29-week-premmie baby saved by donated breast milk
"I just knew that I wanted him to have human milk"
By Elizabeth Daoud
October 08 2019
A baby born at 29 weeks is now healthy after being fed breast milk donated by New South Wales mothers.
Baby Flynn Gill spent the first months of his life at the Royal Hospital for Women’s neonatal intensive care ward.
Things were touch and go and his mum Emma’s milk hadn’t come in yet.
"I just knew that I wanted him to have human milk,” Emma told 7NEWS.
There was talk of shipping Emma’s sister’s breast milk from the UK but that wasn’t necessary thanks to the Red Cross Milk Bank.
Flynn's parents Chris and Emma considered shipping breast milk from her sister over in the UK. Credit: 7NEWS
The milk donation service, which collects excess breast milk from mothers around NSW, has helped nourish 350 premature babies since it opened last year.
The Red Cross tests the milk before pasteurising it and distributing it to neonatal intensive care wards across the state.
"It makes life so much easier here and so much better for our pre-term infants," Patty Everitt from the Royal Hospital for Women said.
Mums wanting to donate milk can find more information here.
Originally published as Red Cross Milk Bank which provides nourishment to premature babies celebrates milestone
