Holly writes of a situation in her hospital where babies are being given
formula without the parent's knowledge or permission. An interesting
article appeared in the February 2000 issue of the Journal of Human
Lactation entitled, "Using the law of battery to protect and support
breastfeeding by Priscilla Bornmann, JD and Graham Ross, LLB. The article
mentioned that if the parent had clearly stated that she wanted to
exclusively breastfeed and not to give bottles of formula, then the theory
of civil battery might be applied and the hospital could be liable for
sneaking unwanted formula into babies. You might want to check with your
Risk Management Department as well as your hospital's legal counsel about
this practice. Hospitals without clear supplementation policies that are
followed by staff might also benefit from this situation being brought to
the attention of the Quality Improvement people to see if a QI project
might be a strategy to help stop the practice.

Marsha Walker, RN, IBCLC
Weston, MA

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