Daer Friends:
    Lynn's post about the lack of responsiveness to  babies in a nursery or
NICU stirs up memories.
    I used to work at Booth Maternity Hospital,  paradise for mothers and
babies. (That's another story.) Crying was a signal  that everyone responded to,
and it was commonplace to see empty isolettes and  staff holding babies while
giving report at change of shift.
    When Booth closed (an early casulty of  corporate medicine) in 1989, I
tried to work at another hospital   which had a much higher delivery rate.
During orientation to the nursery, I was  unable to sit still and pay attention to
my preceptor, because there were  so  many babies crying. Her response was to
get up and shut the door  between us and the babies.
    When I was orienting in their OR, watching the  first of 3 cesarean
sections that day, I asked the circulating nurse why she was  using a catheter to
suction the baby deeply, going down each nostril. Her  response was to hiss at
me, "Look, this isn't Booth. This is how we do things  here."
    I lasted 6 days at that place. They were as glad to  see me go as I was
to leave, because my distress with how babies were being  treated was so
obvious (I NEVER play poker!) that it bothered them.
    warmly,
Nikki Lee RN, MS, Mother of 2, IBCLC, CCE
Maternal-Child Adjunct  Faculty Union Institute and University
Film Reviews Editor, Journal of Human  Lactation
Support the WHO Code and the Mother-Friendly Childbirth  Initiative

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