Renee says:

The milk could be stored in the patient refrigerator/freezer.  We use
sterile specimen cups for collection usually, or go to OB and get some
sterile water bottles, empty them out and put the milk into them.  We then
put them into the ziploc style "biohazard" bags that we would put lab
specimens in with the patient's ID sticker on the bag.  We of course time
and date them.  This way they are stored cleanly in the fridge/freezer. 

 

 

Renee,

 

Congratulations on your educating the staff and advocating for hospitalized
moms and babies.  It is no easy feat as we all know.

 

There is no reason why mom's milk cannot be stored in the patient food
refrigerator.

However, it should not be placed in a biohazard bag.  Human milk is not a
biohazard.  It is placed in a plastic bag to protect the milk from becoming
contaminated by other items in the fridge, not to protect the food from
being contaminated by the milk.  The biohazard bag means "Danger! You might
be infected by this specimen".  Also, you don't want to give the appearance
that the milk is somehow dirty by anyone using that fridge.  At my hospital
we pay by weight to dispose of any biohazard waste so it is very much
discouraged to use these bags for anything other than their intended
purpose.  Sometimes the biohazard bags, when used for something that is not
a biohazard, are discarded in the normal trash.  If housekeeping sees it
through the clear garbage bag then they have to put the entire bag of trash
into the biohazard waste instead.  Plain plastic bags are very inexpensive
to order.

   

The bottle itself should have the patient label attached, not just the
plastic bag.  Labels fall off easily when attached to the outside.

 

Keep up the good work  

 

Linda Anderegg, RNC, IBCLC, RLC in Chicago

 

 

 

 


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