A New Jersey mom, 39-year-old Melissa Richman, has headed to the law courts to sue the management of The Valley Hospital for committing a blunder by allowing her to breastfeed another woman's baby hours after she was delivered of her own baby via C-section.
Richman said a few moments after she was delivered of her baby, a nurse walked into her room and handed her a newborn baby to breastfeed. She gladly breastfed the baby for 20 minutes and was glad to bond with it at around 4:30 a.m. until the nurse rushed to her and demanded to have the baby back because there had been a mistake, a mix-up, and the baby belonged to another mother.
According to NBC New York, Richman said she was shocked beyond belief that such blunder could occur in a hospital she had so much faith in. She recounted the incident by narrating that the nurse just walked up to her and said: "I need you to give me the baby right now. There has been a terrible mistake. This isn't your baby." The error occurred probably because the nurse never checked the identification wristband the babies were tagged with.
She nursed an unknown baby with her invaluable colostrum
Richman is angry with the hospital because they made her to "waste" her colostrums - the first volume of nutrient-rich breast milk that comes out from a new mother's breasts after being newly delivered of a baby - on another woman's baby instead of on her own newborn, a baby girl named Scalett.
Richman said she was very angrier because having breastfed another woman's baby for 20 long minutes, she was "totally depleted" because there was no rich colostrums left for her own daughter. To make matters worse, she noted the other mother may not have known that her daughter had been breastfed by her because the hospital management would not mention this blunder to her.
Now she and her husband David are eager to know who the other baby actually is and if she is healthy after the incident. They also wish to know who its parents are and if they are seeking redress from the hospital, the Independent Journal Review wrote. But one thing was evident: it appears the hospital did not care about the blunder in any way visible and this is infuriating the offended new parents the more.
Richman's medical file did not mention the blunder
Richman's attorney, Rosemarie Arnold, said she had reviewed the hospital's 87-page medical file and while The Valley Hospital detailed out her client's childbirth and post-partum care, they failed to mention the breastfeeding mix-up - possibly to sweep it under the carpet. But the Richmans would have none of that.
The hospital's spokeswoman, Maureen Curran, would not comment on the issue or react to the litigation filed with the law court. But to the Richmans, "if a mistake like this goes under the table and people don't talk about it, it could happen again, and again, and again."
