Hail Lactneters,

I have been lurking here for a while and finally found something to
contribute. RN on a traditional Post Partum unit.
I searched the archives and could only find one reference but no reponses to
the initial post.

The Story is:

I recently took care of a 2nd time mother who had tea colored colostrum,
which progressively turned to pink then to a  creamy milk color, through the
2 1/2 days of her postpartum course. (Mom had no significant prenatal
history. She did comment that her breasts had gone from an A cup to a D cup
and remained that way during the first pregnancy)
Her first baby was also breast fed and ended up in the nicu due to
dehydration & hyperbili.
This time, she insisted that the baby was too sleepy to nurse and attempted
to nurse only once during her hospital stay. Still she wanted the baby to
have breast milk so I set her up with a pump and woke her throughout the
night so that she could pump, as she requested.(trying to meet her where she
was) The baby was also given ABM supplements with mother's permission during
admission due to her fear of what had happened last time with first child.
The "smart" nursery nurses refused to feed the baby her milk and hemoculted
the milk claiming it was bloody so they were justified in not feeding it to
the baby. My response to this was that if she were doing the standard
latch-on we would never have known what color her colostrum was and so the
baby should get that which was produced.  Lots of arguing ensued, bottom
line, the mom went home with a bottle of tea colored colostrum she could
feed baby her self.

So 2 questions for the experts:
1- Is it possible that the tea colored colostrum during 1st 24 hours after
birth could have contributed to 1st child's reluctence to eat and subsequent
Hospitalization? And Hyperbili, since baby had more RBCs to break down?

2- Am I correct in assuming that, since feeding baby at breast would have
yielded baby getting bloody colostrum, that the colostrum should have been
given to this baby without argument?

I look forward to your response. Perhaps this is rare but does happen and
just want to be better prepared for next time.

Leigh McCabe RN
New Jersy

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