Britt Kolb is the mother of two children, “one in her arms and the other in heaven”, as she says, with a sad and beautiful story behind at the same time. Months after her oldest son turned one year old, she found out she was pregnant with another boy and it was great news for the family.
But the bad news came when they performed an ultrasound in week 18, when doctors detected a congenital diaphragmatic hernia that would require surgery after birth and stay in the ICU for two to three months. Survival in these cases is 50 percent, and respiratory failure is the leading cause of death.
They went ahead with the pregnancy with the most positive attitude possible. “We knew we had to be strong for our baby, that he would be fighting for his life,” says Britt in Love what matters .
On April 16, 2020, Elias Drew came to the world, and as soon as he was born, he was intubated and sedated, and he was admitted to the ICU. His situation worsened with the days, to the point of having to connect him to life support and later suffered brain damage due to his low oxygen level.
Elijah lived only 21 days . During the entire time he was admitted, his mother expressed milk to have a supply for when her baby could be fed with it. And when her baby died, her breasts continued to make milk. Even next to the body of his recently deceased baby and with the great pain he felt for his loss, he expressed milk knowing that it would not be for him.
“For having something positive from his death, I would do it again”
The mother contacted a lactation consultant who told her that “some women choose to continue expressing milk and donate it in honor of their baby.” She explained that donated breast milk can save the lives of many sick and premature babies in the NICU who, for many different reasons, cannot get it from their own mothers.
He immediately thought of all the bottles and bags of milk that he had stored in the NICU’s freezer for weeks. Now I had the opportunity to give it to other sick babies who needed it, the mother thought.
On his Instagram profile, he shared this beautiful photo in which he poses next to the almost 600 ounces ( more than 17 liters of milk) that was expressed for his baby but that he never drank . Instead, other babies who need it will benefit from it.
Next to the photo he wrote the message:
“His life was short, but not without impact .❤️ Yesterday, all the milk that I had expressed from Elías was donated to help other babies in the NICU in need. When I agreed to donate for the first time, I thought I would just leave some bags in a mail slot at the hospital and it would end … nope. Becoming a donor is quite a process with blood tests, various screenings, etc – but for a chance to have something positive from his death, I would again and more in a heartbeat. “
Photos | Britt Kolb (Reproduced with permission)
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