No help here. I am frustrated by the same situation at my hospital.
Technically, I am not at all responsible for the baby. I do help when I can
with breastfeeding. Most of our babies get formula at night. The babies
usually stay in the nursery and can come out for feeds. If the baby cries at
all it goes out to the mom. They do not try to comfort the baby. What
happens is the moms get frustrated and bottle feed. They do not get enough
support. I recently met a mom who was 4 days postpartum not nursing or
pumping and was supposed to be breastfeeding. I met a great deal of
resistance from the mom when I suggested we either pump or put baby to the
breast. I think the LC finally got things a bit worked out.
Clearly your nurses are over worked and so are you. I understand the mother
baby nurses at my hospital have more dyads than the 3-4 recommended by
AWHONN. I don't have a solution. One hospital I worked at closed the
nursery. We had an admitting nursery and an area for babies who couldn't be
with mom. The others were out 24-7 unless mom's nurse was with the baby. It
worked. The patients weren't given the option of night nursery.
You need administrations help. Could you rally some nurses who want to make
breastfeeding work to back you up? Most will be very resistant because they
are used to status quo. Shake them up.
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