COVID-19 Expressed Breast Milk (EBM)
The purpose of this document is to outline infection precautions for expressing, transporting and handling of expressed breast milk from mothers who are in the orange/red stream (as per the patient screening tool) in the postnatal ward or at home.
The purpose of this document is to outline infection precautions for expressing, transporting and handling of expressed breast milk from mothers who are in the orange/red stream (as per patient screening tool) in the postnatal ward or at home.
Expressing Breast Milk
| Postnatal ward | Home |
|---|---|
Good hand hygiene should be performed before and after expressing and handling of EBM. The mother will wear a surgical mask during expressing. The mother will wear gloves when handling EBM. EBM container should be labelled, dated and timed. | Good hand hygiene should be performed before and after expressing and handling of EBM. The mother should wear a surgical mask at all times while expressing. |
Equipment and cleaning
The mother should use her own breast pump that is not shared with any other mothers.
The mother should have her own breast pump parts, containers and labels.
The breast pump should be cleaned with Clinell wipes before and after expressing.
All breast pump equipment needs to be washed in hot soapy water, rinsed and placed in either sterilising solution or steam steriliser between uses.
Transport of EBM
| Postnatal ward | Home |
|---|---|
EBM immediately transported to NICU in a clean plastic bag. | Milk needs to be stored in a fridge or immediately transported to NICU in a clean chill bag. The person transporting the milk must NOT be a close contact of the mother. It can be a relative or a friend who is not in contact isolation. |
Staff handling of EBM
Staff MUST always don gloves when handling EBM.
The Resource nurse in the isolation area MUST don gloves when collecting EBM at NICU entrance to transport it to the infant’s room. The resource nurse will handover EBM to bedside nurse by the doorway.
If EBM is transported in a plastic bag
Resource nurse will stand by the doorway and holds open the plastic bag.
Bedside nurse MUST don gloves when retrieving EBM from the plastic bag.
Resource nurse to discard plastic bag in yellow rubbish bin located outside of the room.
Clean EBM containers with Clinell wipes before storing in the fridge. Relabel if original label is damaged.
Clean surfaces before and after preparing EBM for feeds.