By the end of the first trimester a baby’s organs are fully formed. Everything is there, their little hands, fingers, the heart, lungs, kidneys and so on. What needs to happen though, is that these tiny organs need grow – and grow a lot. Between the 22nd and the 38th week of the pregnancy the baby will grow more than 5-fold, from being just over a pound (500 grams) to a full-size newborn of over 6 pounds. This remarkable development is supported by the placenta transfering the necessary nutrients from the mother’s blood.
When a baby is born prematurely, in an ideal world their feeding should achieve a similar growth. However, especially in babies born before 32 weeks, this is a challenging aim. The first problem is: the stomach and gut of these tiny babies is not fully developed, so they cannot digest and absorb nutrients very efficiently yet. The second: while the mother’s own milk is by far the best nutrition premature babies can receive, consuming human milk alone may not provide all the nutrients necessary for the rapid development of these vulnerable little infants.
