A story that has moved us has come to light that happened 19 years ago in a hospital in Logroño, in which two babies born on the same day were exchanged and lived crossed lives with families that did not correspond to them for years.
Today this would be practically impossible, since maternity wards have custody and identification protocols for the newborn to avoid any confusion or security problem.
Custody and identification protocol
The identification of the newborn is a right recognized both nationally and internationally and the World Health Organization (WHO) itself establishes the correct identification of the patient as a priority, within the policies to improve health care safety.
The Spanish Association of Pediatrics has a specific protocol (updated in 2008) for maintaining the mother-newborn binomial in the hospital. The objectives of the procedures for the proper identification and custody of newborns are:
- Avoid exchanges of newborns in the delivery room.
- Prevent exchanges of newborns in the nest or in obstetric hospital wards.
- Allow prompt verification of the newborn’s identity in case of doubt.
- Make it possible to verify the identity of the baby and his mother at the time of discharge.
- Avoid legal consequences for health personnel in the event of possible exchanges.
The greatest risk of confusion occurs in simultaneous deliveries when there is a heavy workload, or when the mother is separated from the newborn, either in resuscitation rooms from the mother or if the baby must enter the Neonatology Unit. That is why, in addition to the benefits for the bond, more and more people are committed to avoiding the physical separation of mother and baby at all times.
How the baby is identified in the delivery room:
ID bracelets and clip
The neonatal encoder consists of an identification kit that can not be falsified that contains five pieces : the mother’s bracelet and the newborn’s bracelet -both with tamper-evident closure-, cord clamp and two stickers, one for the medical record and the other for the document. maternal-filial health identification.
As information it contains the name of the mother, the date and time of birth and the sex of the newborn, all identified with an identical and exclusive barcode for each newborn. In the case of multiple births, a different encoder is used for each newborn.
At birth, in the delivery room, the baby’s bracelet is separated from the one worn by the mother and the baby is placed (on the wrist or ankle) in the presence of the parents. Similarly, the corresponding clamp is placed on the baby’s umbilical cord.
Once the bracelets with the neonatal encoder are put on, the matching of codes should be checked at the exit of the delivery room, if the baby has been separated from the mother at any time, as well as at the time of discharge from the hospital.
This method is the one used in Spanish maternity wards and the safest for the custody and identification of the newborn. As a disadvantage, there is a minimal possibility of risk of losing a loose bracelet or of having to remove the cord clamp if the newborn requires, for example, the canalization of the umbilical vessels. But both things are practically impossible to happen.
Fingerprint and / or footprint
At the moment of birth, the mother’s and baby’s footprints are taken (usually the foot), and they are recorded in the identification document issued by the hospital, to which one of the stickers with the neonatal encoder is added. They can be taken with ink or through biometric systems.
However, due to the fact that they can be taken incorrectly or, in certain cases, the baby needs immediate medical attention and their taking has to be postponed, they have no identifying value on their own. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against the universal use of the footprint and fingerprint as the sole method of identifying the newborn.
Umbilical cord blood sample
After clamping the umbilical cord, the blood is collected and a drop is placed on the absorbent filter paper of the card. Next, a drop of blood is collected from the mother and placed on the same card as the baby’s sample.
Finally, the data corresponding to the mother and the baby are completed and the card is kept on file at the hospital. It will only be used in the event that it is necessary to identify the newborn with its mother in case of exchange doubts.
Locating devices
In addition to the aforementioned, some maternity wards also have radiofrequency devices, placed on the mother’s and newborn’s bracelets, which continuously detect the location and distance between them during their hospital stay. If this distance exceeds the programmed limit, an alarm is activated to notify the personnel.
In Babies and more | How to register the newborn in the Civil Registry from the hospital
