moms and babies staying together

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Hi

We just had another meeting for our new hospital. The VP of nursing was appalled when he saw how many babies end up in the nursery at night. He and the M/B director had quite a discussion on philosophy of patient care and our abilities to convince moms to keep their babies with them.

My question, do any of you have a policy of babies always staying with moms? What have you done to get moms to be happy keeping babies with them at night? Our patient population is very big on sending them to the nursery so they can sleep!

Thanks

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While I don't have an answer for you I find it interesting that now hospitals want new moms to keep their babies in the room with them.

25 years ago when I ask for "rooming in" as it was called then I was told I could IF there was a private room otherwise the baby had to go back to the nursery. I replied with, "private room or not my child stays with me, period".:eek: T

he staff was not happy about it but they survived. I waited for my husband to come in to take a shower so our son was never alone in the room. It was best for both of us.

So now, hospitals want babies and moms to be together. Interesting.

I will interested to see how this plays out.

C

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The only reason that hospitals support "rooming in" is so they can save $$$ by not having any or enough nursery nurses.

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We have a rooming in policy that is very flexible. The purpose is to assure bonding between the child and both parents, and to make sure that they are taking care of their child. (I've actually see some parents ignore the fact that their child was hungry, wet/soiled, or just needing to be held for TLC. Of course, social work takes care of that by assessing the situation and removing the child, if necessary.)

However, there are instances where the child must be sent to the nursery: If the mom is on heavy pain med postpartally (PCA, or other sedating med), Magnesium Sulfate, post-op c-section and mom is the only caretaker in the room, late night/early morning delivery and mom needs some uninterrupted sleep time. You get the picture.

I'm all for rooming in if it fits the situation and the aprents want it. However, I'm also for giving the parents what they want during postpartum. As one of my friends was being chastised for not wanting to bond on the delivery talble said: :"I have 18 years to bond. You can take her for awhile and let me get some rest." I say do what the parents want. They are the customers.

STG

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Our policy is very strict: unless mom or baby are sick, baby stays with mom. We simply made it policy and informed moms why it is policy (the benefits of rooming in are well known) and explained that we do not have any staff to look after healthy babies. Few moms complain about it, most are actually glad to have the baby in the room with them. Because post partum stays are so short, I think rooming in is important for new moms.

I find this policy works because women know about it long before they give birth, and because post partum rooms are all private so that a support person can usually stay overnight and help.

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I beleive that the baby will be better off if the mother has a chance to rest and recover, mom will be better able to care for and bond with her baby if she has the opportunity to rest when needed and for some moms the time baby spends in the nursery may be the only time she has this chance.

I beleive it is plain wrong and detrimental(sp) to both mother and babys health to force her to keep the baby with her at all times.

On the same note as it is wrong and detrimental to force the mom to let baby stay in the nursery.

Its her baby, and her choice. Only the pt knows if she is to exhausted or has to mush pain to properl care for a newborn.

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When I gave birth to our son, 10 years ago, I had him in a military hospital overseas. The post-partum rooms were actually "wards" with 8 women and 8 babies in them.

Boy, you wanna talk about NOISY and NO privacy!!!

Anyhow.... funny side story.

Our dear son's first night, he slept next to me in his bassinet. Keep in mind, there were 7 other women and 7 other babies in the room with us. Anyhow, I heard a baby crying and crying and crying. I was so tired and could not believe that a mother would just let her baby cry, nor would she be so rude as to keep the entire room awake!

Finally, after about 15 minutes of this, I yell out, "Can someone PLEASE take care of their baby!!!!" :(

Anyhow, I happen to glance over and see that it's MY baby that has been crying!!!! :chuckle

Boy, I must have been TIRED!!!! Who knows how long he had been crying or how many people were thinking the exact thing I yelled out!!! :roll

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Brandy:), I know where you are coming from, and I am not trying to be blunt, but don't know any other way to say it..... No, it isn't mom's choice. Where I work, we do not have a well baby nursery. The NICU is not for well babies, it's for the sick ones. We aren't going to transfer out a premie because the mom of a healthy baby wants uninterrupted sleep.

It would be nice if we had the resources to provide everything our patients wanted, but most days I am satisfied in being able to provide simply what they need. It would also be nice if we could have moms stay in longer, but it just isn't the reality where I am, so until then I'll just keep dreaming:)

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

rofl kate...

great reminder how good we have it what with LDRP's being totally private...

MOMS need to take care of their babies, not us. I don't go home with them. YES, if freshly delivered or a new csection, I JUMP IN AND HELP OUT...

I have said this all here before. IF they would LIMIT the numbers of visitors they have a day they would be less exhausted and more able to care for their own babies, esp at night. BUT THEY DO NOT LISTEN when I advise them of this.

That said, I do bend over backward to help out and IF able, will take newborns to our nursery to rock them (esp if they are screaming hours on end) SOMETIMES all a new mom needs is an hour or two of PEACE and then she is able to get herself together enough to face anew the care of her newborn. I will do anything to help out overwrought, exhausted parents.

But if we are busy, I cannot guarantee this. We inform them on a paper they SIGN that we have no nursery except when babies are sick and it's not always possible for us to watch the babies...and they are encouraged to have their significant other or another person of their choosing to stay with them to help out. Oftentimes, they will have two adults staying in the room, which we accomodate, happily.

Bottom line, we don't go home with them.They don't learn to breastfeed and bond by having their babies in the NURSERY but by having them IN WITH THEM. Like Fergus said, stays are short; there is NOT much time to assume care and learn enough to go home and deal with their newborns.

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Deb, you should have been here during SARS!!! The good thing about it was the moms were only allowed ONE support person/visitor. That was it, and there was no negotiating on that rule at all. No aunts and uncles and cousins and neighbours and coworkers and friends and sisters and brothers and mailmen.... (ok, mailmen don't usually come, but you get my drift;)). The women were actually able to rest!!! With the baby in the room no less!!!! Not hard to do under those circumstances when you consider that babies spend most of their time asleep anyways, giving mom the chance to sleep as well if not for those darn visitors....

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

wow fergus..I had forgotten...YOU DID TELL US about your SARS period LDRP practices...what an eye-opener. Interesting anecdotal support of ROOMING-IN with limited visitation, as well!

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

failed to mention:

we do keep babies in our nursery if a MOM's condition warrants it; severe pre-eclampsia on mag, etc.....

yes case by case.

but in healthy situations, most moms do get enough rest IF they limit all the visiting...and we are perfectly willing to be the "bad guys" and ask visitors to refrain, if they are too shy or afraid to say so themselves. WE encourage rest while they are with us; however few will do this. Then the moms wonder why their babies are so overwrought---- when baby has been handed around like a sack of flour for 8-9 hours among a dozen or more visitors.....yea they stay awake, overstimulating their babies all day and the moms want sleep at night. ummm well......that is not how it always works out....

anyhow. i think babies are BEST off in mom's room, not a nursery. like i said before.

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