Fellow Lactnetters:

I responded to Nikki about this personally.  I didn't post my response here
because I didn't think it was related to breastfeeding directly enough
(although I do discuss it near the end).  And as a side note, the infant I
discuss here, though born very early went on to breastfeed beautifully.
Nikki asked me if I would share it in this forum, so here it is!

Christina Harris, RN
Federal Way, WA

Hi Nikki...

I just wanted to share with you that I'm a RN who also has had powerful
experiences with s2s.  In one of my two jobs, I work with premature infants,
many of whom experience a lot of apnea and bradycardia.  One night I had an
infant who began having serial apneic and bradycardic episodes.  They were
so bad that my charge nurse was considering taking him out of the parent
sleep room he was in and putting him in a quad room with three other infants
so that he could be monitored more carefully.  These parents had never been
separated from their baby.  WHen I walked into the room, the mother was
sobbing and said she couldn't bear to be away from him.  I asked her if she
was willing to work  with me to do whatever it took to keep them together
and she of course said she was.  We opted NOT to feed this baby orally all
night.  Our main goal was keeping them together and lessening the monitor
events.

She got comfortable in a chair and settled in with him, s2s.  I'd sneak in
in the night and get vital signs and hang gavage feedings.  After 6 hours,
they got up and quietly changed his diaper and then it was dad's turn to sit
in the chair while mom slept.

Something amazing happened... the baby who was having serial monitor events
(that looked so bad we thought for sure he was getting septic or something),
never had a single, solitary event for my entire 12-hour shift.  He went
into a very, very deep sleep and his heart rate and breathing were so
beautiful on the monitor that you could have put the strips in a text book.
It made me cry.  It made his mother cry.  And although I had always believed
in s2s, the experience I had that night certainly solidified my feelings
regarding such.

I now work in the delivery room.  It's a new job for me and it's been quite
a transition.  But I'm proud to say that in every birth I've attended thus
far, I have gotten every single infant to breast within an hour of birth,
including my c-section mamas.  However, I have not done this with the infant
and mother s2s.  After reading your post today, I think I need to change my
practice!  Thank you for sharing!!

Christina Harris, RN
Federal Way, WA

On 10/11/07, Nikki Lee <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Dear Friends:
>
> Something happened today at the first session of an 18-hour course I am
> teaching. A nurse spontaneously shared with the class about her
> experiences with
> s2s....

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