Dear colleagues,

I am writing in the hope that you may be willing to help me with some research I am currently doing.

I am a nurse based at the Tartu University Hospital, Estonia. Working within the Clinic of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care Unit.

The research is looking into the potential issues associated with Transmission of bacterial infection via breast milk to neonates (gestational age 22-32 weeks), leading to sepsis via GI tract.

I will be reporting my findings to an internal committee in order to shape our practice.

Could you provide me any information or your practical experience in relation to the following, it would be most appreciated:

· Have you had any confirmed cases?

· Storage of breast milk; temperature, duration, preparation,

· Routine testing for infection in the breast milk and acceptable limit of contamination (if applicable)?

· Handling of infected milk cases. Alternative feeding plan, use of milk bank or formula milk?

· What treatment do you use to rectify the source of the problem?

Please be assured that any information provided will be treated in the strictest confidence and used only to assist us in making sure we are following best practice.

Many thanks in advance

This may be helpful

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-0691.2010.03071.x/full

· Storage of breast milk; temperature, duration, preparation,

Regarding regular handling/storage etc, the links in the 4th post in the thread below might give some input (from the Swedisk Milknet, use Google Translate )

http://www.99nicu.org/forum/showthread.php?24021-Swedish-National-Recommendation-regarding-handling-of-breast-milk-in-neonatal-care-units.&p=27333&viewfull=1#post27333

Thank you for the answers!

All the information I have found still don´t say anything about:

· Routine testing for infection in the breast milk and acceptable limit of contamination (if applicable)?

· Handling of infected milk cases. Alternative feeding plan, use of milk bank or formula milk?

· What treatment do you use to rectify the source of the problem?

Again... Many thanks in advance!

More helpful links

http://www.nature.com/jp/journal/v31/n5/full/jp201113a.html

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/741841

http://cpj.sagepub.com/content/46/6/547.abstract