Pat Young wrote:
>I believe in NJ the birth certificate info is including "how fed" info
>(usually both because nurses fill it out and they take babies to mom to be
>fed and feed in with bottles :-(  This is sent in at same time as natl immun
>reg info with Hep B shot info.  Accuracy????? Not very and it is only on
>first 48 hours or so.  Sincerely, Pat in SNJ

Using the Electronic Birth Certificate, the State of  New Jersey collects
data on infant feeding in the hospital.  The question asked is "How was the
infant fed during the 24 hours preceding discharge?" and the possible answers
are exclusive breastfeeding, exclusive formula feeding, mixed feeding, or
unknown.  Pat may be right to wonder about the accuracy of the data--each
hospital decides how it will collect its data, and it's probably a clerk or a
nurse who fills in the answer.  I would like to know how many of them
actually have looked at the baby's chart first.

However, this IS a do-able way to collect important information, and I think
it's quite valuable.  Exclusive breastfeeding begins at birth, after all, and
babies who are documented as mix-fed in the 24 hours before discharge have
clearly missed out on the opportunity to be exclusively breastfed.  It would
be better, of course, to collect data on the entire hospital stay...and maybe
someday that will come!  But partial data is better than no data...isn't it??

Chris Mulford, RN, IBCLC
Swarthmore  PA  (eastern USA)

             ***********************************************
The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html