Premature infants who receive human milk have the best outcomes; medically, nutritionally, and developmentally.
The Supporting Premature Infant Nutrition (SPIN) program was developed to address the challenges of helping mothers produce sufficient breastmilk for their premature infants, and to improve the manner in which Neonatal Intensive Care Units support optimal nutrition and growth in their most vulnerable population of patients.
Human Breast Milk Benefits Very Low Birth Weight Infants
Very Low Birth Weight (VLBW) infants face the dual challenge of maintaining intrauterine growth rates and dealing with the metabolic demands of their acute illness.
Human milk is known to provide significant protection against NEC, sepsis, and to improve neurodevelopmental outcomes. Despite this, less than 50% of US born VLBW infants are discharged home on human milk, and even fewer are completely human milk fed.
The goal of the SPIN program is help mothers of premature infants feed their babies 100% human milk. This website has been developed to provide parents and NICU staff the tools they need to work together toward this goal.