diff --git a/__tests__/hl7.sanity.test.ts b/__tests__/hl7.sanity.test.ts
index 2a42db3..bd2f08d 100644
--- a/__tests__/hl7.sanity.test.ts
+++ b/__tests__/hl7.sanity.test.ts
@@ -221,7 +221,14 @@ describe('node hl7 client - sanity tests', () => {
     const hl7_non_standard: string = 'MSH:-+?*:field2:field3component1-field3component2:field4repeat1+field4repeat2:field5subcomponent1*field5subcomponent2:field6?R?'
     const hl7_batch: string = 'BHS|^~\\&|||||20231208\rMSH|^~\\&|||||20231208||ADT^A01^ADT_A01|CONTROL_ID||2.7\rEVN||20081231\rEVN||20081231\rBTS|1'
     const hl7_batch_non_standard: string = 'BHS:-+?*:::::20231208\rMSH|^~\\&|||||20231208||ADT^A01^ADT_A01|CONTROL_ID||2.7\rEVN||20081231\rEVN||20081231\rBTS|1'
+    const hl7_line_breaks: string = 'MSH|^~\\&|device||Host||20240101000000+0000||OUL^R22^OUL_R22|2|P|2.5.1|||NE|AL||UNICODE UTF-8|||LAB-01^IHE\r'
 
+    test('...clean up line breaks', async () => {
+
+      const message = new Message({ text: hl7_line_breaks });
+      expect(message.get('MSH.12').toString()).toBe('2.5.1')
+
+    })
 
     test('...verify MSH input', async () => {
       const message = new Message({ text: hl7_string })
diff --git a/src/utils/normalizedBuilder.ts b/src/utils/normalizedBuilder.ts
index 242da70..f8d4449 100644
--- a/src/utils/normalizedBuilder.ts
+++ b/src/utils/normalizedBuilder.ts
@@ -140,6 +140,8 @@ export function normalizedClientMessageBuilderOptions (raw?: ClientBuilderMessag
     props.separatorSubComponent = plan.separatorSubComponent
     // remove default specs
     props.specification = undefined
+    // cleanup
+    props.text = props.text.trim()
   }
 
   return props