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ST. GEORGE — As good as 5-month-old Rayken Blackner looks now, there was a time when his mother didn't know if he was going to live long enough to see this Christmas.
"I mean, coming at 25 weeks, you don't know if he's going to make it or not,” Hailey Blackner said.
Rayken was born 15 weeks premature. He came into this world weighing 1 pound, 15 ounces, and measured only 13 1/2 inches long.
Instead of going home with his family, Rayken was hooked up to a respirator in Dixie Regional Hospital's neo-natal intensive care unit (NICU).
"It took a long time to be OK with my baby in the NICU and to get over leaving him every night and not being able to take him home when I went home,” said Blackner, who lives in Minersville.
What really helped Rayken, though, was breast milk — donated breast milk.
Because he was premature, his mother couldn't make milk yet. It's an issue doctors and nurses in the St. George hospital see all the time, and they rely on donated breast milk to feed premature infants. However, their supply is dangerously low.
"At times, we actually have to triage and decide which of the babies is most important to get the breast milk,” said KerryAnn Humphrey, a lactation specialist at Dixie Regional.
Hospital workers are asking mothers to donate their breast milk if they can.
Milk that is collected at Dixie Regional is sent to the Mother’s Milk Bank in Denver, Colorado, where it is pasteurized and sent for use by infants throughout the Intermountain West.
Of course, babies can be given formula, but doctors say breast milk is the best, especially for babies so young.
“Providing breast milk for babies is actually proven to help with their IQ, to help with their vision, and to prevent illnesses,” Humphrey said. “Obviously, if we can give them the best, we'd rather give all of them the best and not have to decide who the ones are that need it the most."
For Rayken, the donated breast milk worked better than anything. He's healthy now, weighing 10 pounds and almost doubling in size to 25 inches long.
For him and his family, this Christmas just might be the most special of them all.
"No one will ever know how much it means to us of the milk that was donated down here to help him those first couple of days. It's amazing,” Blackner said.
If you are interested in becoming a donor, you can contact Dixie Regional Medical Center at 435-688-5440.
Contributing: Stace Hall
