Cross posting - need advice

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

A couple months ago I got a call from a mom who wanted information

about induced lactation. She was the non-birth mother in a same sex couple.

After starting Domperidone and Mothers Milk Tea and lots of pumping, she finally

started to produce a small amount of milk. I told her that the birth mom should

be urged to supply at least colostrum but to offer breast milk for as long as

she could. The non birth mom stated that her partner would give breast milk

only by bottle. We talked about using a SNS once the babies were delivered and

her partner started pumping.

The twins were delivered last Friday @ 33 weeks. They are healthy but are

growing preemies in NICU. I congratulated both mommies! The same day, I

received a call from a representative of the hospital telling me that I should

attend a meeting with her and the NBSCU IBCLC’s because I had failed to

communicate to them about this couple and ‘was I aware that there is a 45

page protocol for induced lactation?’ Also, it would " behoove

me " to attend this meeting with this representative and the IBCLC’s

because " legal was involved " . She went on to say that the birth mom

gave birth earlier that day and didn't have enough milk (ok?) and that the

partner wanted to give breast milk (ok?). However, she is not the biological

mother and so it was really milk donation (ok?) I agreed reluctantly to a

meeting.

I received an email to my personal email address later that day confirming the

time and day of the meeting. In the subject line was the non-birth mom’s full

name! From what I understand of HIPPA and email accounts, no names should be

shared outside the secure email of a company and definitely not without the

written consent of the person involved. I told this person writing to me that I

would not discuss any information I may or may not have about this woman

without her written consent. The representative told me that she did not want

to talk about this person specifically but about what to do in the future.

" We are talking about how to communicate better about clients whom we

might deal with who are a little out of the box... " I was floored. I

notified this person that I would not attend the meeting. The response I

got was less than professional.

My question is:

1) do I forward these emails to the non-birth mother who contacted me?

2) do I forward these emails to the hospital HIPPA compliance officer ?

Or

3) do I leave it alone for fear of retaliation to myself or my referral

source?

Thank you for all insight. Please respond privately to IBCLC@...

Amazing to me what people consider “out of the box”. I hope

that someone out there has some good input.

Jaye Simpson, IBCLC, CIIM

Breastfeeding Network

Sacramento, CA

www.breastfeedingnetwork.net