Breast milk is the best food for all human infants and it is a well too needed, important food for premature babies.

Mothers often think their bodies do not produce enough milk for their premature babies because the bodies are not ready for that task. However, the real reason is the stress, worry, emotional problems and discomfort associated with the premature birth that prevend milk production.

Please remember any drop of milk that you can express contributes to your babies' health and the ability to fight infection.

A hospital grade breast pump is important for expressing milk for a premie. A powerful eletric breast pump with dual pumping action is the best choice since it's most effective in stimulating the mother's body to release more milk-making hormon prolactin, which results in more milk is produced. Medela Lactina, Medela Classic, Medela Symphony are all good choices.

You should pump around the clock every 2 hours. That's what a normal infant would be feeding at the early stage of life.

Eventhough yur body does not produce much milk at all (a few drops), a breastpumping session should last around 10 to 15 minutes to provide enough time to stimulate prolactin production in the body.

You should stop pumping a couple minutes after your milk has stopped flowing. Most women will not have milk flowing after 20 to 30 minutes. Pumping longer than 30 minutes are often unneccesary and result in sore nipples.

However, if you pump that long, you need not pump as often as 12 times a day. Eight times might be just enough.

There are a few basic important things you can do to increase your milk effectively.

Resting is one. It's apparently difficult to rest when you have a premature baby, however, there is a direct imapct that rest/sleep has on the amount of milk your body produces. The more rest you have, the more milk your body makes!

Take the pain medication your doctor prescribe if you are in much pain. Pain free is important to milk production also.