Does anybody work in a hospital that provides meals or food vouchers to mothers who are breastfeeding or pumping for their hospitalized babies?  I am at a stand-alone pediatric hospital, and our large NICU is (finally) going to be able to start providing donor breastmilk in the next few months.  Certainly there are efforts to increase moms' own abilities to pump, and one idea being considered is providing meal trays to moms who are pumping.  It sounds like staff are skittish about the upfront costs of paying for donor milk, and are hoping to be able to frame the cost of paying for moms' food as a cost-savings measure because the hospital won't be paying for donor milk for their infants.  Wondering how much of an incentive this is to keep moms motivated and pumping, vs something just something that's nice for moms who are already pumping?

Please let me know if you have any experience in this, we'd love to hear more about how it works at other institutions!

Thanks,
Sarah Reece-Stremtan M.D.
Washington DC

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