Winnie,
I basically composed the same reply last night only to realize I was beyond my daily quoata of posts. I agree with your post entirely. Barcoding and keeping breastmilk in the same record as medicines put s it in a class where it belongs with its antiinfective qualities and immune boosters. It is medicinal . 
Jane Ciaramella RNC,IBCLC,MS

----- Original Message -----
From: Winnie Mading 
Date: Friday, January 9, 2009 11:33 am
Subject: humqan milk and barcodes
To: [log in to unmask]

> Susan writes:
> Getting the pharmacy involved makes REAL milk something like a 
> drug. Are the 
> artificial formula products similarly portioned out by pharmacy 
> barcoding? 
> Real milk shouldn't be subject to more controls and paperwork 
> than the 
> phoney stuff.
> 
> Having had a baby in the NICU I can tell you that anything that 
> further 
> removes mamma's milk from being normal and natural makes it that 
> much harder 
> to keep pumping. When you add bar codes and pharmacy involvement 
> it makes 
> breastmilk feel like it's not quite safe or it's dangerous 
> enough to need 
> more oversight. It's tough having a baby in the NICU and it 
> takes a huge 
> committment to keep pumping.
> 
> Susan Small RN BSN
> 
> On the other hand, I have heard that telling moms that their 
> milk IS critical medicine for their babies emphasizes its 
> importance and empowers her to know that this is something her 
> baby needs and only she can provide it. 
> Use of identifying mechanisms like barcoding asures that only 
> HER baby gets the "medicine" she is providing, not other babies, 
> especially if she is struggling to provide as much as possible. 
> It doesn';t matter which artificialy fed baby gets which bottle 
> of formula since the inferior product is all the same. (aside 
> from the fact that different babies may get different sub-brands)
> It's primarily in how the information is presented!
> 
> Winnie Mading
> 
> 
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