Good news for parents during Gastroschisis Awareness Month: Surgifort nutritional fortifier supports healing and growth for babies post-surgery

DUARTE, Calif., July 22, 2025 – Gastroschisis Awareness Month brings good news for families of the 1 out of every 2,400 newborns in the U.S. diagnosed annually with gastroschisis,¹ a rare gastrointestinal birth defect requiring surgery shortly after birth. Prolacta Bioscience's Surgifort^® human milk fortifier (human, pasteurized), recently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), is made from 100% donor breast milk and supports weight gain and healing for these fragile newborns after surgery. 

Infants recovering from gastroschisis surgery require high macronutrient intake for optimal growth.² Surgifort fortifier delivers concentrated breast milk-based nutrition, free of cow milk, designed specifically for term infants during this critical stage of recovery.

"Despite the small patient population affected by gastroschisis, Prolacta's dedication to the lifesaving benefits of human milk-based nutrition inspired the development of Surgifort fortifier to address the unmet nutritional needs of these medically fragile infants," said Elizabeth Simonton, JD, co-founder and CEO of ICU Baby. 

Understanding Post-Surgical Nutrition Needs in Gastroschisis

After surgery, infants with gastroschisis often struggle to tolerate feeds and absorb nutrients, making optimal nutrition essential to their healing process.²

"Babies recovering from gastroschisis surgery require a strong nutritional foundation to help them grow and thrive," said Dr. Melinda Elliott, MD, FAAP, practicing neonatologist and chief medical officer at Prolacta. "Surgifort fortifier brings the clinically proven benefits of human milk-based nutrition to this underserved group of critically ill infants."

Surgifort fortifier is a concentrated, liquid human milk-based product that contains protein, fat, and carbohydrate from pasteurized donor human milk, with essential minerals added. The fortifier provides the appropriate amount of calories and protein required for the dietary management of term infants requiring additional nutritional support following corrective surgery for gastroschisis. As part of an Exclusive Human Milk Diet (EHMD), Surgifort fortifier has been found to reduce the time to full feeds as well as improve weight gain velocity in babies recovering from gastroschisis repair (weight gain from the day Surgifort fortifier started until the day it was discontinued = 33.3 g/day).³

About Prolacta Bioscience

Prolacta Bioscience^® is a global life sciences company dedicated to Advancing the Science of Human Milk^® to improve health outcomes for critically ill and premature infants. More than 125,000 extremely premature infants worldwide⁴ have benefited from Prolacta's human milk-based products, which have been evaluated in more than 30 peer-reviewed clinical studies. In a significant advancement, Prolacta has developed Surgifort^®, the first and only FDA-approved human milk-based fortifier designed for term infants recovering from corrective surgery for gastroschisis. Operating the world's first pharmaceutical-grade human milk processing facilities, Prolacta maintains the industry's strictest quality and safety standards, with over 20 validated tests for screening and testing human milk. Prolacta's manufacturing process uses vat pasteurization to ensure pathogen inactivation while protecting nutritional composition and bioactivity. Learn more at prolacta.com, on X, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn.

Media Contact:
Loren Kosmont
Lkosmont@prolacta.com
310.721.9444

References

1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Birth Defects: Gastroschisis. Published November 21, 2024. Accessed July 21, 2025. https://www.cdc.gov/birth-defects/about/gastroschisis.html
2. Riddle S, Karpen H. Special populations-surgical infants. Clin Perinatol. 2023;50(3):715-728. doi:10.1016/j.clp.2023.04.008
3. Data on file; subset analysis of term infants who only received Surgifort following corrective surgery for gastroschisis at Emory University.
4. Data on file; estimated number of premature infants fed Prolacta's products from January 2007 to May 2025.