mothers of triplets. If your babies come right home with you from the
hospital, it will be much easier to establish a breast-feeding pattern.
As explained in chapter 4, a mother’s milk is a complete and perfect
food. It is easily digested, provides excellent nutrition, and contains the
right balance of proteins and fats. It also provides additional antibodies
that are necessary for establishing your baby’s early immune system. If
your babies are in the NICU, even if you don’t plan to breast-feed them
directly, you may want to provide milk for them using an electric breast
pump. Many pediatricians recommend this and insurance companies will
often reimburse a mother for the pump rental while the baby is in the
NICU. Premature babies are especially in need of their mother’s
antibodies that are provided in breast milk.
Each of your babies is different. You may plan to breast-feed all of
them but find that one prefers the bottle to the breast. Some moms
successfully breast-feed all of their multiples in a rotating fashion, with
one baby receiving a bottle each feeding while the others have a turn at
the breast. Other mothers produce enough milk to feed all three of their
triplets. A good electric pump is very helpful in establishing and
maintaining a milk supply for multiples. You may be able to pump after
you feed one or two babies so that a third or fourth baby can receive
breast milk in a bottle. Breast-feeding can be magnificently easy once
established and learned by mom and babies, but it doesn’t start out easy,
especially after the stress of a high-risk pregnancy. Please relax your
expectations of yourself and get good counsel from a professional
lactation consultant. Breast-feeding a multiple birth may not come
naturally and you probably will need some counsel.
If your newborn babies are low birth weight and/or premature, they
will probably sleep all the time. You may find they hardly ever wake up,
sleeping even when you are changing their diapers, bathing them, and
feeding them. Premature babies react unexpectedly to stimulus by
withdrawing and sleeping. Don’t fight their sleepiness. Do your best to
get the food into them but don’t try for more than thirty minutes every
three hours. By this I mean that from the beginning of one feeding to the
beginning of the next, no more than three hours should elapse. Attempt to
nora
(Nora)
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