Mothers arrested at Nurse In!

This is from Pennsylvania. NO baby needs to spend 3 to 4 hours away from his or her mama directly after birth, unless there are overbearing medical issuse. Weighing and "a bath" are not only unneccesary (as babies are weighed in the delivery room, and baths aren't good for new borns anyway) and forumla doens't need to be given to anyone, especially those who made it clear they don't want it anywhere near their babies.

 

wow, thats horrible i know its only a four hour separation but that might effect the bonding between mum and baby as well, and like the first baby feed is one of the most important, i think that is horrible, especially for example if the mum was a younger mum and didnt want to say anything it might take longer for her to ger HER baby back. its horrible it really is

 

I had C sections and my babies stayed with me. My first baby actually had an hour with us after the birth, and then they took her, and I couldn't get her back for about 6 hours. (This was in 1986 and I was young and very sick from the birth, and no one to advocate for me in the middle of the night.) My last baby, born via section, stayed with us, and they wanted to put her "under lights" to warm her up, but I would't let her stay in the Special Care nursery, so I just called the Nursery every MINUTE (I mean, I called, asked for my baby, hung up and called again) and told them I would kangaroo her to warm her up. (They had given her a bath, because I forgot to put that in my birth plan, and she was only 5.5 lbs and she was getting cold without me.) So they brought me the baby, and I put her inside my gown, between my breasts, then put on an other gown as a robe, then had the Tech wrap the two of us together iwth blankets. They came in and checked her temp a while later. Her body temperature came right up to normal. The hospital staff was impressed and very pleased. They do kangarooing of preterm babies, but I guess didn't think of it for my "borderline preterm" dd. They did NOT give me a "gift" of formula, they didn't put my name on any formula waiting lists, and most babies at this hospital stay with their mamas, barring any medical condition.

There is NO reason to separate mamas and babies for long periods of time after healthy birhts, whether they are vaginal or surgical births.

It is sad that the womyn in this article were arrested. One womyn actually had to leave her nursing toddler behind, as she was taken by police. With rapists, and robbers, and child molesters running around, THIS is what the Police have to do with their time? Pathetic.

You're right, wiggy, it is just horrible.

 

i didnt read the part about the mum being taken away and the toddler stayed behind, thats sick im sorry but if they wanted to arrest her they could have said look ur under arrest can we take u and ur toddler to a family member and then u come with us, i know when my friend was arrested for punching sumone (she had a breakdown) the police said right take ur kids home wait for ur husband and come down to the staition later to be charge, she did. but leaving a toddler there just wrong. but 6 hrs u were away from ur baby that must have been horrible, i heard stories where mums didnt even know the sex of the child. people should think before they act

 

OMG can't believe such a thing can happen.

It's just .... I don't even know where to start.

 

Me too. As soon as they made sure she was ok-that took about 5 minutes and they sewed me up-didn't take too much longer, they laid her on my chest and she latched on directly. She was born 4 weeks early and they still didn't take her away from me. That is so awful, Maggie. I couldn't imagine not being able to see my babe for 4 hours after birth!! That is just cruel.

I always refused the diaper bags the hospitals gave me. They were A. tacky and B. full of junk I didn't need (bottles, formula, feeding schedules, etc).

 

yucky

 

That is too awful!

I wish I had more birthing options without having to travel out of state. Here in good ol' bass-ackwards Alabama, really the only option we have that I know of is the traditional hospital birth. Not that there's anything wrong with that; i just wish we had more to choose from. I don't want to go out of state b/c I want my family involved, and they can't travel far.

Thankfully, the hospital I've chosen is known for being family friendly,bonding-friendly, breast-feeding friendly, and known for respecting your wishes and birth plans. Plus, I'm friends with some of the L&D nurses there, not to mention the fact that as a nurse myself, I know just what my rights are!

 

Hehe, i bet the people in the nursery hated me; with both kids, i called every two hours, exactly 20 minutes before the next two-hour interval was up. The first time i ask (nicely) "Newborns are supposed to be nursed every two hours (as per their little "information" sheet), right?" Well, yes "Then i need my baby right away" and called every 5 minutes thereafter until i got him/her. Once, i even banged on the door, and demanded my baby, lol. The next time, all i had to do was say "i need to feed my baby now" and they generally brought the child promptly

It's really hard to be understanding of the time constraints those nurses are under, when you go and see that 90% of the time a baby is in the nursery, he or she is just sitting there alone and crying, waiting their turn for whatever it is they're in line for. Blegh.

Would it be rude/impossible to ask for a list of what they "need" my baby for, and what times they plan on doing these things? i know it's not something they do, and it's totally inconsiderate of the other mamas waiting for their babies, and the people trying to do their jobs...but doesn't it make sense that they would give a person some clue as to what EXACTLY was being done to their newborn, and when? i'd just like them to admit that they only "need" my baby for about 5 minutes, not several hours like they try to get away with. Maybe i could offer to bring my baby there and back myself, hehe. Tell them i won't allow anyone, even hospital staff, to take my child out of the room without me? Then they'd REALLY hate me, hehe.

Speaking of all that, how long is it really "necessary" to keep a healthy newborn in the hospital for observation? When a baby is born at home, doesn't a midwife look it over, and tell mama to call her or a doc if something doesn't look right? i know a mom and baby can't be physically forced to spend a night (or two) in the hospital, but how irrational would it sound if i asked them to get the paperwork moving, so we could be out of there in a couple of hours?

 

You have a legal and ethical right to know exactly what they are doing to your baby. You also have the right to refuse treatments, but you have to be really careful about that because if they think your refusal to a treatment is harmful to your baby, they can call social services on you.

 

When they get the baby to the nursery for the bath, the room (all hospital rooms) are kept cold so as to minimize the growth of bacteria. After the bath, the baby becomes hypothermic and needs to warm up. Of course, hospitals think the best way to warm a baby is under a lamp, but babies warm much nicer in mamas arms.

the best way to keep your baby is to decline the bath, (and the vaccines!) and tell them you want to do it yourself when you get home.

Want to add, hypothermia makes babies hypoglycemic, so they will be more eager to give the baby formula. trying to regulate their temp is a lot of work for a newborn!

 

That is unbelievably crappy.


I had my babies in hospitals in CA and Oregon. Both babies, one was a c-section, got to stay with me, or at least in the room. I feel lucky after reading this.

 

I remember lying in my hospital bed, after Sunshine was born (in 86) and just crying, because I could hear her crying in the nursery. Once, after I could walk again (about the second or third day) I called at midnight, so I could feed her and they said, "Oh, she woke up hungry about a half an hour ago, so we gave her a bottle of forumla and she went back to sleep." I asked them to bring her to me, and they said no. So I dragged myself and my IV pole down to the nursery window and just put my head against the glass and cried.

I had Lennon and Sage at a different hospital, where they did much less intervention, I could nurse my babies when I wanted to, they didn't beleive that healthy babies should be in the Central Nursery, and I even slept with them.

 

Before I have children, I think I'm really going to research hospital-births here in Washington as opposed to a home-birth. I don't want to be taken away from my child at all. My mom didn't see me after birth, or my brothers. And that was wrong. I want to be able to breastfeed my baby and warm it and BOND.

That's just ridiculous. Isn't it our right to peaceful assembly and protest? OUr nation is messed up

 

i was really sick and doped up after my little girl was delivered. thankfully at our hospital my mother in law is one of the head nurses, and i also know a lot of the labor and delivery nurses personally. i had scads of people i trusted with my baby, which was very helpful since the surgery made me so ill and i couldn't feed my baby for a long time. my little girl did get formula for her first feeding. they fed it to her with a regular little cup, since they knew i was going to breastfeed. it was so hard not having my baby with me, but knowing she was with friends and family helped a lot. what's funny is that my mother showed up from california a few hours after delivery, and she insisted on keeping my little girl in the room with me, even though i was pretty much comatose. i can remember her there, even if i couldn't react much. to this day my little girl has to sleep where i can hear her or i can't sleep.

i do know, however, that the time i was forced to spend seperated from my daughter did not adversely affect our bonding. nor did the one feeding from a cup hurt her breastfeeding ability. no, seperating mother and child when it's unnecessary is just a dumb idea, but i do know from personal experience that it didn't have any effect on my relationship with my baby.

 

when i had my first baby 3 months ago, she was breech and i had to have a cesa they showed her to me for half a second let my partner hold her for a second and then i didnt see her for another hour i had hardly looked at her they didnt try and put her on the brest for about 2 or 3 hours after. turns out she would not brest feed she just didnt want it, and looked as if she didnt know what to do with it. i dont know if she would of is she had been put on the brest straight away. but it does make me wonder. those 4 weeks i tried to brest feed were so hard on me and her. i feel like i have missed out on some bonding with her. the midwives were not pushing the bottle at all no one told me it was on option untill i had a break down and left my partner in the wee hours of the morning jumped in a taxi then on a bus and went 500km with a 2 week old back to my mums house.

 

ohhh...all your stories have elements that make me cringe or cry or yell out yay for mama!!

hey erin...course your bubba didn't know what to do, neither did I or mine without the proper help...ended up being the people in my life who I had chosen to help me when my bub was born not the hospital staff (except for this really cool tea lady who just rocked) or the lactation people...yay for friends who have breastfed, anyone who is having a baby and wants help should get one of their friends or family who have been there to give a hand.

mynameskc....doped up...don't I know it...I couldn't believe how fucking out of it I felt afterwards...to be expected but I really hadn't been forewarned properly (maybe they don't expect people to know what it feels like mentally) anyhow after a c-section with lots of stuff still pumping through your system and the staff all insisting that you keep taking stuff (another reason why it takes a while for breastfeeding to kick in) I actually demanded they get the damn thing out of my back and just took a few panadeine forte if I couldn't bear it as I for once in my life did not want to feel that whacked out feeling or have something sticking directly into my spine

Because I had to go into recovery as all people do after major surgey here I had my friend go with my baby. This was after the surgery and she was on my chest the whole time they were stickytaping me up (what is it with sticky tape man...can't look at the stuff now!!)...I am so glad I did this as I feel that there was always someone there with her who meant something and I know how whacked out I was for about an hour...they then took us back to the room and that was it. they tried to take her to the nursery...and I actually let them once, then told them stuff that, and slept with her in my bed...all of the babies crying their eyes out in the nursery drove me nuts though cause my boobies leaked every time one of them cried!

the bath thing though pissed me off no end...someone stole my precious moment from me...this stupid old bat who was sixty if she was a day came in and gave her a bath on the second day when no one else was round except bed bound me...sure she showed me some good bath techniques but nothing that my mother or my friends ddn't know from having eight babies between them...that pissed me off cause it is so not neccesary to bathe newborns (leave the vernix on them) and I felt she had pounced at a moment that she found me to be vulnerable (no one else was round to stop her) and I would have loved to have done it myself...unfortunatly I couldn't chase after her as the cathatar bag was attached to the bed and I had some sort of mental do what the older lady tells you brai meltdown (*kicks brain*)...silly old bat...may my grandma kick her in the butt when they meet in the afterlife!!!

anyhows that is my rant and I think if I heard that sort of shit in the first post was happening here even though my bub is bigger now and I really don't intend going there again I would be right there wth those mamas protesting away...rant rant rant!!!

 

my husband gave kai her first bath. they do that at the hospital here. there's a nurse on hand to teach them the business, but you can decide who does the cleaning. i'm a little squeemish, so my baby had to be cleaned.

 

yeh I imagine that if I had of had a husband this woman would have bossed him into it!! therefore the fact that I was the primary caregiver and she did that to me seemed doubly offensiv(don't tell me she didn't notice I was stuck in the bed...solly old bat)...anyhow I just love venting about it cause it was one of those annoying things I didn't get to deal with when it happened, therefore it will annoy the shit out of me for the rest of my life...
...nowadays please someone come and bathe my child!!! mmmm yep..why is it that they all want to tell you what to do when they are bubbies but when toddlers strike they run for the hills!!!

I think that if the dadda was doing it then cool however it really is not so necessary for them (bubbie not daddy that is, entirely posssible that the whole bathing thing has evolved as a way for the father to be involved) as far as my limited knowledge lends me to understand...however it does look kinda strange if cleaned up bubs are what you are used to. The vernix is good for keeping their temp or something (please correct me if I am wrong more knowledgable ones) but I do believe it is good for them...bathing is far overrated!!!

okay okay I will go have a shower!!

 

During childbirth classes, I was taught that it was part of my job to see that our baby was cared for the way that we wanted. "Momma is going to be tired, so you need to be ready." was the message the men were given.