HOSPITAL GIFT PACKS

One thought on hospital gift packs.  Part of the reason why they are given and
why the need to get something without ABM ties is that the hospitals compete
with who has the best gift pack.  Ever see some of the local baby publications
out there with hospital ad?  They talk about their great hospital rooms,
classes, and "free gifts" that you get when you leave.  The hospitals want
something to play up so they can get that insurance $$$.  My dh works at a local
hospital and they worry because they only fill about 40% of their beds and
laboring women are comsumers.

GOOD MDS

On this thread I would like to add my FP.  I began seeing this doctor when I was
in high school and kept him.  Since he was a FP I started taking my kids to him
also.  He didn't start out this good I (and his wife and kids) trained him well.
With kid #1 all bf babies needed cereal at 4 months for the iron.  With baby #2
nothing until 6 months.  She's not eating, no problem some kids don't eat solids
until 9 months.  (His children are the same age as mine.)  When my daughter
wasn't gaining (was way below the 5th percentile in weight) he said since she
was healthy, happy, and following developmental milestones she was fine.  The
fact that she didn't double her birthweight until the age of 18 months didn't
bother him at all.

He was happy that my homebirth came out well, and knows I rarely give my kids
antibiotics for ear infections, he knows they clear up on their own the majority
of the time.  He also has many patients who don't immunize, use homeopathics,
and don't do the PKU after homebirths.  So that is why I make sure we pick the
health insurance plans that let me use him.

Felicia Henry
Bradley Instructor
La Leche League Leader
Oxnard, CA