Oscar's mum says his life was saved by a service many don't know exists

Sunday, 25 May 2025 19:33

It has been described as "liquid gold" for premature babies and new research shows breast milk donations can halve the rate of a life-threatening disease.

A mother who lost one of her newborn twins to an inflammatory bowel disease is speaking out for the first time since the heartbreaking ordeal.

Oscar is a cherished twin brother who survived the many challenges that come with a high-risk pregnancy.

It has been described as "liquid gold" for premature babies and new research shows breast milk donations can halve the rate of a life-threatening disease.The disease claimed the life of new born twin Alfie McKenna with his mum speaking for the first time about their heartbreaking ordeal.

He and his brother Alfie arrived into the world extremely early at 25 weeks and four days, each weighing less than one kilogram.

"It felt like a real blessing and we were very lucky to be having identical twins," Ashleigh McKenna said.

They grew stronger in intensive care until the sixth week when Alfie was struck down with necrotising enterocolitis, an inflammatory bowel disease.

"The next morning he required emergency surgery and he passed away shortly after the surgery," Mckenna said.

"There are really no words to describe the heartache and immense pain."

Brother Oscar also had the condition but he responded to antibiotics.

The condition affects about one in 20 very preterm babies with a mortality rate as high as 50 per cent.

"Bacteria can translocate from the wall into the abdomen or into the blood causing significant infection," Canberra Neonatologist Dr Tejasvi Chaudhari said.

Now there's new evidence that when a mum can't breastfeed due to illness or low supply the use of donated breast milk can cut the risk of infection by half.

Lifeblood milk research lead Dr Laura Klein, said similar research had been been published internationally.

"We're seeing that over the first three years after the Lifeblood milk service started, we're seeing a reduction in NEC by about a third," she said.

Margaret Broom, a neonatal research nurse at Canberra Hospital said it was "wonderful" to see "something so simple can have such a huge effect".

Lifeblood collects and carefully tests and processes the milk that's donated.

It launched the service six years ago, but a survey reveals there's little awareness among breastfeeding mums that it exists.

Oscar was saved by donations of blood and breast milk.

His mother wants others to know the impact of giving.

"That gave us the 48 previous days with Alfie and is a huge reason why Oscar is here today because they had a lot of donor milk," McKenna said.

"It's very important and I'll be forever grateful for donors."