Susan writes:
Getting the pharmacy involved makes REAL milk something like a drug. Are the 
artificial formula products similarly portioned out by pharmacy barcoding? 
Real milk shouldn't be subject to more controls and paperwork than the 
phoney stuff.

Having had a baby in the NICU I can tell you that anything that further 
removes mamma's milk from being normal and natural makes it that much harder 
to keep pumping. When you add bar codes and pharmacy involvement it makes 
breastmilk feel like it's not quite safe or it's dangerous enough to need 
more oversight. It's tough having a baby in the NICU and it takes a huge 
committment to keep pumping.

Susan Small RN BSN

On the other hand, I have heard that telling moms that their milk IS critical medicine for their babies emphasizes its importance and empowers her to know that this is something her baby needs and only she can provide it. 
Use of identifying mechanisms like barcoding asures that only HER baby gets the "medicine" she is providing, not other babies, especially if she is struggling to provide as much as possible.  It doesn';t matter which artificialy fed baby gets which bottle of formula since the inferior product is all the same.  (aside from the fact that different babies may get different sub-brands)
It's primarily in how the information is presented!

Winnie Mading


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