Co-sleeping policy

Cheerio · Jan 19, 2003

Our hospital has no policy as far as I know. Many of my clients sleep with the babies in their bed and never have I heard that a nurse or Dr has asked them to return the baby to the isolette.

Good question, I'll ask next time I'm in.

fergus51 · Jan 19, 2003

We let them do what they want. As far as I know a mother has neevr smothered her baby here. Did you want a policy against co bedding or for it?

emily_mom · Jan 19, 2003

We let them do as they wish also, but make them sign a waiver. It just explains the risks and that the hospital isn't responsible should anything happen. If I still worked there, I would send you a copy. If you want one, maybe I could snag one....:)

Kristy

anitame · Jan 19, 2003

I'm trying to write a policy in favor of co-sleeping. A lot of our parents do it anyway. We just "need" to write a policy. Thanks for offering Kristy, I *think* I can roust up a policy example from the perinatal listserv I'm on.

Does anyone's policy discourage co-sleeping? Just curious , trying to get all perspectives here.

Anita

CTRN1 · Jan 19, 2003

We dont have an actual policy at our place, however we try to discourage moms from sleeping with their babies in bed with them. Unfortunately, we have had more then one baby end up on the floor from this situation. However there are still those who sleep with their babies, we just let them know they are responsible if anything happens.

fergus51 · Jan 20, 2003

On the floor?! We keep siderails up and they are covered so that can't happen. Should maybe put that into a policy

peggywi_RN · Jan 20, 2003

i work in a peds unit and we have the parents sign a release of responsibility form because our policy states that all children 2 and under need to be in a crib..and then the responsibility is up to the parents if the child should fall off the cot..although to my knowledge not one child has fallen off the bed!!!

CTRN1 · Jan 20, 2003

Yup, even with siderails up at all times it has happened, although we could not figure out how. Either baby is a mini houdini or moms are not the most diligent in the world. Either way, its why we discourage it.

NicuGal, MSN, RN · Jan 20, 2003

In our hospital babies are not allowed to be with sleeping mothers. We had 2 babies nearly suffocate, one ended up in our unit in pretty bad shape. It doesn't take long.

Also, we have in our discharge folders a paper that discourages babies from sleeping with parents (preemies). I can tell you in the past year we have had 4 deaths from parents sleeping with them and the baby gets wedged up by mom or somehow is placed on the belly on the bed and dies.

Also, a parent sitting in a chair and begins to doze is not allowed to hold the baby, it goes back to bed.

In the sue happy society we live in, you can't be too careful!

cindyln · Jan 20, 2003

We let the moms sleep with the baby in bed with them if they want.Sometimes this is the only way they get any sleep.I only know of one older nurse that has a problem with this. So far nothing bad has happened

CMTMom · Jan 21, 2003

THE major co-sleeping no-no is co-sleeping when under the influence of ANY drugs - this includes pain meds and as such ought to exclude most PP moms, shouldn't it? No one, not even the oft-touted co-sleeping guru Dr. Sears, advocates co-sleeping when under the influence of mind- or reflex- or awareness-numbing drugs.

I'm all for co-sleeping if that's what the parents want to do but in the hospital? I'm not really sure it's such a good idea for the hosp to have a pro-cosleeping policy. JMO