On the Mother/Baby floor where I work we often have mothers who are readmitted room-in with their babies. They have to have someone with them at all times to tend to the baby should the mother become too ill to do so. We provide them with a bassinette and they provide the rest of the baby's supplies. we get more resistance when the mother is readmitted to another floor where nurses don't want to be "bothered" with a baby in the room, and we get all kinds of excuses. "the baby will cry and disturb the other patients", "the baby will bring in an infection from outside the hospital", "the baby will be exposed to pathogens in the hospital" etc. There are many good reasons that moms should be encouraged to keep their babies near them.  Mom is breastfeeding which lowers the incidence of the baby acquiring an infection.  Keeping the baby in mom's room and good handwashing would obviously be emphasized.  If a mother feels well enough to breastfeed, wouldn't she feel and heal better if she could do it? Isolating a mother and giving her a breastpump only delays those antibodies getting to her baby and makes her feel that she has lost the ability to care for and bond with her baby.  It's a "no-brainer" to me.

Holly McSpadden, IBCLC


-------------- Original message from [log in to unmask]: -------------- 


> Hi, just a word as one who works in many different roles on OB besides as an 
> LC. As a charge nurse, I can tell you that at our hospital we would not 
> allow a mom with a 4 month old on our floor. Even though the baby would not be 
> going to the nursery, we would not want a baby who has came from the "outside" 
> on our floor. We have a no children under the age of 14 unless he/she is a 
> sibling policy. We currently have a women's unit for woman's surgery pts. She 
> would be able to keep the baby with her there with the understanding that 
> someone has to be there to take care of the baby. The same would apply to other 
> med/surg units. 
> 
> 
> Allyson Michaels RN, IBCLC 
> 
> 
> 
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