Posted on August 3, 2001 at 3:01 p.m.

BIRMINGHAM, AL — A 20 cubic-foot freezer to hold breast milk was not part of the original budget for Laura Fiveash’s new triplets; but after the first week, she knew it was a necessity.

Fiveash had planned to breastfeed her babies from the start. As a registered dietitian with a master’s degree in public health and a doctoral candidate in maternal and child health at UAB, she knows the benefits of breastfeeding. But when she discovered her babies were going to be born at 26 weeks, there was no question.

“Breastfeeding is especially important for premature babies,” she said. “Breast milk has immunoglobulins and other nutrients that help babies ward off infections and significantly decrease the risk for a large number of acute and chronic diseases. It also provides enormous advantages with regard to general health, growth and development.”

So with those advantages in mind, Fiveash and her husband John, a radiation oncologist at UAB, plan their days around her pumping, which she currently does every 3 to 4 hours during the day. She pumps 40 to 50 ounces a day, and bottle feeds little Hannah and Jake, who have improved miraculously since they were born in April and are now both at home with mom. She also delivers breast milk to Children’s Hospital, where her third child, Nicholas, the biggest and the sickest, is still being treated for a perforated bowel. Nicholas is tube fed with Fiveash’s breast milk, and she adds that there is a long list of benefits of breast milk for children with bowel problems.

Fiveash is the quintessential poster mom for World Breastfeeding Week, celebrated globally August 1-7. World Breastfeeding Week, the main campaign for the World Alliance of Breastfeeding Action, is designed to generate public awareness and support for breastfeeding. This year’s theme is Breastfeeding in the Information Age.

UAB lactation consultant Toni Lariviere, BSN, RN, IBCLC, said this year’s theme is most appropriate. She says that according to the International Lactation Consultants of America, breastfeeding may seem simple and natural to some, but getting straightforward information can require the talents of Sherlock Holmes. With books, videos, baby clubs and the internet, families have more and more sources to turn to for breastfeeding help.

Mrs. Fiveash said she has used two different Web sites to help her with questions on breastfeeding. For example, she used an interactive tool on www.breastfeeding.com to determine whether any of the medications she was taking would be harmful to the babies through the breast milk. (As a side note, her internet-savvy husband has built a Web site for the triplets, and plans to air “baby cam” next week, video streaming from the nursery for friends and family that haven’t been able to visit Nicholas, who is still in the hospital.)

The American Academy of Pediatrics has been a staunch advocate of breastfeeding as the optimal form of nutrition for infants. In its policy statement on breastfeeding, the Academy reports that extensive research, especially in recent years, documents diverse and compelling advantages to infants, mothers, families and society from breastfeeding and the use of human milk for infant feeding. These include health, nutritional, immunologic, developmental, psychological, social, economic and environmental benefits.

It is all of those benefits that outweigh anything else, Fiveash said. “Pumping breast milk can be somewhat inconvenient and is not always as emotionally rewarding as nursing, but a mother’s most important responsibility is to consider her baby,” she said. “It’s so much better for them and I wouldn’t do it any other way.”

Lariviere adds that not all preemies have to be bottle fed breast milk. “Many can and do feed directly from the breast,” she said. “It just takes time, practice and patience.”