Shurron and Kel tell their amazing story
My son Koan has complex medical needs: He has a rare neurological condition called polymicrogyria. So far it’s affected his swallow, when he was born he needed to be fed through a nasogastric tube, his eyes, and he has epilepsy. Beyond this, we have to wait and see how he develops as he grows up.
Koan spent the first two months of his life in intensive care. After his hospitalisation, Koan was feeding only through his tube. He was getting the little milk I could express and formula. My milk production was greatly affected by Koan’s hospitalisation and our separation.
The donor milk from the Hearts Milk Bank, funded by the Human Milk Foundation, and the support from their lactation team allowed me to step away from the pump, spend more time and bond with Koan, and breastfeed more. Slowly we reduced the tube feeding and increased the breastfeeding. Koan’s feeding improved and his weight was good – he climbed to the 25th percentile after weighing below the 0.4 centile.
I am thrilled to say that we are still breastfeeding at 1 year. We have hope for the future.
