Hello everyone,
My name is Christine DeLorenzo and I live in New York with my husband and three ” children”. This May, my daughter graduated from college, my son is a rising junior in college and my youngest will be a junior in high school. I have been a Labor and Delivery nurse for my entire 28 years of nursing and have loved every minute of it. My facility was hit hard during the Covid 19 pandemic with 80% covid positive patients. Fortunately, all of our covid positive moms and babies did extremely well.
In 2016 , my facility earned Magnet Status which involved a rigorous review process with written documentation to demonstrate qualitative and quantitative evidence related to patient care and outcomes . The Magnet model is designed to provide a framework for nursing practice, research and measurement of outcomes.
Research plays an important role in my nursing practice. Research shows that human milk is the best source of nutrition for all babies, especially for those that are preterm and have low birth weight . Many of our patients indicated their preference to use pasteurized donor human milk when their milk was not available instead of supplementing with formula. Recently my facility implemented a pasteurized donor human milk program and all nurses were trained on the education from the evidence to support the why behind the project to the practical aspects of how to incorporate it into practice.
Good luck this semester and stay safe!!
Thanks for your hard work on the frontlines. Some nurses from UCSF went out to help in NY as I’m sure nurses from around the country did.
My daughter born at 28 weeks received donated breast milk for a brief period in the NICU, I was happy to know. I didn’t meet her until she was a month old as she came to me through foster care. Anyhow, I wish that there had been a way for foster babies to get the donated breast milk more easily. I tried to get it for her, but as a foster parent I didn’t have as much pull. I think these babies need it more than most, though to look at her now you would never guess she was a preemie:)
I never thought about foster babies who would definitely benefit from donor milk.I also heard that milk banks sometimes have limited supplies and are closed on weekends and holidays making it harder to obtain it. Introducing the human milk program into my facility was a huge step and I hope other facilities will begin to offer it as an option
Excellent example! Welcome to the course, Christine.
Thank you 🙂
I work in a rural hospital in Kansas and we alway encourage breastfeeding with our moms and babes and we do alot of teaching and education on how important it is to give the baby breastmilk. We have a lot of young moms around our area and we do not have a donor program but it would be nice for us to have that option for those mom that go home and have a hard time with breastfeeding and decide to go to bottle.
Our patients hear how important breastfeeding is for their babies and when they have difficulty they feel like a failure. Donor milk can be expensive and women in lower socioeconomic status should have the same access to it.
What a lovely post! It is nice to hear that your COVID+ moms did well. I have had the same experience in mom/baby with COVID+ moms in Colorado. It seems though our percentages of COVID are much much less than in New York where you practice.
Thank you Karen and I am glad your moms and babies did well also. It is a very scary time and even though our numbers are going down we are still getting moms/dad that are still testing positive up to 8 weeks after infection.
Thanks for taking such awesome care of your families. I hope for continued decreases in infection rates. At my hospital, we are COVID testing all inductions and scheduled procedures. Not a lot of positives.
How awesome! I think that it is great that you guys use human milk for babies! I think more hospitals should get on board with that idea. I know at our hospital we have a lot of moms who want their babies to have the breast milk however they don’t produce as much themselves. I think it would be awesome to be able to supplement with donor breast milk. Good post! Nice to meet you!
That is awesome about your facility’s donor milk program. I am a CLC and work for a county health department. I spend a lot of time educating prenatally and then offering lactation services after baby is born. I wish every hospital had a donor milk program. It can be so hard for some mothers when they want to breastfeed and then have difficulties. Donor programs could help so much. I know that Kansas has a milk sharing FaceBook page that moms will donate their milk. As a CLC, I cannot recommend this as there are not regulations or testing, but I do know several moms who have donated and others who have benefited from the donations. I am glad to hear that your COVID-19 positive moms and babies are doing well. I can’t imagine the devastation you have seen on the front lines in NY.