Exclusive rooming in

roxannekkb · Sep 15, 2003

I'm curious as to what you do with a well baby whose mother is really sick, and cannot take care of the baby at all. Maybe it's because I worked in high risk places, but sometimes the moms were almost as sick as the babies in the NICU. We even had a few who were in ICU. The moms had all sorts of problems, from parlytic ileus to being in semi-diabetic comas, and so on. All hospitals I've been in had some sort of well baby nursery.

So does that ever come up for any of you who work in hospitals without a nursery?

fourbirds4me · Sep 15, 2003

I am all for couplet care and rooming in but to an already exhausting perhaps already stressed mother I think not having the option of a few hours of uninterupted sleep can be actually detrimental to bonding and can lead to resentment and post partum depression.

We have moms that have young toddlers at home who have no husband or whose husband/so must stay at home with the other children or work. These women have the potential to become really sleep deprived. I know they still face this situation when they go home but I think we need to facilitate bonding and a healthy family anyway we can and if taking a newborn for a few hours so mom can recover .... then that's what it takes.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 15, 2003

you are not weird, ren, but like it or not, this is the trend-----

hospitals are increasingly NOT maintaining a wellbaby nursery or staffing..

can put us in a quandary. we TRY to accomodate--and like above, babies DO wind up at the nurses station often!!! (this is NOT a secure thing to do, but is done to juggle baby care on top of what else is going on, we take turns watching the babies and someone has to be at the nurses station at all times when this is going on).

if we are too busy, babies are wheeled back in w/mom for security purposes. that happens rarely where we are too busy to watch babies for anyone. but it does happen with increasing frequency. it just gets too darn busy with labor patients, gyn surgical patients to deal with, and whatever comes in for triage.

however----with generous visiting policies, encouraging an overnight helper/spouse to remain is done all the time where we work, too! at least,they do have private rooms. in the "old days" with nurseries, many moms had to share a room with at least ONE roomate and talk about being tired, when you have to deal with visitors for OTHERS as well as your own......give and take...

they will just have to take advantage of having people able to stay in the room (we can accomodate up to 2 or 3 visitors in a room)---- when we are busy. the hospital is simply NOT going to staff a wellbaby nursery, obviously, because it is NOT cost-effective.

also,l gently remind them, I don't go home with them-----so they HAVE to assume care early on for their babies.

what mom is not WHIPPED once home and up all night with a baby who feeds q1-2 hours on the clock, after all?

Repat · Sep 15, 2003

Boy oh boy - I had my babies in England. I was VERY sick after the first, and he stayed in the nursery until he woke up to be fed - then back. I was in the hospital for 10 days, and he stayed with me (in the nursery). It was great - I couldn't have done it any other way. My daughter was born 4 years later. I felt GREAT - ready to go home almost immediately. I feel SO lucky to have had that experience, when I see what my sisters have gone through here. They were sick, the babies were sick (sometimes), yet they were shipped home almost immediately and had to return to the hospital for the tx the kids needed. I also loved the midwives in Britain - we need more here!!!

allnurses Guide · Sep 15, 2003

"Sick" moms who need an ICU are shipped 70 miles away to another hospital. I cannot remember a time that has happened for me however. We usually ship the sick babies. We have had many of those.

steph

Hardknox · Sep 15, 2003

My daughter delivered this morning at 230 AM at a community hospital in CA. She was in labor from 1 AM Saturday until delivering this morning. She had back labor and tore and was exhausted. When I called this evening the nurse had just talked her into sending the baby back to the nursery for the night and they would bring her out to be breast fed. I COULD HAVE KISSED THAT NURSE!

The hospital I work for is trying to have 24 hour rooming in, but our clientele is mostly professional woman and they are fighting it tooth and nail. They are wornout when they come in and want the baby in the nursery at night except for feedings. I see NOTHING wrong with this and I, too, believe it is just a money saving device for the hospital. These mothers will have these children for the rest of their life and need to rest after delivery and a quick stay over to go home to 24/7! You cannot convince me that it is detrimental for the baby to go back at night and come out for feeding. Far better than the kid being juggled amoung people sitting at the nurses station. That is an accident waiting to happen. These babes should be with their moms or in a nursery under observation.

If my insurance was being charged a fee for nursery care and instead I was the one who was giving the nursery care, I would report this to my carrier and ask the hospital for a refund!!!

LuvsOB · Sep 15, 2003

We have LDRPs and do about 40 deliveries a month. I like having the babies in the nursery at night. It gives the moms a chance to rest and it gives me something to do. I get bummed when the moms keep their babies all night and we have none in the nursery. If we have a delivery the supervisor comes over and watches babies for us.

lgreen · Sep 15, 2003

In the last month or so of my last pregnancy, if I got an hour of sleep a night I would be surprised. So when my baby was born, I was already exhausted and completely sleep deprived. The second night there, the nursery nurse didn't bring my baby in for me to feed, but gave him a bottle. I could have cried I was so relieved to have gotten 6 hours of sleep. I had almost decided to go home that night too, and am so grateful I didn't. If I had been in a hospital with mandatory rooming in, I probably would have just gone home ASAP after delivery.

fergus51 · Sep 15, 2003

Where I have worked rooming in was the norm. We were not staffed for well baby nursery and studies have shown it is better when babies room in exclusively. Some moms did complain about wanting uninterupted sleep, but they were encouraged to have someone stay with them ton help during the night and to sleep when baby sleeps.

Trauma Columnist · Sep 15, 2003

My kids are 23 and 18. Had limited rooming in with oldest son - left hosp after 24 hours. Then, with younger son, again had limited rooming in and left hosp after 12 hours. Don't like hospitals - lol.

BETSRN · Sep 15, 2003

As far as the care the baby gets, in our facility (and I think probably in most), even if the babies are at the nurses' station, the care they get is from the same RN's, whether they are in the actual nursery room, in the mother's room or at the nurse's station.

SmilingBluEyes · Sep 15, 2003

Likely, "professional women" (my sister is one of such)----

will have help once home---- so their expectation is that the nurses will take care of their babies while they are in the hospital....

I guess I can understand but...

Well babies don't NEED babysitting for the babies' sakes....

They to be with their MOMS And FAMILIES who need to learn early on how to care for them. They go home soooo quickly these days I feel it is best they learn early on, it's a tough go sometimes.

Having help around in the hospital for the mother is the best way to go....we tell them this...

We just can't guarantee baby care on demand anymore.

I think that is ok...we don't go home with them, after all. And they go home in 24 hours 99% of the time. Not OUR choice, theirs.

And like I said before, we make special provisions for those simply too sick to take care of themselves, let alone their babies.

But in a level 2 facility like mine , that situation is VERY rare.