Twice in the past 2 weeks our  NICU staff has directed mothers to pump and
dump their breastmilk because the mother was running fever.   They also
insist that the mother not even visit her baby until she has been free of
fever for 24 hours!!!   I know that sometimes for the very young preemie,
the "rules" are a little different but . . .  For one mother the fever was
from an unknown origin, and the mother was even hospitalized on IV
antibiotics and still the fever returned.  Finally it was determined that
the infection was inside her uterus and eventually subsided.  Of course now
the mother's milk supply is down because she got discouraged etc..  

 

In another situation the mother and her toddler at home had diarrhea, and
again the mother was told not to bring in her breastmilk for her newborn in
NICU, but to discard it for 3 days!!!  My explanations about the mother's
body building immunities that would help her baby made any difference.  

 

Can anyone direct me to the references that discount these ideas for the
NICU mother/baby??  In the past I seem to recall in Dr. Ruth Lawrence's book
there was a statement regarding mastitis and that it is o.k. to continue to
breastfeed the normal newborn, but that things may be different for the NICU
baby - of course I can't find that when I need it!  

 

I am hoping to soon have a meeting with the NP's and Neonatologists to
discuss this and want to provide them with a lot of evidence.  

 

Any help in finding these references would be greatly appreciated!!

 

Evelyn Landry, RN, IBCLC, RLC

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