I don't think that the baby would be put to the breast of the mother on life support, But her milk expressed. I was only refering to the first few feeds as well, nothing long term.

I think in the case of premmie babies, it is encouranged more to give breastmilk. At the ABA conference I attended earlier this year there wasa guest speaker from the Hospital in Newcastle (I think) and he spoke about the important role of BM for premmie babies. But he did also talk about how for very premmie babies it wasn't enough & specially formulated formula was also needed to meet the requirement a baby of such low birth weight. They need to put on weight on fast & from what I could understand of his disscussion, BM alone just doesn't cut it. BUT he was talking about really really premmie babies, like less then 30 weeks.
Alot of the ABA counsellors didn't totally agree with him, but only because no trial (as such) has actually been done to see if they can thrive & survive on BM alone in those situations. But hey, what parent is going to put their hand up & say yeah go ahead try it on my baby. KWIM.