Jean Ridler -

Thanks for sharing this "confession" with us! I find it perfectly plausible
that a "good" loving, caring, breastfeeding, well-bonded mom might not
notice right away that she had been handed or even nursed the wrong baby.
Esp. if the nurse comes in & hands the baby over, & the baby is acting
hungry (too long in that da** nursery, maybe?), so the mom just latches it
on. Having handed out thousands of babies in my days at the hospital, it
seems that many moms don't necessarily look at the baby all that closely
*before* nsg. In hospitals with central nurseries, feeding has a high
urgency level, and it's *after* the business has been taken care of that
moms generally seem to feel they have the leisure to look, croon, adore,
etc. And during the feeding, it's pretty hard to see the baby's face, so
unless during the previous fdg you'd doted on something specific & easily
visible like an ear, you might not notice. Or you might think "Gee, I didn't
notice that little swirl in her ear last time - very cute!"; and newborns do
change very fast.

As we agree, just one more reason to keep that baby tucked up with mom at
all times!

Cathy Bargar RN, IBCLC Ithaca NY

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