Hello to all--I am a part-time lactation consultant here in Fredericksburg, Virginia, USA.  I work in the community hospital and one of my jobs is to represent lactation at the multidisciplinary neonatal intensive care unit weekly rounds.  Our breastfed VLBW babies have a high incident of infection, feeding intolerances, smelly stools, etc.  The nurses have lost faith in mother's milk for the preemies.  The breastmilk has been cultured many times and gram - rods and many other bacterias are found.  It wouldn't be a big deal if the babies were not symptomatic.  Even our strongest proponents of breastfeding in the NICU are losing faith.  The lactation department has really stepped up our efforts to educate the parents about cleaning the pump parts.  We give the parents the anitbacterial wipes, the microwave bags, etc.  We have a pump loan program for mothers with babies in the NICU.  We clean the pumps between patients with Cavicide, everyone gets a sterile kit.  The nurses in the NICU think the pump motors are infected and we just don't know it.

This doesn't make sense to me and it makes me very sad.  Woman with big supplies of breastmilk have stopped pumping and tossed out all of their milk.  

Please give me any suggestions for how we can deal with this.  

Thanks,
Anne Nans, RN/IBCLC
Fredericksburg, VA

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