We have a much smaller nursery here in Lowell, Mass. We presently have 4 LDR's
and 8 postpartum rooms. We do approximately 45-70 deliveries/month. We have a
central nursery but we are working hard to do mother-baby nursing with couplet
care by the nurses. We have purchased a rolling chart rack with equipment so
that the Pedi's will do their newborn exams in the mother's room. That way the
pedi can develop a relationship with the parents and answer questions at the
same time (this is not an easy feat!!!).
The parents are encouraged to keep the babies in the rooms 24 hours/day for
issues related to getting to know their babies, security, feeding cues, etc.
We do our best, especially during the day, there are some nurses who find it
difficult to chance to couplet care and still assign themselves or others as
the "nursery nurse" despite all of our efforts.
Our nurses try their best to keep mother and baby together after delivery to
breast feed and are supposed to do the initial bath, measuring, weighing,
meds, etc. at the mother's bedside during the recovery time. This of course,
is for the healthy full term newborn. We feel this enhances mothers ability to
get to know their baby, we begin our teaching at that time, and we keep baby
with mother to breast feed for as long a possible (most research shows it
takes almost up to an hour for a baby to latch on properly.). So there is our
basic care, it does not always follow and depends greatlly on the nurse
present at delivery. Our care is supported by the OB's and by the Pedi's so
that helps.
Good luck and I hope this helps in your search for new ideas.
Sharon Galvin,RN, IBCLC
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