baby to the nursery please

Specialties Ob/Gyn

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Do your parents send their newborns to the nursery for the entire night? Is this allowed by your facility? We understand if the mom had a c/s and has no one to stay and help her. but what about those intact svd's on their second night?

What about those boarding with their infnat on bili lights? Do they stay to board to spend time with the infant and come night want it to go to the nursery?

what is your nursery nurse to patient ratio?

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Specializes in Pediatrics, ER.

We didn't use our nursery. The babies stayed with the parents or they hung out at the nurse's station with us. Parents were strongly encouraged to take hold, and after the first night it was all business. They were spending the night with their baby (barring any complications with their recovery), no ifs ands or buts.

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Specializes in pediatrics.

Sometimes working in peds, we get moms that step out. Doesn't happen very often, but occasionally there's a sad lonely bili baby. And sometimes when we get NICU transfers... the whole point of having them on our floor is to let mom "live in" with the pt, while still having staff support. But, sometimes parents are so used to leaving their baby, we have to remind them very nicely why their child is with us. :)

I can give my parents a break now and again though. I definitely don't mind the occasional feeds/rocking baby to sleep. :)

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I work on a very large post-partum floor, and yes - mom's will send their babies for the entire night sometimes [usually a couple each night]. We always have a RN assigned to Nursery and Transition. Usually there is an ECN RN too, depending on if we have boarders and how many. We have 46 rooms [single occupency] but our census runs at about an average of 66/day - but our floor handles - and so we count - Moms, Babies, GYNs and Readmits. We don't make the patients take the baby, if they ask for the baby to go to the nursery we take them to the nursery... they are encouraged through all RN teachings and Lactation [if it applies] teachings that the baby does best with mom in the room, but people are people and sometimes their lazy - but that's just my opinion.... :uhoh3:

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Specializes in chemical dependency detox/psych.

Interesting question, OP. When I did my clinical rotation through OB, the nursery was actually pretty busy all night, with probably half the moms shipping their babies off for the night. Granted, this was about 5 years ago, but perhaps it's more a regional thing? I'm in the upper-Midwest. Now me, when I had my daughter via C/S, I insisted on her rooming-in with me, and I dragged my butt out of the bed to go and nurse her. Amazon-mommy! :lol2:

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We will occationally give mama a break, but not usually - we expect mom and family members to get to know the baby, get the Breast feeding down. We rarey have a new mom with out other family members. We do not staff a NSY. If we have to care for a baby, it eats one of the available staff, so we do it only for a few hours.

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Specializes in NICU.

The nursery I work in, we keep about half of our census overnight per the mother's request. Some of them will send the baby to the nursery between breastfeedings so they can sleep in between feedings.

The hospital i work at is still in the culture where L&D, postpartum

, and nursery are very separate entities.

We encourage rooming in but about 90% of the parents don’t do it. Some have sick babies, but the majority just want to sleep before they go home and don't get sleep anymore. It's not a big deal to me.

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Specializes in OB, L&D, NICU, Med-Surg, Ortho.
Do your parents send their newborns to the nursery for the entire night? Is this allowed by your facility? We understand if the mom had a c/s and has no one to stay and help her. but what about those intact svd's on their second night?

What about those boarding with their infnat on bili lights? Do they stay to board to spend time with the infant and come night want it to go to the nursery?

what is your nursery nurse to patient ratio?

Our nursery is open for patients to use 24/7 unless we are transporting a baby out or doing a procedure with a baby. It is open regardless of whether or not they are a c-sect or svd.

Those who are boarding with their infant on bili lights can put baby in the nursery IF baby has never been discharged home. If baby is a returning baby, they can not go into the nursery and a parent needs to stay with them in their room around the clock 24 hours a day.

Our nurse to pt ratio is one nurse to four cuplets.

~Sherri

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Specializes in NICU, Newborn Nursery.

I work in a southern teaching hospital. We have separate L&D, nursery, and post-partum units. I work 12-hour nights in newborn. We usually care for 5-7 babies per nurse. Our average census runs 30-40 babies. During the night, roughly 1/2 of our babies stay in the nursery. The other babies room-in with their mothers or only go to them at feeding times. Personally, I have no problem with mothers who want to sleep. Many of them have not slept in 24-36 hrs. and are emotionally and physically exhausted. Some have several other children at home, so it will be the only rest they will have for awhile. I think we forget that mothers are patients also and need recuperative time, especially C-Sections. Thirty years ago C-Section mothers stayed in the hospital 5 days and lady partsl deliveries 2-3 days. We need not go back to the previous length of stays, but think we need to cut mothers some slack. However, if she is a first-time mother I will try to encourage her to spend more time doing hands-on care.:twocents:

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.
We don't make the patients take the baby, if they ask for the baby to go to the nursery we take them to the nursery... they are encouraged through all RN teachings and Lactation [if it applies] teachings that the baby does best with mom in the room, but people are people and sometimes their lazy - but that's just my opinion.... :uhoh3:

I don't work OB, but I think that's a harsh comment. I don't think people don't take their newborns due to laziness (sure, maybe that's some people's motivation) but rather a chance to get some much needed rest or a mental break - especially first time moms.

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Specializes in OB, L&D, NICU, Med-Surg, Ortho.
I don't work OB, but I think that's a harsh comment. I don't think people don't take their newborns due to laziness (sure, maybe that's some people's motivation) but rather a chance to get some much needed rest or a mental break - especially first time moms.

I agree! I actually tell my moms "This is your one "Free" night of daycare! Get some rest!" They can't take care of baby if they are exhausted. This is esp true of moms who delivered in the evening. They labored all day and they are usually bone-tired by the time all the family leaves and it's bedtime. I do offer them the option of waking up to feed baby. "We can take Sadie to the nursery for a few hours and let you rest. If you'd like we can feed her for you or we can bring her back in here for you to feed." I joke that I love rocking those babies so they don't feel they are imposing on anyone. Sometimes they are just afraid they won't wake up because they are so tired.

Some first time moms are afraid they will be viewed as a bad mom if they send baby to the nursery. If I see them struggling, and I know they are tired, I'll say "How about this? It's ten o' clock. I know you're tired. I'll feed Max at his one o'clock feeding and bring him back to you for his four o'clock feeding. Then you'll get about six hours of sleep." They usually agree.

Of course, we do have those lower socio-economic people who send the baby to the nursery as soon as they can so they can go outside to smoke. They stay gone for hours and see their baby for very short intervals. If we do not feel they are bonding with baby, we can keep them an extra day and explain to them that it is important that they feed/care for baby before the MD will discharge the baby to their care. The MD wants to be certain that mom knows how to care for baby properly. If I have a mom who likes to dump her kid constantly, I tell her this information in a gentle, tactful way. We only have 24 hours (for a vag delivery) to assess whether or not baby is eating well, whether there are issues at home that may require case management, and to assess if mom has the skills to care for baby (or needs more education). We can't do that if we are the ones caring for the baby.

~Sherri

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Specializes in School Nursing.
We didn't use our nursery. The babies stayed with the parents or they hung out at the nurse's station with us. Parents were strongly encouraged to take hold, and after the first night it was all business. They were spending the night with their baby (barring any complications with their recovery), no ifs ands or buts.

I don't know why but the babies 'hanging out' at the nursing station struck me as adorable.. I'm not sure if I had babies hanging out with me at work I'd get very much done. ;)

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