Nearly five centuries ago, Shakespeare had his star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet ponder the nature of names. Juliet uttered the line that has become a cultural touchstone: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose. By any other name would smell as sweet.”
As it turns out, though, having a name could be more important than our titular characters could have known. That’s because a new study seems to indicate that having a name at birth can prevent injuries to newborns at hospitals. The study, conducted by a doctor at the Montefiore Health System and published in the medical journal Pediatrics, decided to try a solution to this much-talked-about phenomenon.
For essentially one year, the Montefiore Medical Center installed a new system to see if it would make a difference. They took the name of the mother and added the baby’s gender. Bettyboy, for example. Though it seems simplistic, its results were tremendous. In fact, compared to the year before, the study found a dramatic reduction of 36.3 percent in incidences where babies were given the wrong patient order.
This might seem like common sense, but the truth is, that most hospitals don’t have a solid system in place and it leads to newborn injuries, especially when a baby needs immediate care at birth. In fact, 80 percent of the hospitals in the United States have failed to implement a working system for the around 4 million children born every year.
If your newborn has been the victim of a birth injury or hospital mix-up, it might be a good idea to speak with an attorney about getting compensation for pain and suffering and medical expenses.
Source: time.com, “Here’s What Happens When You Name Your Newborn Babygirl,” Tanya Basu, July 13, 2015
