Hi, fellow lactnetters.
About a year ago, I emailed for help when we were experiencing budget cuts
in our level III NICU; administration decided that our moms would have to
buy there own bottles for storage containers. During that time, many moms
threw out breastmilk or even stopped pumping due to the bottle problem.
About 2 months later, our manager bargained with a leading formula company
to provide "so many" cases of water bottles, and if we exceeded that amount,
we would have to pay for them.

We are again addressing this issue - our breastfeeding/pumping rate has been
running steadily about 70% (praise God), but we are faced with the bottle
problem again.  We normally do not advocate storing EBM in bags of any kind
due to potential loss of @62% IgA; however, what do you all think about
having the moms who produce a LOT of EBM to store excess in plastic bags and
keep that milk at home for later on when the baby is quite a lot older?  The
milk she would bring to the hospital would be stored in a glass bottle with
a tightly sealed lid as usual.

We have some moms who produce 9-12 ounces every 3 hours, and our bottles are
running out very quickly.  How do other level NICU's handle this situation?

If they use bags, does your hospital provide the bags at hospital cost, or
do you charge for profit?  Does mom pay the LC directly, or is the cost of
bags somehow put on baby's bill?


One other question:  Would the Level III NICU's please respond - what is
your average breastfeeding/pumping rate?


Thank you so much for your time to read and answer my questions!!
Happy New Year to all!

Dani Hudspeth RN, BSN, IBCLC