From breast to baby: quality assurance for breast milk management

D Dougherty1, V Giles

  • 1Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, Women's College Campus, NICU, 76 Grenville Street, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1B2, Canada. dorothy.dougherty@swchsc.on.ca

Neonatal Network : NN
|April 16, 2002
PubMed

Breast milk is a body fluid capable of transmitting blood-borne pathogens when ingested. High-risk infants are frequently fed mother's expressed breast milk and may be at risk if they receive the wrong mother's milk. A multidisciplinary team at this 42-bed Level III regional NICU developed a quality assurance program and audit aimed at reducing the risk of feeding expressed breast milk (EBM) to the wrong high-risk infant in the unit. Changes to the old system included modernizing the handling, storing, and distribution of EBM. Elimination of feeding errors was the priority. A specific protocol to minimize EBM feeding errors became part of the quality assurance program and is consistent with the recommendations of the NICU multidisciplinary team.

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