Kangaroo Care and Breastfeeding

My first and only child was born 9 weeks early in August 2005. She weighed only 2 lbs. 14 oz. I was planning to breastfeed before she was born but didn't know how everything worked when you had a premature baby.

The morning after she was born, before I got to see her, a lactation consultant came to my room and gave me all the information I was looking for. She told me about using a breast pump to pump breast milk for the nursery to give my daughter and helped me figure it out the first time.

My daughter was so small that at first she was only eating 2cc's of breast milk so even that little bit of colostrum that I got out in the beginning was enough.

Also, starting with the first time I saw Hailey, I began kangaroo care with her. This is where I got to hold my daughter skin-to-skin to my chest (with me wearing a robe and her back covered up with blankets).

Kangarooing not only helped my daughter physically because she could hear my heartbeat and feel my warmth, but it helped me tremendously with pumping. Kangarooing was for an hour each day and after each session I would go into a pumping room and pump and those would be some of my best times where I would get the most milk for her.

After her month-long stay in the NICU, we had two freezers full of extra breast milk saved up for her. Pumping wasn't always the easiest thing or the most convenient, but it allowed me to do something for my baby that meant the world to both of us.

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