From: larrabee@cse.ucsc.edu (Tracy Larrabee)
Newsgroups: misc.kids
Subject: Re: nipple confusion and feeding newborn glucose-water???
Date: 27 Jan 1993 00:40:46 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz (CE/CIS Boards)
NNTP-Posting-Host: arapaho.ucsc.edu

In article <1993Jan26.135125.29944@nynexst.com> clare@nynexst.com (Clare Chu) writes:
>  But how can you?  You are not allowed in the nursery.  The nurseries
>  are locked up.  You can only look through the window and see them
>  washing your baby.  We did have rooming-in, but they still take
>  the baby away for washing, paper-clothes changing, and probably
>  glucose water.  During visiting hours, all babies are wisked back
>  to the nursery for security reasons.  And during one of those visiting
>  hours I saw a nurse give my son a pacifier but couldn't do a thing
>  about it.  He loved it, and still loves his pacifier today!

My hospital was quite different.  I spent a week *in* the nursery with
my son.  And the babies that could go out of the nursery did not have
to be broght back for washing or paper-clothes changing.  There
basically were no visiting hours--it was up to the parents to police
that.  They did ask that if no one was awake and in the room (like dad
was gone and mom was showering) that you take the baby back to the
nursery (so the child was never unsupervised by an awake person).
They also asked that you not give your child to anyone who didn't have
the proper photo-ID.  The carts that the babies were delivered to
their parents in were stocked with diapers, thermometers, cloths,
combs, suction-bulbs, and a change of blankets.  The parents could do
as much of the care as they were comfortable with.

In the nursery the nurses I saw payed strict attention to the
instructions they were given.  They never gave bottles to babies that
had "breast-feeding only" notations on their charts.  I did see them
agonize over upset babies that had "no bottle" notations on their
charts and instructions from mom to not bring the kid to her room for
a certain amount of time, but they just were upset for the little
squirmers; they didn't break the rules.  In fact, I found the nurses
in the nursery to be wonderful, empathetic, very helpful people.  I
enjoyed talking to them and I learned a lot.  They all had children,
they all breastfed, and they were all very loving of the babies they
had charge of.  I think I was much more relaxed when I got home
because I learned so much from the nurses during the week that I spent
in the nursery.  They encouraged me to do all of his care that I could
(I don't insert IVs or take blood samples or set up jaundice lights or
do gavage feedings).  There were two nurses who had had premies (now
healthy children) with more problems than mine had, and their
reassuring comments were priceless to me.  I felt like I was in charge
of my child and that my help was vital.  I'm really glad they did that
for me.  I would hate to have been at the hospital that Clare
describes.

(Actually, I heard all sorts of interesting things in there.  They
would forget I was an outsider sometimes and talk about how some woman
was more likely to get a C-section if she didn't deliver by
such-and-such a time because of the doctor who would be on call
starting at that time.  I ended up feeling like I should get my
recommendations on good OB care from the nursery nurses. If you can
get them to let their hair down, they can tell you pretty amazing
stories.)

--
Tracy Larrabee		larrabee@cse.ucsc.edu