Dear Anne -- How horrible!!  How unconscionable!!  Mom should not only be disappointed, she should be angry to the point of talking and writing to nursery supervisors, NICU chief of staff, hospital QU and QM.  I don't know if she has grounds for a suit, and I am not suit happy -- but something has to be done to let the hospital know it has severely overstepped its bounds.  The most beneficial, least noxious substance, that could be given to the infant, once it could take anything at all by mouth, would be its own mother's milk.

All of the above is my own angry and gut reaction to the situation.  25 years ago I was providing my own fresh breastmilk for my infant, who was "only" premature.  The hospital requested to use my milk for two other infants whose intestinal villae were damaged/missing.  Don't know if they had had NEC or other problems, but supposedly, they just needed time for the villae to regrow or heal.  In the meantime they needed food, in the form of fresh EBM.  They could not absorb formula, or even milk bank EBM, since that was pasteurized, and the molecules were the wrong size (according to my understanding of what the hospital said.)  I wasn't even in nursing school yet, so that explanation was complex enough for me.   

The babies' own moms were not planning to breast feed, and were not receptive to pumping milk for their babies health.  One of the couples lived more than 2 hours from the hospital, and had no car, anyway.  The other couple were 16, unmarried, in a fog, and rejecting the infant because they were sure it was going to die.  The reasons they wanted MY milk, the NICU said, were that I had a super-abundant supply, and that my son was gaining weight in better-than expected fashion.  I suspect their weren't that many other mothers  with breast milk available.  I don't remember seeing any other mom's breastfeeding in the NICU, and I was there two out of every three hours, almost around the clock, for most of David's 17-day stay.

Having worked in QU, let me tell you that the quickest way to make a change for the future, is to get this filed as an "unusual incident report."  Everyone down the line will be questioned as to why this happened in this fashion.  If it is a nursery policy, they will even have to examine the policy.  Of course, if you can cite articles, all the better, and I hope others on lactnet can provide those. 

Sincerely,  Chanita, San Francisco
(and thanking my guardian spirits that I was here when my premie was born.)