This family bed thread reminded me of something. Years ago, when Lexie
was nearly three, she accidentally swallowed a nail. She ended up with
abdominal surgery, and was in the hospital for five days. The estimate
of how long her stay would be was 8-10 days, so she left early when
compared to that. The first night, after her surgery, she was brought
to the room in a crib. I asked for a regular bed so I could sleep with
her, lie with her, cuddle with her better. They refused. I insisted,
and talked about research which states children and babies recover
better and do better if they are held a lot by mom. I won out, but had
to sign a form saying that if she fell out of bed or otherwise was hurt
by sleeping in a regular bed then the hospital was not responsible. I
signed. Her first food was breast milk. The hospital had a policy that
breastfeeding mothers would get free meals while their child was in the
hospital. I qualified, but I don't think anyone on the floor had ever
seen a 4 month pregnant woman who was still breastfeeding a nearly 3
year old child get free meals, and I doubt they had a person like me in
mind when they started that policy. There was one very supportive
nurse, her specialty was helping parents of terminally ill children or
still born babies cope, as well as helping parents with premature
babies. She said I did more for attachment parenting, family bedding,
long term nursing, etc. in five days then she could ever do as the
hospital educator on those issues. The nurses and doctors did have a
lot of questions about milk supply, breastfeeding a toddler,
breastfeeding while pregnant, tandem nursing, etc. Her surgeon had the
most questions, and on the last day she admitted to me she was pregnant,
I was the first person she told outside her family. I loaned her a few
books, which she mailed back a few months later with a note--I can't
remember what it said but it was clear I had swayed her thinking.
Anyway, I spent all five days Lexie was in the hospital in Lexie's room,
and slept with her nights, and some days. I think that is one reason
she was out in 5 days instead of 10.
Joylyn
Pam Hirsch, RN, BSN, IBCLC wrote:
>Brenda: UNICEF UK has a sample hospital policy that can be downloaded fr
>om
>their site. Also check out your state's university extension site. It's
>
>possible there is information there on bedsharing. Check out the
>University of Illinois Extension web site:
>www.aces.uiuc.edu/familylife/sleeping for a PDF trifold parent brochure o
>n
>safe sleeping.
>Ironically, almost all the mothers at my hospital spend at least part of
>
>their stay sleeping with their babies
> and no one seems to have an issue with it unless it is the first night
>
>after a C/S, of which we do plenty. Many of our fathers are more than
>
>happy to take over that job until mom is ready. We really encourage skin
>-
>to-skin care, which by the way, is not a timed event, nor is breastfeedin
>g.
>
>Pam Hirsch, BSN,RN,IBCLC
>Clinical Lead, Lactation Services
>Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital
>Barrington, IL USA
>
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