Cindy,

I am in the same boat as you, but even more so!  I had the nasty revelation at
the beginning of this year that the hospital also gets $60 per baby from formula
companies.  Even if EVERYONE on the floor nursed, the hospital would be giving
up a large chunck (almost 25% of the nursery budget) of cash.

Ask questions so you know exactly what you face - better to know than to learn
after a year as I did!

Do you have the Administrator and the head nurses on your side?  How about MD's?
We used to have a great administrator, now we're waiting for a new one.  Many
peds are in favor of BFHI, but we have two who still want to delay taking baby
to mom until the baby has a ped check (which can be over 12 hours if baby is
born in evening).  Our OB's are mostly in favor, but the L&D nurses want those
babies OUT of the Delivery rooms and into the nursery as soon as possible.  The
Head nurses went to LLLI Physician's Conference last year and this one and
visited a hospital in San Diego, so I hope this will be helpful in giving them a
vision of what we want accomplished.

We have been able to do more changes in NICU with the help of approachable
Neonatologists.  Moms are allowed to breastfeed and babies get mom's milk (with
fortifiers when necessary) when being tube-fed.  Still haven't eliminated
bottles, but our changes have been great so I can't complain.

Keep in touch - perhaps we need a support group for head-banging BFHI positions!

Jeanette Panchula, BSW, LLLL, IBCLC, RN
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