In our hospital, as long as it's not RSV season, baby can stay with mom IF she does not have a roommate and IF she has another adult family member to care for babe. Whatever mom is exposed to in the hosital creates antibodies in her milk to protect her baby. Baby is not going to be wandering the halls! Neither is any patient who is known to be contageous.

If they still refuse to allow babe to stay all night, she can at least have babe brought in during visiting hours and the hospital should provide her with a double electric breast pump at her bedside and personally assist her with pumping at least every 3 hours. Then they must provide a suitable place to store her milk so family can pick it up and take it home for baby. JCAHO requires a separate breast milk only refrigerator for patients.

Remind them that if she becomes engorged and gets a fever from that engorgement, it 'could' lead to another hospital day (hospital expense) and possibly a workup to prove the cause of the fever (more hospital expense).  

They may even be concerned about her medications. You can help them with that and your M&MM resource. Remind them of all the meds used on mothers who have cesarean sections. 

This is one of those, "We have never done that before, therefore it can't be done!" kind of reasoning.

Mom could let them know that babe can't tolerate artifical foods so the loss of her milk is a hazard to the health of her baby.

Maybe something simple like her own doctor's order to allow baby free access could do the trick.

Hope this gives some ideas.
Phyllis


---- Starla Spade <[log in to unmask]> wrote: 

=============
I am consulting with a mother who will be having a surgical procedure and a 
subsequent overnight stay in the hospital.  She desires to have her 4-month 
old baby stay with her and nurse, with someone else staying with her to take 
care of the baby.  Hospital administration will not allow the child to stay 
overnight due to security and "health" concerns of the baby (exposing the 
baby to germs in the hospital), and that it's too "risky" and that the mother 
needs to recover and rest.  What policies exist in other hospitals regarding this 
issue?

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--
Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
Glendale, AZ.
[log in to unmask]

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