We are striving for being a "Baby Friendly" hospital. We are all about doing what is best for the patient and fulfill what the patient wants, but let me ask you a question.... We are having some difficulty with waiting an hour to weigh the baby after 60 minutes of uninterrupted skin to skin. This makes it hard to get the baby to the nursery if it needs a blood sugar.
How do you do the skin to skin for one hour and get the weight. We have been doing skin to skin right after delivery, weigh the baby, then give the baby to mom again for the remainder of the recovery.
Also, how long is your recovery?? 1 hour, 2 hours???
We are LDR with a separate postpartum area with the nursery.
Thank you everyone for the insight. I am finding that our culture must change. One big protocol sounds pretty close all of yours. I will take all of the wealth of information back with me on monday..
Ishallis, I'm curious what your neonatal hypoglycemia policy is. Would you care to post the salient points here? For example, what are your criteria for doing a BG check, what are your cutoff values, and what is treatment, etc? I've found that many hospitals' hypoglycemia policies are a huge barrier to successful implementation of BFHI and breastfeeding.
THIS IS SO TRUE. Drives me bananas.
I've found that many nurses are resistant to an hour of uninterrupted skin to skin, delayed baths, etc, because of the HUGE push to get all our nursey stuff done. But once the protocols are initiated, I've never found a nurse that didn't absolutely love it. Who would've guessed you can admit a baby without a weight, or do assessments on mom's chest? lol.
I'm a baby-transition nurse at my facility. We do sugars on anyone
Anyone who's pink and breathing goes straight on Mom's chest, not over to the warmer, after delivery. And they stay there for as long as Mom wants....if it's 10min or an hour. We weigh whenever. If baby needs to eat, we have him nurse. If we've got a baby we know is going to need sugars but doesn't latch well for whatever reason we have Mom hand-express a few mls to feed by syringe or cup. She gets that all-important stimulation in the first hour and baby has something to eat. Win-win.
It is a culture change but it is a good one. We've done it too in the 10 years I've been where I am. People like to gripe and moan at first but it becomes habit eventually.
l/dmom
104 Posts
Thank you everyone for the insight. I am finding that our culture must change. One big protocol sounds pretty close all of yours. I will take all of the wealth of information back with me on monday..