Her Bio:

Karen Lasby leads a specialized nursing team in post-discharge follow-up of extremely premature infants and their families. She has presented locally, nationally, and internationally on the topics of premature babies, neonatal oral feeding, and NICU-to-home transition. She was the keynote closing speaker at the well known GOLD conference in June of this year. An educator for nearly thirty years, Karen has taught, written instructional material, and produced online neonatal nursing courses. Karen has served on the boards of the Canadian Association of Neonatal Nurses and the Council for International Neonatal Nurses. Karen’s passion is ensuring premature babies enjoy feeding with as much breastmilk as possible.

Her Background:

Karen grew up in a Province of Canada. She is the oldest of 3 sisters and describes herself as the “wisest” of all 3 sisters! She met and married an engineer from the campus where she attended nursing school. Together they moved the Province of Alberta and are raising 2 children and 4 dogs. She always had a passion for the smallest and most fragile babies. In her work as a Neonatal Intensive Care Nurse she worked with many premature babies and their families. She began to see a pattern at the time of discharge. Parents were afraid as they thought about the transition from the NICU to their home.

She got her Masters Degree with the focus on these vulnerable families and their babies. She developed a new community based programs to meet the needs of theses families. She has been involved in this passionate work for over 20 years.

Her Breastfeeding History:

Many years ago there was not much help for breastfeeding mothers. She had an easy time breastfeeding her first baby. With her second baby, she had struggles with health issues which negatively affected her milk volume, so she did a lot of pumping. She had

Two pearls of wisdom:

Playtime – play at the breast. When latching was not going well, I was not encouraged to go in there and play and have them hang out at the breast. If latching did not work, she relied heavily on the pump and abandoned offering the breast.

Getting help – She may not have had help years ago, but there is plenty of help available now. Don’t wait until you feel like it will get better at some point, ask for help. You can go to your care provider, whether Dr. or Nurse or Midwife and ask for breastfeeding help and resources

.Premature Babies and the NICU:

Tell us the difference in a premature baby- We place them in 2 Main Categories –

Most pregnancies are 37-40 weeks in length. A premature baby is born 3 weeks and 18 weeks early. They have not finished growing and developing. Since this is a wide range, we separate the babies into categories. This is because their medical needs will be different.

A baby born 3-6 weeks early are late preterm babies. They are close to term but behave and have health issues of premature babies. The majority of preterm babies are later preterm. At the opposite end of the spectrum are babies that are under 28 weeks, at least 12 weeks early. Theses extremely premature babies basically missed the whole 3rd trimester inside their mom.

Tell us how things have changed in the last 20 years as far as the technology that we have now has played a part in the survival of premature babies:

Survival rate has improved. What has not changed is the rate of premature births – 1 out of 10 babies are born premature. This is a global issue because this translates to about 15 million premature babies, per year.

Late preterm babies who are 5-6 pounds, they are small, their mouths are a little small, they have a good chance of latching on. Babies who are so much smaller, less than 28 weeks, are too small to breastfeed just yet. However, the best thing they can digest is breastmilk. We encourage moms to start expressing her milk within hours of delivering. We want those precious drops of milk to put right inside their babies mouth. Two drops are a reason to celebrate.

How do you help parents prepare for taking care of their baby:

Self-Care – Mother’s need to take care of themselves. Father’s needs to take care of themselves. We are looking for the basics – well nourished and well hydrated and well rested. Mother’s need to pump on a regular basis to tell your body to increase the supply. As their baby progresses and soon becomes able to begin breastfeeding, we want the milk to be there. Next comes skin to skin with mom and baby. They may not even be able to breastfeed yet, but putting them to the breast to cuddle, for them to smell the milk and taste milk that drips, this makes the transition from no breastfeeding to breastfeeding smoother.

Hand Expression: Karen said that years ago, she thought the pump did all the work of milk removal and did not fully understand at that time that the pump is only a machine and that hand expression is really important.

How are babies supplemented?

They like to collect fresh milk which is given to your baby right away. Extra milk is frozen. Babies who cannot suck orally, it is necessary for us to put a tube down in babies stomach and we will then put the milk right there. As babies get older, if at all possible, it is best for them to have their first feeding at the breast rather than the bottle.

Now once home, how does a mom manage caring for and breastfeeding at home –

Karen suggests that a mom practices every feeding at the breast vs. once or twice a day like they did during their hospital stay. As your baby continues to gain weight, keep expanding the time spent at breast. Gradually the baby will begin to latch better, and stay longer and longer at the breast getting more milk each time. Practicing once in a while, for short spurts will help to progress. Practicing once a day will make it very difficult for babies to pick up this skill.

What is life like for moms and babies in the NICU –

The environment is totally foreign and frightening.

The sights and sounds of the NICU is overhwhleming
the language they use is can be very confusing. Parents often feel as if they have been parachuted into another country and just not understanding what is going on. Karen describes these parents as feeling as if they have been “lost at sea.”

Their babies appearance can be shocking to them. They are small, thin skin, short, Big heads, little bodies. During pregnancy they have a very different picture of their babies, chubby, healthy full term smiling. Now they have a baby that does not look like what they had envisioned, along with all the tubes and wires and noisy monitors connected to their baby who is likely in an incubator. They can stand there and see there baby, but they are physicially separated from their baby they can’t just scoop up their baby and hold them in their arms. They feel like they don’t have a role in their babies life as they watch the medical staff take care of their baby. Gradually, the parents begin to assert themselves and do more care taking, however, they do get use to the routine and the safety net of being in the NICU with medical staff.

Integrating families into the health care team. Some families stay in single room NICU so a parent can stay there 24/7. This makes a huge difference for the baby, their health and the parents confidence. No matter how close they stayed with their baby and take care of their baby in the NICU, the transition home can be very frightening as they realize they are fully in charge of their baby all of a sudden.

Let’s talk about her book: Preemie Care: A guide to navigate the first year with your premature baby.

What is different and unique about your book compared to other books about premature babies?

This books is written by 2 nurses who work with families with premature babies after they go home. She has listened to their woes and triumphs and watched the babies progressed the common problems and concerns they experience. The foundation of this book is her Post-discharge experience working intimately with mothers and babies. She worked with a dozen parents, with their babies. What is the key information that they needed to know. We also included their stories which helped the content come alive. We cover the NICU stay, self-care, how can they get involved in the care of their baby, what they need to do to get ready to go home, how to keep your baby home by preventing illness. Chapters on tummy troubles and pooping, which is a common concern with new parents, there are lots of details on babies development. They have also included a whole Chapter on parents self-care.

How did your Focus Group help you in writing this book?

Karen states that the group was very helpful. For instance, they were Not going to talk about the NICU experience at all. They were originally going to start with all that parents needed to know once they were home with their new baby. Parents in focus group were very adamant about starting sooner. They said they needed to know about self care and how to become a parent while they are in the NICU. The last chapter was one conceived by parents as they contain the parents stories.

Hope! Every drop matters!

Karen tells the story of a baby who left the hospital very tiny. The babies weight gain prior to discharge was very low. At home, the baby was breastfeeding, but not transferring milk. Karen worked closely with mom and baby, fortifying her breastmilk. The baby took small steps and gradually began to progress with breastfeeding. As her baby grew and began transferring more and more breastmilk, they transitioned to exclusively breastfeeding.

Not every mother can produce a full supply for their baby, Karen tells all moms: every drop counts. You may not produce 100%, but not matter how much you can produce, that is a miracle and that is exactly what your baby needs.

New Projects

Going to be doing a few podcasts which will be listed on their website – preemiecare.
Working more with social media on Facebook and Instagram to get the word out about their book.Her Contact Information:

www.preemiecare.ca
Facebook = Preemie Care
preemiecare.info@gmail.com

Her Book:

Preemie Care: A guide to navigate the first year with your premature baby.