Congratulations, Teresa! Sounds like the hospital experience from Hell!
Here's hoping someone someday writes or edits a book of case histories
such as the detailed one you wrote, with the appropriate rationales
opposite each "erroneous routine". This would demonstrate just what a
mine field hospital nurseries are reported to be, and how far these
practices come from "Baby Friendly" guidelines.
Maybe it would take something like that to open the eyes of nursery
personnel, administrators, and prospective parents alike as to what a
"ghetto" it is for unsuspecting (and unsupported/unsavvy) parents. One
wonders of any of the personnel ever heard of Paula Meier, Gene Cranston
Anderson, et al.
It was always my experience that a hospital nursery, especially a NICU,
seems prone to develop into a little sociocultural enclave unto itself,
its own "community" with its own "heirarchy".
Often, the late shifts (with the fewest personnel to keep in line) seem
to be the most rigid. Certain types of personalities seem to gravitate
there and stay for years, "walled off from the rest of the world by a
virtual moat", exercising strict control over anything alien to their
views.
The nurses and neonatologists so often consider that to be "their turf"
and everyone, even the trusting parents, or I might say ESPECIALLY the
vulnerable parents, are expected to act subservient to their rituals and
kow-tow to their excellencies.
Otherwise, they get threatened verbally with consequences/retribution
because the "powers that be" have the baby to hold as their "hostage".
Can you tell I just recently stood by the sidelines and bit my tongue
when the wife and baby of a good friend were victims of a total
"trainwreck"?
Jean
**************
K. Jean Cotterman RNC, IBCLC
Dayton, Ohio USA
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