Project: $1.9M to increase preterm baby breastfeeding
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Authorities in the Mississippi Delta say rural mothers whose premature babies are in intensive care will be able to get their breast milk delivered to their babies, thanks to a $1.9 million, three-year grant.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is providing the money to the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi, based in Hernando for a program called “Right! From the Start.”
Program director Sannie Snell tells The Commercial Appeal that research has found that babies fed breast milk are less likely to get infections, and breast-fed preemies are generally healthier.
Snell says they hope to deliver breast milk two or three times a week from Bolivar, Coahoma, Leflore, Sunflower and Washington counties to the neonatal ICU at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.
