Perfect

There’s no such thing as a perfect thing.

But breast milk is simply perfect. Just ask our neonatologist, Dr. Mian Silvestre. Just ask Heaven Czar, our son, maybe years from now. Heaven was born prematurely at 31 weeks and 6 days. He had to be placed inside an incubator for one week. He could have stayed there for a longer time had it not been for his mom’s lifesaving gift --- Aires’ breast milk.

Nobody could really explain why. But a mother’s breast milk for her premature baby contains the most astonishing components that will help the baby survive. And that milk is uniquely made for each baby.

We only needed a few drops of Aires’ colostrum to sustain Heaven in the first three days of his life. In fact, we only needed to give him about 0.1 cc for every two hours. This amount increased as the days passed. Heaven was fed through a gastric tube.

But perfect as it is, giving breast milk to a premature baby is a labor of love. Aires expressed milk. It was painful at first but when we saw how such little intake helped Heaven achieved great strides, Aires endured the pain and soon after, her regular milk started flowing.

Just before Heaven reached his one week milestone, he was out of the incubator and unto Aires’ bosom. It was magnificent to see Heaven finally get breastfed.

But everytime Aires and I put Heaven to her breast, we struggle to get the perfect latch. Successful breastfeeding relies on the right position and the perfect latch. The baby’s mouth should be wide open, lower lip covering most of the aureola, the chin touching the breast, the nose tilted up. Only with a perfect latch can we assure that Heaven gets his perfect food.

Now, that is perfection at its finest and purest.