Rachel you are right...almost :) in the UK once babies have reached birthweight within a reasonable time usually thought of as 2 weeks they don't get rroutinely weighed more often than monthly and this presumes all is well and everyone inc the mother is happy with feeding. In practice babies prob get weighed more often than this, unnenecessarily often, but this is cultural choice ;)

I agree that accurate weighing until it is crystal clear all is well is a useful tool.

Heather Welford Neil
UK

Sent from Samsung Mobile

Rachel Myr <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Sarah V writes "As I understand it, one of the official bodies (I
>think it's the RCPCH in the UK) now recommends dropping the weight
>checks between 2 and 8 weeks
>as unnecessary.".  Lisa writes "At current, our clinic process for
>seeing a new breastfeeding mom/baby does not include a baby weight
>check."
>
>What I have gathered about the recommendation in the UK is that it is
>the *routine* weighing of a healthy baby between 2 and 8 weeks they
>are talking about, but that a baby who was giving cause for concern
>would be weighed as needed to determine whatever measures were needed
>to ensure the baby's health and a lot of resources were being used on
>unnecessary weight checks when those efforts could have been better
>used supporting breastfeeding in a more nuanced way.  Lisa, in your
>setting I think you could easily make a case for including a proper
>naked weight at the first visit, as part of the routine baseline data
>collection, and there should certainly be some mention in your
>procedure manual about which babies would be weighed on the first
>visit, if there is a decision not to weigh them all.
>
>An exclusively breastfed baby who is demonstrably gaining weight by
>day 5 and whose mother is feeding comfortably, knows the signs that
>the baby is getting enough milk and has unimpeded access to competent
>care in the event those signs are absent, or if she has any other
>reason for concern about the baby, probably doesn't need to have any
>routine weight checks between two and eight weeks.   Up to the two
>week mark, I think babies and their mothers deserve  frequent,
>personal attention, including weight checks as necessary, until we see
>they are indeed thriving.
>
>I've practiced through several major changes in the organization of
>maternity care in Norway, the most momentous being repeated quantum
>cuts in the number of days women stayed in hospital after birth.
>Despite the hospitals universally shortening duration of stay from
>about 5 days in 1990, to one or two days now, there has been no
>corresponding strengthening of resources in the community to follow
>them up.  The law requires that the local PHN make contact within 10
>working days of discharge from hospital, and the law has been the same
>for decades.  When it was written, women stayed in lying-in homes for
>a couple of weeks, so ten days after that was undramatic.  But being
>in limbo with a new baby, no named person or agency to phone with
>questions, no planned follow up from the hospital, from day two until
>day 16 (if you count weekends) is madness, in my opinion.
>
>My hospital was the first one in the country to implement mandatory
>discharge less than 72 hours post partum, and we started an outpatient
>clinic at the same time.  One of the reasons was precisely to weigh
>the baby as part of the assessment of how breastfeeding was going.  We
>thought the clinic was a temporary thing because we assumed the local
>authorities would get something up and running.  They haven't to date,
>but it's only been 19 years :-p.  The rest of the country has
>experienced the same kinds of cuts in postpartum stays but most
>hospitals haven't bothered to offer any follow up so most new mothers
>are even more poorly served than in my area.
>
>I'd like to see a regulation here requiring that the health services
>have a system for daily, individual contact by maternity service
>personnel with every newborn and its family until it is clear that the
>baby is feeding well (satisfied, growing, exclusively breastfeeding,
>mother not experiencing discomfort that is impacting on frequency or
>duration of breastfeeds).  Phone or e-mail contact could be used to
>determine which families needed an in-person visit.   The most
>important things, I think, are that someone knowledgeable is asking
>the right questions and taking the right actions based on the replies
>- and that it is not up to the parents to judge whether they *need* to
>call someone, because such a system is fraught with uncertainty.  The
>'someone' will call them, every day, until it's no longer necessary.
>
>Rachel Myr
>Kristiansand, Norway
>
>             ***********************************************
>
>Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html
>To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]
>Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]
>COMMANDS:
>1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail
>2. To start it again: set lactnet mail
>3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
>4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome




             ***********************************************



Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html

To reach list owners: [log in to unmask]

Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask]

COMMANDS:

1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail

2. To start it again: set lactnet mail

3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet

4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome