Visitors can be interesting...

Last spring during the Toronto SARS outbreak, most Ontario hospitals restricted visitors to 1 person per day.  Many of the second or third time moms thought it was wonderful.

From a different perspective, if most visitors could even figure out that FIVE minutes is a good visit length, it would be nice.  Admire the baby, hug the mom, leave.  

Then there are the consequences of clueless visitors at home.  Mom and Dad arrive home with the baby 2 days postpartum.  Mom is tired and neither mom nor baby has BF figured out.  The entire family arrives stays for the whole day and expects to be fed and every one of them hold the baby.  This is okay if someone else takes over and brings food, does the cleanup, etc. but that doesn't always happen.  Next day mom is more exhausted because of the day and the totally overstimulated baby who wouldn't settle until 6 am.  

We talk in prenatal class about limiting visitors for a bit, and how to do that, but new parents are so eager to show off the newborn.

Judith

Judith A. Hayman, RN, BSc, BScN, IBCLC 
Public Health Nurse, Lactation Consultant 
Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit 

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