Mom of Prolacta Baby Lincoln “the Legend” gives back

“Lincoln is my rainbow miracle baby,” says Heather, a breastmilk donor and mother to a Prolacta baby.

At 21 weeks and 3 days into her pregnancy, Heather went into her Louisville, Kentucky hospital with a little spotting to make sure everything was ok.

“The doctors reiterated that he had to be at least 22 weeks gestation to attempt to resuscitate, so I waited on bedrest in the hospital for the next 6 days until he was born at 22 weeks and 1 day, at only 470 grams,” said Heather.

They were fortunate to have a hospital with a level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) that also provides our products within 8 minutes of their home,

“I immediately got support from the medical team there, including the lactation consultants, so that I could begin providing life sustaining breast milk for Lincoln, said Heather.

Lincoln did well with a combination of her own breastmilk supplemented with our fortifiers for his first 10 weeks of life. He kept gaining weight and doing well internally.

Sadly, Lincoln was found to have a bilateral brain bleed at 5 days of life. Despite the devastating news, the situation began to resolve on its own and never required further intervention.

“He is now enrolled in occupational and physical therapies to help beat the odds against him. Besides that, and a urinary tract infection (UTI) scare that caused a minor breathing set back, Lincoln shocked everyone by how healthy and active he was the entire time he was in the NICU and how quickly he moved through the different stages of the NICU,” said Heather.

Lincoln was quickly dubbed “the legend” as he surprised everyone with his progress along the way. No one thought a baby born so prematurely would be able to survive let alone thrive. However, after 133 days on oxygen support, Lincoln trialed room air and has been off ever since.

“Later that week on day 137, Lincoln was ready to go home at 41 weeks, 5 days gestational age, only 2 weeks after his March 1 due date. After much prayer and the help and wisdom of the incredible hospital team in Louisville, KY, our baby is home and doing really well! We also thank God for Prolacta because we really believe this was a huge part of why he did so well. Breast milk is the way to go for these little guys. Thanks so much for helping rescue our child,” said Heather.

Lincoln went home with full oral feedings and no oxygen support. He loves tummy time and seems like a perfectly healthy term baby. He likes to eat, sleep and do tummy time in his play gym. He also likes going for strolls outdoors and loves cuddles.

It was during her long hours in the NICU that Heather had “spare time” to learn more about nutrition for preemies.

“I quickly learned about human milk fortifiers and other fortifiers needed to help preemies. He gained weight pretty consistently, slowly at first, but I logged his growth every single day. Apart from when he was sick, he maintained great growth rates throughout his journey,” said Heather.

Heather started pumping on day one of Lincoln’s birth and has continued ever since. She always had an oversupply. In fact, the lactation and formula departments said Heather had enough breast milk for twins.

“I completely filled their coolers within a month and was asked to get my own deep freezer. I filled that within 2 weeks. I began donating to local milk banks and moms and then stumbled upon Prolacta,” said Heather.

Heather became a Tiny Treasures donor in January and has already sent in 1,500 oz of her breast milk. She considers it a blessing to give back to those who played such a huge part in rescuing her baby boy.