>"I don't think that in Dutch maternity wards, nurses are all wearing gloves
>when they handle babies. Should they be...?"
>As far as I am aware, they don't in Australian hospitals.


Nor in the UK.

>   The bigger
question here is, why are the staff handling healthy babies at all?

Indeed - though of course there are times when a mother needs a 
little help and support (maybe she has had a section and needs 
someone to hold the baby while she gets comfortable).

My most un-favourite example of well-meaning staff taking over is 
when a mother has to express some colostrum for a sleepy or 
uninterested baby, and the staff are the ones who then  give it to 
the baby, watched by a passive mother.

This is very, very demoralising and disempowering for mothers; many 
don't actually realise it at the time, either. They think the 
midwives are being kind (and the midwives think this, too, and they 
certainly don't mean to be unkind).

Heather Welford Neil
NCT bfc, tutor, UK

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