Thanks for sharing this Andrea!
This kind of info is very helpful to me. I have worked for about a year now 
as a hospital based LC in a large hospital with an active LC inhouse and outpt 
program that has operated for 10 years. All of the founding LCs are still 
working in the program AND struggle with the same kind of issues you describe ie. 
they feel they have been singing the same song for 10 years and are getting 
tired. Although the idea of a unit bulletin board has been brought up in the 
past, it is one of many ideas that gets left by the wayside when faced with the 
day to day issues of the "business". I am hopeful that upon hearing of the 
success of this with your program, we will get moving and get it done! I also LOVE 
hearing about a hospital that actually works with NO nursery and such a nice 
NICU setup.   We have 80 or so NICU patients, staff and equipment (not to me
ntion parents!) stuffed into a ridiculously small, noisy space! 
Any other ideas on how to spruce up a program that has stalled would be 
greatly appreciated!
Lynn Shea Rn,Bsn,Ibclc
Franklin,Massachusetts


> I am the program coordinator for the lactation program at a community
> hospital in Boulder, Colorado.  While we have a really good initiation
> rate, 95%, I have been frustrated for the past few years because I felt
> we were going "backwards". The attitude seemed to be - we're good
> enough, we don't have to try to be better.  It felt like formula was
> being given left and right and especially at night it seemed to be a
> problem. and I was constantly having to "correct" the inaccurate
> information moms were getting from the nurses (and often docs too).
> 
> At our hospital we don't have a "nursery."  The babies room in pretty
> much all the time.  Even our NICU babies have their own rooms (room for
> parents is attached).  I was hearing from the day nurses that a lot of
> the time there would be a bunch of babies in the nursing core (an
> enclosed area for the nurses station, med room, etc) in the morning.  I
> felt like, if I can just get the nurses to understand that frequent
> feeding is normal, healthy behavior, they'll tell the parents that and
> encourage them to "just breastfeed the baby."
> 
> I have been an LC at this hospital for 10 years, but just recently
> started the "coordinating" piece.  One of the first things I did was
> volunteer to do the Education bulletin board for the Mom/Baby unit in
> February.  And I just stuck to the basics.  Then I put up a lactation
> bulletin board (which I need a catchy name for if anyone has any
> suggestions) and I put up information on that.
> 
> I happened to be in the nursing core the other night (I'm not often
> there at night), and one of the nurses started telling me the things I
> had been putting up made her realize she had been telling moms the
> wrong things, and now she knew what to tell them.  And when they said
> there baby wants to eat all the time, she tells them that they should
> breastfeed them as much as they want and that will help bring their
> milk in sooner and in abundant amounts.  Another nurse chimed in,
> pretty much the same thing.  One of them said, "We used to have a bunch
> of babies in here at night, now we tell the moms to keep them and feed
> them."
> 
> I had to share this because I know we all sometimes feel like we're
> trying to do it all ourselves, and this gave me a glimmer of hope.
> 
> Andrea Tran RN, IBCLC
> Erie, Colorado
> 


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