Keep your baby with you after you birth!
Of course if the baby is having problems adjusting to life outside the womb, then it may be best for baby to be worked on in the baby warmer. (Though the benefits of keeping the cord pulsing can help the baby adjust) But I am talking about in instances when mom and baby are doing just fine!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccvbcobyJJ4&]
One of the most frustrating things for me when I attend births as a doula in a hospital, is how the baby nurses are just itching to get their hands on the baby. I understand that nurses have jobs they need to get done, checklists to mark off, but this time is so precious and these routines can wait!
- weigh baby
- clean baby
- eye goop
- vitamin k
- etc, etc, etc
These routines can be put off for an hour or two! Baby can stay right on mom until mom is ready for baby to be checked out. If baby is adjusting well, baby can stay on mom.
- The APGAR score can be taken there
- baby can be gently dried off there and both mom and baby covered by a blanket
- mom is nice and warm after pushing, skin to skin will help baby stay warm
- baby’s temperature can be monitored there
The bathing and weighing, the eye goop and vitamin k (if wanted) can be done an hour or two after baby is born. There is no rush to get these things done. They are not life saving procedures, they are just routines.
What I find helps protect this special time is to remind the baby nurse that mom wants to keep baby with her while mom is still pushing.
If nurse is anxious to take baby after he is born, I ask, “How is baby doing?” If the answer is “fine/good”, I say “We will call you when mom is ready to have baby weighed.” This usually works and the baby nurse goes off to another room to get other tasks done and we call when mom is ready to let go of baby.
Remember that you can DELAY these routines so that you have time to bond with your baby!
yes! That one or two hours of contact unfused around with should happen more often!
My hospital charged extra every 15 minutes while in recovery. Rats! I even was planning to hold my baby but ended up giving her up after about 15 minutes for a nurse asking to weigh (I’m very suggestable in labor/birth etc.). I wish my midwife or hubby had said, “we can do that in a few…let mom bond more). I also had a bit of bleeding, not sure if it was concerning to the midwife but the nurses put on the pit and really punished/pushed on my gut a LOT. Don’t know if I needed it or not (and it was my 7th so it’s possible). This interferes, but if I truly WAS bleeding too much then it’s okay.
I love this! What a helpful post. I wish had known more about this for all of my hospital births. With my unmedicated births in the hospital I did have specific requests like baby being put on my chest immediately after birth, and waiting for the cord to stop pulsating before clamping. My requests were honored, but I still didn’t know half of the things I could ask for. My home birth experience was so different in such wonderful ways. The midwives made sure the baby and I were both stable and they left us alone for quite a while to bond. They waited about an hour or so after the birth before they came back in to do the cord clamping, weighing, and all of that. I loved it.
I was so glad my hospital was on top of this. I didn’t even notice them doing APGARs and they handed her to me right away, goopy vernix and all. They asked if they could weigh her and all while I was getting stitched up (so 20-30 minutes?) and I readily agreed b/c I didn’t want to hold a baby while someone was stitching me up so DH took her over.
i just had a baby 2 weeks ago and the hospital policy was to immediately put baby on moms chest under her gown. So that is exactly what happened. They just wiped her down a bit then left us alone while the doctor repaired the fabulous damage. She stayed there for a good hour. Then they had me nurse her. Later my nurse asked if I was ready to have her weighed, which I agreed to, but it was completely on my schedule. Then after weighing she asked if it was ok for her to put on the eye goop. I was actually surprised when I delievered because the baby’s nurse was off in the corner and then it was only my doctor and my nurse. And since the baby’s nurse wasn’t needed she left right after delivery and never handled the baby, my nurse was the one that did the weighing.
That is GREAT!
It sounds like your hospital is wonderful! I love it when it is part of their normal routine to let baby stay with mom.
Pingback: Healthy Birth Blog Carnival #6: MotherBaby Edition — Giving Birth with Confidence