Baby Breastfed by Wrong Mom in Hospital: Simple Mistake or "Horrid Discovery?"
Imagine walking, groggy, just after a nap, to the hospital’s nursery in order to retrieve your newborn baby for a feeding, only to discover that he’s gone missing. Any mother would panic for a second, but surely there would be some logical explanation. In Suzanne Libby’s case, there was: her son had been taken to another woman’s room to be breastfed.
The Washington Post published a lengthy article about Libby’s ordeal in today’s paper, citing all sort of facts about how frequently these types of hospital errors occur. The most important one? That “it’s impossible to know how often breastfeeding mix-ups happen, because many states do not require hospitals to report them unless there is serious harm.” Eight similar incidents have gone on record in recent years, none of them resulting in harm to the babies involved. The Post reports that the woman who breastfed the Libbys’ son was tested for and “did not have HIV or hepatitis B or C, diseases that can be passed to a baby through breast milk.”
Though the Libbys were sent a letter (upon request) indicating the same results, they want to see ”a list of tests and results, including a toxicology screening, that were performed on the woman who breast-fed their baby.” According to the Post, “The Libbys are looking into legal options.”
Isn’t that going a bit overboard?
I understand your grief, Mrs. Libby, when you say, “I know it wasn’t my fault, but I feel like the first 24 hours of my baby’s life, I failed to protect him. There was a period of time where I don’t know whose care he was in. . . . And every time I think about his birth, this is what I think about.” Undoubtedly. One of the hardest things to accept about parenting is that we cannot ever fully protect our children from harm, but that’s a feeling you’ll have to get used to. The good news is, your son was unharmed! Why not focus on moving forward and enjoying your perfectly healthy son? I say this with love as a fellow high-strung gal who knows how hard it can be to get over trauma, but this was a very isolated, very brief incident. Pursuing a lawsuit will only prolong your pain by keeping your head stuck in that place in time.
In her description of this misadventure, Libby said, “to find that another mother breast-fed him, without my knowledge, without my consent, was horrid. . . . He was exposed to someone else’s body fluid.” If you’re concerned about preventing your son from being exposed to other people’s fluids, don’t let him kiss anyone and definitely don’t let him swim in a public pool. Not to make light of what could have been a serious situation, but it seems to me that Libby is the same type of tightly-wound Alpha Mom who would be the first to buy breastmilk online or let a friend serve as a wet nurse if she had trouble producing her own supply. Also, let me just reiterate: her baby is completely fine.
Of course, this baby switch-a-roo is something the hospital should take very seriously, as incidents like this “point to a larger problem of accurate patient identification — a major cause of health-care errors.” Medical malpractice can be deadly; a friend of a friend was killed when a doctor injected the wrong fluid into her bloodstream. But it seems Virginia Hospital Center has reacted appropriately, firing the employee involved for neglecting to “follow standard protocol,” taking “the necessary steps to ensure that this situation does not happen again.”
I can certainly sympathize with an initially horrified reaction to the situation, but I don’t understand what’s to be gained from a lawsuit, except maybe money for pain and suffering? (College fund!) What do you think? Would you let it go or sue?
Photo: Raphael Goetter via Flickr
I think it’s pretty horrifying that hospitals do not have to report it. If diseases can be passed on through breast milk, it seems like these situations should be documented. And if hospitals had to document this kind of thing, you can bet that it would happen less often.
Here’s a tip, and we were told this by our Bradley childbirth teacher: do not let the baby out of your or your partner’s sight! It sounds intense, but I definitely would not, had I given birth in a hospital (which I would not, save for a dire emergency).
Tanya – you’re right – it should always be reported. People have a right to know what’s happening with their kids, and it totally would happen less. GP, I hear the sentiment, but I know my daughter was taken for various tests and things like that. It can’t really be helped in a hospital setting.
Actually Carolyn, it can be helped. GP is absolutely right. You tell the doctors that your partner will be accompanying the baby to any and all tests. The hospital cannot tell you no.
That’s true. I had my twins in a hospital and they were never out of our sight. They slept in the room with us, and my husband accompanied them for tests. The hospital should not make people feel like the baby belongs to the hospital until you go home!
If the twins had had complications and weren’t able to sleep in my room, I guess we wouldn’t have been able to be with them 100% of the time. I also can’t imagine not recognizing my own kids even an hour after seeing them.
Also, I’m kind of annoyed at the attitude of minimizing the mother’s concerns. “Not to make light of the situation,” followed by an insult and an unverifiable slam of what kind of mother she “sounds like” she would be. It’s been established that hospitals don’t have to report these incidents. So what is their motivation to do better, since they will likely suffer nothing more than maybe a news story? Hm, how about a lawsuit? Oh no, then we might have to speculate that mom is just grubbing for money. Sometimes hitting these corporations are the only way to affect the serious changes needed or to get lax staff to follow protocols. I know it’s much more fun to shit all over the mom, but try and be a human being about experiences you wouldn’t want to go through yourself.
I really think this kind of thing needs to be reported, if for no other reason than it is an indication of a problem with identification.
As for never letting the baby out of you or your partner’s sight – we definitely followed that rule. However, I know some people who had a second child with no family nearby, and the partner could not be at the hospital around-the-clock like they can for the first child. In these cases we have to rely on the hospital to do its part.
To me, the outrage ought to be over the fact that the hospital gave the wrong baby to the wrong mother. The breastfeeding thing is completely beside the point and big “so what?” in my book.
As someone in the legal field I will say flat out this woman is a money grubbing opportunist. 999% of hospitals will go to far reaching lengths to avoid litigation, if all she wanted was a hospital policy change she wouldn’t have had to file and make statements to the press. She’s looking for money.
I agree with Linda, and while I respect the family’s “right” to be upset, and their feelings. I do think they need to get over it and the lawsuit seems greedy to me. No harm was done. This is said by someone who is not even a fan of hospitals and “the system” at all…
I agree with Linda also. What if they gave the baby to the wrong mom to TAKE HOME?
“Not to make light of what could have been a serious situation, but it seems to me that Libby is the same type of tightly-wound Alpha Mom who would be the first to buy breastmilk online or let a friend serve as a wet nurse if she had trouble producing her own supply.”
Really? You got that impression of Libby from this article? How so?
Dennis Quaid should have just gotten over it when his twins were given adult doses of Heparin in the hospital too, I guess. He was such a money grubbing opportunist for suing. His kids are fine now, why can’t he just enjoy them?
My mistake, he didn’t sue the hospital… he sued the pharmaceutical company that made easily misread labels for Heparin. Nonetheless, money grubbing, right? Probably just went after the deepest pockets, right?
Well, that certainly is an interesting point about the Heparin…but, I think a more noble tack would be suing for the hospital to implement a better program, or suing to donate the funds for something. She does certainly appear to be a bit money-grubbing and over-reacting. The suit is not something I would pursue. I’d prefer to put it all behind me. I do agree with KGP’s questioning of Castiglia’s assessment of Libby’s personality, which seems to me to be unfounded and harsh. Moreover, if Libby CHOSE to buy breastmilk or use a wetnurse, it would be her CHOICE, not something that happened by mistake…
I am amazed at the kind of bashing Ms. Libby has received, especially in the comments section of the Washington Post website. The article never once mentioned that the Libby’s were seeking money, it said that they were seeking written assurances. I take issue with Spartic’s comments, because I am a lawyer too and deal with hospitals. Most likely their case was farmed out the risk management agency to bully the Libby’s into going away precisely because there were no damages. Personally I think they were smart going to the court of public opinion because no matter how many naysayers are out there, I bet that anybody who read the article is going to be vigilant about hospital ID checks and any hospitals in the area are going to be double and triple checking their procedure. Kudos for bringing light to this situation!
Mistress Scorpio, the Quaid twins WERE injured by the heparin. In fact, they were extreemly ill and could have died. Just because you are injured and recover, doesn’t mean you were never harmed. The baby in this case was not harmed in any way, so it’s there’s nothing even to compare the two. The implication is that someone else’s breat milk is like poison, which is completely freakin’ stupid. Sure, the hospital messed up big time and I’d be very upset had my newborn been givine to the wrong set of parents. Why turn the breastfeeding in to an issue?
I agree with the comments that have said that if this happened to me, I wouldn’t be so concerned about a little bit of breastmilk, but *quite* concerned about how they gave the mom the wrong baby in the first place. The hospital at which I gave birth falls all over themselves to explain how careful they are about matching bracelets, confirming names, etc., so I’d want to know how the hell my child wound up in another mom’s room in the first place.
I agree that the biggest issue is not the breastfeeding, but how the baby ended up with the wrong mother in the first place. Where was her baby at the time? Was he/she given to another woman? And how does that mother feel about breastfeeding someone else’s baby? When both my sons were born they could not be taken out of my sight, given any medication,etc or had any testing done without them scanning their hospital id. It is shocking to me how many large hospitals do not have this policy. I think there should be some legal action taken, although I do agree that the money issue is a little overboard. But then again it didn’t happen to me or my child.
Linda, my issue is not the breastfeeding, it’s the attitude of “your kid is okay now, so what’s your problem?” Baby switching in the hospital Should. Not. Happen. I’m not even going to get into infection rates and other things that shouldn’t happen in hospitals, but do because staff and administration are resistant to implement and carry out procedures. There have been stories of women who have gone home with, even RAISED children that were mixed up in the hospital. So we sit from the comfort of our homes, laughing it up at this silly, money-grubbing Alpha Mom and place the blame on *her* rather than where it belongs. Until the old switcheroo happens to you or someone you love, the issue won’t be taken seriously.
By “you” I mean not you specifically, Linda, I mean all of us as consumers of hospital services.
My next baby will not leave my sight after my husband went to get our now almost-two-year-old from the nursery to find one of the nurses giving him formula even though there was a clear posting of “no binky, no bottle…trying to breastfeed” on his bassinet. It took three days to get his nursing sorted out and he spit up all of the nasty formula they gave him.
Agreed, Mistress Scorpio.