Hi All,
  I have been reading the posts on this and agree fully that the mother
should complain, two reasons - first is when my real (he passed away
after birth) #3 child was born, they had let the labor continue because
there was a raging infection and he had no chance in utero. I remember
going into the NICU and one of the Docs from the Pharmacy was there,
reviewing baby's meds, he grabbed an IV and asked, what is this one? The
NICU Dr. started giggling and said, "That's mom's!" If I, with a
horrible infection, could drag my IV along and go into a NICU to be with
a 25 weeker, there is no excuse for this mom.
   The second reason, is the result one of my moms had. Her newborn was
hospitalized for something, tests I think, under Doctor's orders that
baby was breastfeeding, no separation and no bottles. The Ped. nurse,
shut her out of the room, forbid her to nurse and gave the baby a
bottle. Mom complained to the Doctor, stating most importantly that this
nurse had gone against his orders, it worked, at first Dr. simply took
nurse aside and reprimanded her quietly, but later we found out that he
must have figured that this was more serious than that, as an incident
statement was written and this nurse was placed under more serious
sanctions.
  My point is that to protect future mothers and babies, it is important
to register complaints and bring these situations to the attention of
the administration, supervisors, whoever. There is no why of knowing,
whether this will make a change or not, but it is worth the effort.
   Also I will appologise for stating that other areas of hospitals
don't give gifts. Other than having babies, my only hospital experiences
are my own (hate to admit 36, 31 and 17 years ago) as even with 4
children, we have only had emergency room visits (Thank God), so I am
not qualified to have made the statement.

Leslie Ward
Vine Grove, KY