How do you encourage rooming in???

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 20, 2003

anyone can see the difference between your case, rntg and the case of this teen mom...i would hope you could too, and not get too defensive here. OF course we take them case by case......that is a given also.

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 20, 2003

and moms do NOT Learn to care for babies if they are warehoused in a nursery. I am not talking about short breaks here and there to allow rest. I am talking about those who won't keep their babies in their room at all, and will NOT assume care, as is clear in this OP's case.

Come on now, ask anyone who was hospitalized in the 1960/1970's...they will tell you if they are honest. Nurses were often INTIMIDATING, not teaching them to care for their babies. The whole stay revolved around the "nursery schedule" the nurses and doctors mandated in those days. And IF they felt ready to go home and assume infant care, it is FAR more likely they had help AT home upon discharge, not cause their infants were kept in a nursery.

Rooming-in (with help from nurses), DOES indeed encourage the taking-hold phase of postpartum recovery. Leaving a baby in the nursery to starve, not allowing staff to feed him/her, is unfair and immature on this new mom's part. I say, yes, she needs some deeper evaluation as to her support system, resources (or lack of them) once home and if she is TRULY able to cope once she and her baby are discharged. Unless she has a LOT of help, I would bet she is NOT. Who suffers? the BABY mostly. That is a concern. A HUGE one.

rntg · Oct 20, 2003

I'm really not trying to be argumentative, just presenting a different side. I didn't have my kids as far back as the 60's and 70's, and I definetly see your side. But, at least in our hospitals case where a nurse has 6-7 couplets to care for, rooming in is definelty the norm, as there is no way that that nurse could care for 6-7 moms on the floor, and 6-7 babies in the nursery. I know you all are good nurses helping these moms to bond with their babies...we definetly need that in this crazy world we live in.

MishlB · Oct 20, 2003

What kind of rest do Moms get in the hospital anyway?? We do rooming in unless baby is sick, or Mom is on Mag. Period.

ktwlpn, LPN · Oct 20, 2003

I thought that rooming in promotes the fact that birth is NOT an illness......It sure prepares you for the rest of your life as a homemaker and mother...It does not matter how crappy you feel you still gotta take care of business......

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 20, 2003

exactly ktwlpn.....

and with early discharges, it is more necessary than ever before they learn soon.

Altra, BSN, RN · Oct 20, 2003

Wow ...

I'm a student nurse, first year, so I haven't had maternity nursing education yet. My daughter is 9, so my maternity experience wasn't exactly back in the dark ages. I had no idea that rooming in was now the norm. When I had my daughter I had a choice (I did not breastfeed). The first night she slept in the nursery, the second night she stayed in the room with me and my husband.

I've gotta tell ya ... having been through a difficult delivery ... I don't see the harm in giving a non-breastfeeding mom one night to recover if she requests it.

The teen mom in the original post obviously has other issues going on, and a social services consult is certainly appropriate. I can only pray that with the right intervention, that new mom will adjust her attitudes for the benefit of the baby.

~Leigh

lisamcrn · Oct 20, 2003

The teen mother had many issues and rooming in wasn't going to solve it. Unfortuantely she wasn't open to your teaching and the baby suffered for it.

As rooming in being manadtory, well, thank god it wasn't with my 5. I kept all of my babies all day, late into the night and early in the morning. Probably no more than 6 hours average that I didn't have them because I missed them horribly. After 14 hours of labor with my first I couldn't even old myself up much less her all night. I had my twins in at night due the the fact I knew I wasn't going to sleep for months and their sister was 15 months old and needed a bit of rest before tackling that, not counting no t sleeping for 2 months before they were ever born. The 4th was joining 3 sisters and I had been there and done that and needed the rest. With the 5th I was going home to a 2 year old plus the older 3 and once again was plaqued by no sleep due to pain being pregnant. My kids range from 3-13, thankfully healthy little hellions.

My point is that your expectations in general may not be taking into account the whole scenerio your patient my face once walking out your doors. I needed that bit of time to recapture some rest and accept the surreal wonder of that change that finally occurred.

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 20, 2003

and we are happy to oblige if we can at all....

we are not staffed for a well baby nursery, that is part of the problem. but we do bend over backward to help people out when they are tired, breastfeeding or not. having had a csection where rooming-in was the norm, I simply assumed it was up to me to take care of my own baby since she was healthy and I did not ask the nurses to keep her overnight for me. I just kept her crib in reach so I could get her when she woke up. It was what I had to once I got home, after all. No nurses went home w/me.

fergus51 · Oct 21, 2003

The other thing that is common with rooming in is having the support person stay to help look after the baby when mom is tired. I know it is terrible to be sleep deprived, but that's life. Until you all want to pay to have a hospital staff for a well baby nursery (and get some research to show its benefits that counteracts the research showing the benefits of rooming in), we are never going to be able to allow all the moms to send their babies out to the nursery. It just isn't going to happen.

SmilingBluEyes · Oct 21, 2003

another take:

having had a NICU baby, be grateful when yours is healthy enough to be able to room in with you. I would have paid the devil for a different outcome for me and my son that first time around...i was beyond exhausted driving back and forth to the hospital to care for my son in NICU ( I was doing kangaroo care and BF)..he was also born with a birth defect requiring surgery at age 3 months. NOT a FUN experience, really.

I would say the rooming-in with my healthy daughter was infinitely a better experience, despite being tired and in serious pain following my csection. I guess I see it differently having had that first experience before me. I felt very LUCKY to be able to do it the 2nd time around and did not want staff members taking care of her when I could.

rntg · Oct 21, 2003

Fergus- I sympathize with your staffing plight, but just keep in mind , which I am positive you do,the moms are your patients as well as the babies. I am so glad I had my babies in the age that I did. What if your support person (husband in my case) has to work during the day, and take care o fthe other kiddies at night? They wouldn't be able to stay and help care for the new baby. I think your latest answer, kind of proves my staffing point. Rooming in has become the norm for the very reason you describe, cutbacks on nurses. I remember when I wanted to take a shower with the baby in my room and I was yelled at by my nurse that I couldn't leave him alone in the room, he had to go back to the nursery, and I couldn't sleep with them in the room either, they would have to go back to the nursery if we were going to nap. This was in the 80's, so I guess maybe it was awhile ago....but I would have had to leave them alone for these reasons if I were at home. Times change in every nursing specialty. But I still contend moms need rest.