Breast-feeding among Mothers of Low Birth Weight Infants.

The physical and emotional condition of the mother delivering a premature or low birth weight infant may be quite different than that of the mother of a healthy term infant when initiating breast-feeding. Despite this difference, incidence and duration of lactation among mothers of pre-term or low birth weight infants was found to be quite good compared with that of mothers of term infants. Considerable problems, however, are encountered by premature or low birth weight infants when breast-feeding, including delayed first suckling, poor or no suction, need for daily supplemental bottle feeding, and culminating sometimes in weaning off breast milk before discharge. Optimal milk production has been associated with five or more milk expressions daily and with pumping durations of 100 minutes or more daily and initiation of pumping early in the first post-partum days.