When I had my oldest son five years ago, the hospital sent us home with a
basket that contained your choice of either two sirloin steaks or two
marinated chicken breasts, two baking potatoes, a bottle of sparkling white
grape juice, two blue champagne glasses, and I forget what else, but I
assume there was also a vegetable and dessert.  Also included were
instructions to dad as to how to do the cooking.  That was at Mary Greeley
Medical Center in Ames, Iowa.  I don't know if they still continue that
practice, as a year later we moved to Memphis.  I had my youngest son here
three years ago.  I received formula gift packs at both the Iowa and
Memphis hospitals.  The best difference between the hospitals though, was
at the Memphis hospital, there was an LC on staff.  This was much more
useful to me than the nice dinner.  If I had a suggestion to make, it would
be to spend the money on increasing the number of LCs on staff at the
hospitals.  If the hospitals feel they need to give the mom a gift pack as
well, give them the dinner.  The champagne glasses were a nice memento.


Donna J. Spannaus-Martin, Ph.D., MT (ASCP)
Assistant Professor, Clinical Laboratory Sciences,
University of Tennessee, Memphis
http://www.utmem.edu/allied/Med.Tech./med.tech.html