This wonder of nature contains over 1000 different protein components. About 30% of these are unique to us humans, they simply do not exist in animals. Many of these proteins play a strong role in preventing infections and stopping the growth of dangerous microbes in the gut of your baby. When live bacteria are mixed with human milk, most will simply die. The ones that survive are made harmless by additional proteins in the milk,  so called immunoglobulins. A cow milk-based formula or fortifier will not have the same protective properties, making premature babies susceptible to potentially fatal infections.

The third most abundant component of human milk is what scientists call human milk oligosaccharides, HMOs. If you have not heard about these it is not surprising, many healthcare professional do not know what they are. HMOs are very unusual carbohydrates. We humans cannot digest them, so they do not provide any nutritional value. They do something else. In the gut of your baby HMOs bind to some bacteria and viruses, so they cannot enter the baby’s bloodstream causing an infection. As their name suggests, HMOs are not produced by animals. As a result, preterm babies fed on cow milk bases fortifiers remain more vulnerable.