Someone -- I'm sorry, it's been a few days and I don't remember who -- asked about anecdotal reports of how often the wrong breastmilk is given in the NICU.

In the 6 1/2 years I worked in one, this happened one time (that was reported, anyway). Until that point, mothers sometimes brought in their bottles of milk with the date and time expressed written on the labels, but for some reason without their name! Or they would label the bottles with the baby's first name, not realizing we likely had more than one Brittany or Ryan. :) The nurse who met the mom at the door to collect the milk would then have to properly label the bottles with the baby's name.

Well, you can imagine that that process changed! The moms were given a supply of labels stamped with the baby's ID stamp (the same one used to stamp all the papers in the chart), and if she brought in milk without labels, she -- not the nurse -- had to label it before it was put into the milk fridge or freezer. We were also supposed to doublecheck breastmilk with another nurse before we warmed it up. (But that wasn't made an official policy the way doublechecking blood is, so after a while, people slacked off on that.)

I think the individual freezers at the bedside is a fantastic idea! And the mere presence of the freezers would reinforce to the moms that something is supposed to be going in them!

Jennifer Herrin, RN, IBCLC
Heidelberg, Germany


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