A Guide for Track and Trace Documentation

Related program: Integrated Maternal and Child Health and Development

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5-Track and trace cover

Safety and quality are both foundational pillars in the human milk banking process. The handling and processing of human milk needs to be tracked from collection from the donor mother to allocation for the recipient, to prevent harm and ensure optimal practices for safe delivery to the infant in need. Records documenting the donor human milk (DHM) handling process are essential for documenting evidence-based interventions and decisions, as well as ensuring that staff follow regulatory processes for DHM handling. Quality record and tracking systems are needed to promote quality environments for safe handling and sharing of DHM and reduce the risks that can come from poor records management.

A human milk bank (HMB) tracking and tracing system integrated into existing local neonatal nutrition and maternal and infant healthy systems can simplify knowledge sharing as well as evidenced-based data to scale up the effectiveness of HMBs in countries where they are yet to be started. Quality record and tracking systems generate evidence to inform improvements in practice and highlight the role of DHM and HMBs to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding. Using examples shared from different countries (including illustrative examples from India, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Vietnam), this tool has been developed to guide tracking and tracing across DHM handling processes.

The development of a track and trace documentation system is paramount to maintaining quality and ensuring safety in the human milk banking process. This toolkit is a guide for HMB leadership responsible for documentation, record keeping, and improving and ensuring the safety of the HMB. The step-by-step processes detailed in this guide are accompanied with template logs, forms, and registers adaptable to the local standard operating procedures.

Appendices download includes:

  1. Donor Screening Questionnaire
  2. Donor Consent Form
  3. Donor Consent Log
  4. Donor Human Milk Handling and Transportation Log
  5. Expression Log
  6. Hospital Donor Human Milk Log
  7. Donor Human Milk Register
  8. Temperature Log
  9. Thawing and Pooling Log
  10. Microbial Screening Log
  11. Donor Human Milk Pasteurization Log
  12. First Donor Human Milk Prescription
  13. Daily Donor Human Milk Order Form
  14. Recipient Consent Form
  15. Recipient Donor Human Milk Log
  16. Hospital Receiving Form
  17. Hospital Report to Human Milk Bank