To follow on with the stories about NICU staff behavior - when my son
was in the NICU for a week following his birth, I pumped until he was
able to take the breast.  Most of the pumped milk went into the
refrigerator in the nursing room, next to the NICU.  But, I was filling
up the small fridge, so I decided to put the milk in the special BM
freezer bags.  When my son and I left the hospital, I took home the milk
from the fridge, but forgot the milk in the freezer (which was clearly
marked with my name and with the date it was pumped).  One of the NICU
nurses had had an argument with me about the existence of nipple
confusion, when I didn't want her to give my son a pacifier.  That same
nurse THREW OUT the 12 oz of breastmilk I had left in the freezer, even
though I called the next day to get it.

I overheard this same nurse telling another couple who also didn't want
their baby to have a pacifier (she gave the baby one anyway), that she
(the nurse) used the pacifier to "train the babies how to suck" so they
would be more effective at the breast.  Is this absurd or what?

So even when mothers speak up, some nurses bully them, and even do
spiteful things like throw out precious breastmilk!

Dena Bernhard
Harris ISD
Melbourne, Florida