Life TAONDGTIOVE RECEIVE

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Ielhaam Ramphal had been enjoying a normal first pregnancy, when at 28 weeks things started going awry. “I started bleeding one Monday morning,” the firsttime mom recalls. “I went to the hospital, where my doctor admitted me. I stayed there for a week while doctors tried to diagnose the problem, and also obviously tried to keep my baby inside me for as long as possible.” Ielhaam was nervous and terrified, and realised there and then how deeply an expectant mother wants to protect her child. Intensive monitoring and regular ultrasound scans followed in the next few days but, a week later, Ielhaam’s membranes broke. “The doctor said, ‘Let’s go and fetch baby,’ and that is how Aarya was born at 29 weeks’ gestation by emergency c-section,” recalls Ielhaam. “She weighed 1.2kg, but she was strong. When I got to see her the following day, she was breathing on her own already.”

The paediatrician at Cape Town’s Kingsbury Hospital that day was Dr Lara Smith, without whom Aarya’s breastfeeding journey may have turned out quite differently. “She told me about breastmilk and its many advantages, and the disadvantages of formula milk for such a premature baby,” says Ielhaam. “She stressed how important it was that I try to express my milk.” So Ielhaam bought a breast pump, and started climbing the mountain in front of her to make sure her baby got the best. “I struggled to express. I thought girl,” remembers Ielhaam, and so, when they couple was told there was a chance of receiving donated breastmilk via a Cape Town-based milk bank called Milk