing studies related to
lactation and the nutritional needs of premature infants -
one of the benefits of being affiliated with the Children's
Nutrition Research Center (CNRC), the nation's first NIH - and
Department of Agriculture-funded pediatric research program
on nutrition.
The CNRC,
adjacent to Texas Children's and operated in conjunction
with Baylor College of Medicine, is dedicated to defining
the nutritional needs of healthy children and pregnant and
nursing women. Many of the physicians associated with the
Texas Children's Newborn Center participate in or manage
these studies, so that their patients receive the most
up-to-date medical and nutritional care.
