New-born baby lands up in arms of another mother
A mother was shocked when, upon her return to the Natalspruit Hospital to visit her three-day-old child, on February 24, she found that her baby was being breastfed by another woman.
This raised all kinds of fears of baby swapping and the risk of the child being infected with Aids.
Itumeleng Pitso had to leave her baby boy, Bokang, in the care of the hospital after he was diagnosed as having neonatal sepsis, staphylococcus skin infection and a septic umbilical cord.
According to the concerned father, David Pitso, it seems the other woman didn’t know he was not her baby, since she gave birth on the same day as Itumeleng.
“I am furious at the responsible nurses and doctors, because they proved to be negligent,” he said.
”They gave our baby to another woman to be fed; what if our baby was harmed?
”The hospital put our baby in danger.”
According to the Gauteng Department of Health spokesperson, Prince Hamnca, corrective measures were implemented immediately after the matter was reported by Itumeleng.
“Both mothers were called in and the baby was correctly identified as belonging to the complainant,” he said.
”Both mothers were then counselled and tested for HIV.
“Prophylaxis (Nevarapine) was prescribed for baby Bokang, to minimise chances of him being infected with HIV, in case the wrong mother was HIV-positive.
“Fortunately, the results for both mothers came back as negative and they were asked to come back after three months, for repeat tests.”
Hamca said Bokang’s mother was requested to bring the baby to the hospital after six weeks for further testing.
“Natalspruit Hospital regrets this incident and has undertaken to implement certain security measures, such as nurses confirming a baby’s identity with the mother before breastfeeding, while mothers must bring IDs and the baby’s Road to Health card as means of proper identification,” he added.
“The hospital has also undertaken to educate mothers not to breastfeed before a correct identification has been done by the nurse.”
Hamca said quality improvement plans and standard operating procedures were developed to ensure the incident is not repeated.
– @NalediBoksburg
