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Baby Mix-up Has Apple Valley Mom Seeing Red

Abbott Northwestern has launched an internal inquiry after it was discovered that a woman in their care had been given the wrong bundle of joy to breastfeed.

 

Abbott Northwestern Hospital has issued an apology to one Apple Valley family after it was discovered that their newborn son had been mistakenly given to another mother for breastfeeding.

KMSP-TV reports that the Apple Valley mother, named only Tammy, spent most of the day in tears after finding out that her newborn son Cody had been accidentally breastfed by another woman. The mix-up was discovered at about 8:30 a.m. when Cody was taken to the other mother (who had just given birth to twins). The woman had just begun feeding, KMSP-TV reported, but felt that something was  amiss. She checked the ID tag on the baby and sure enough the child was not hers. Officials at Abbott say that the babies had been placed in the wrong bassinets the night prior.

According to KMSP, Tammy has taken the news pretty hard.

"The mix-up alone has been traumatic, but the fact that another woman breastfed her son is horrifying to her," the TV station writes.

A simple mix-up like this can cause significant health problems down the road, in addition to psychological trauma, according to a report from Minnesota Public Radio. Breast-feeding may transfer illnesses to the newborn, including HIV and hepatitis. 

Abbott officials told the Star Tribune that such incidents are rare. 

"As far as we know, this has never happened before at Abbott," said Gloria O'Connell, a spokeswoman for the Minneapolis hospital.

Related Topics: Abbott Northwestern, Baby Mix-Up, and Weird News

Joshua

10:48 am on Friday, December 7, 2012

"As far as we know"...

Wow, if you screwed this up in the first place, then it's not surprising that you aren't 100% sure it hasn't happened before, either. :-\

Funny enough though, while in the hospital when my last child was born, we sent him to the nursery so mom and dad could get some sleep in the room. I woke up a little later and went to the visitor's lounge for some coffee, noticing a cute baby through the nursery window. Suffering from sleep deprivation, it took me a minute to realize I was looking at my own newborn child...! :-)

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Kathy Linder

8:58 am on Sunday, December 9, 2012

Good lesson here- NEVER allow your newborn to leave your room! No reason to- between mom, dad and grandma's- someone can be in the room with Mom and baby!

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