World Breastfeeding Week is this week- August 1 through the 7th- and this year is the 20th anniversary. Yay!!! The theme of this year is "Breastfeeding: Just 10 Steps." Here are the 10 steps and how the hospital where I gave birth failed. Hopefully this year's theme will change the way my local hopsital sees breastfeeding so that more mothers in my area will be able to breastfeed.
1. Have a written breastfeeding policy that is rountinely communicated to all healthcare staff. In all honestly I can't fairly grade this because I don't know if they had a written policy or not but I can tell you that they surely didn't seem to because there were a lot of very different opinions on breastfeeding from each nurse that came into the room.
2. Train all healthcare staff in skills necessary to implement this policy. Again, I can't fairly grade this because maybe they did, maybe they didn't. There was one nurse in particular that was very helpful in facilitating our nursing but honestly I feel like the lactation consultants weren't even particularly helpful.
3. Inform all pregnant mothers about the benefits and management of breastfeeding. F. I honestly don't think that my OB mentioned breastfeeding even once in all my appointments. Even during the hospital tour it was not mentioned AT ALL. My husband and I took a breastfeeding class at another nearby hospital that we LOVED. They taught us information that really, really helped (I'll let you know some of their tips/tricks in another post) and some of the things we even had to tell OUR hospital about.
4. Help mothers initiate breastfeeding within a half hour of birth. D. I was knocked out for my c-section because the epidural didn't work so I didn't wake up until an hour after he was born and even then I feel that they didn't bring him to me fast enough (it was probably another 1/2 hour later). I tried to breastfeed as soon as he was brought into the room and the nurse noticed there were latch problems (I have/had inverted nipples). She helped out by getting us a nipple shield (which I had to use for the first four months).
5. Show mothers how to breastfeed, and how to maintain lactation even if they should be seperated from their infant. D. I was shown how to breastfeed but they seemed to want to give up because of my inverted nipples and having to use the nipple shield. I had to keep requesting help. In regards to te maintaining lactation, I had to ask about pumps and I personally researched ways to naturally increase my milk production through power pumping, fenugreek, mother's milk tea, massage and feeding/pumping throughout the day. Even the simplest way to make more milk- putting baby to breast as often as possible- wasn't even discussed at our local hospital.
6. Give newborn infants no food or drink other than breastmilk unless medically indicated. F. They did give our son sugar water on a pacifier when I was still under from the surgery. They also recommended that we give him formula more than once before we even left the hospital.
7. Practive rooming in- allow mothers and infants to remain together- 24 hours day. D. They did allow rooming in at our hospital but STRONGLY recommened putting baby in the nursery at night. 2 nights while we were there they recommened this SO strongly that I felt that I couldn't say no (dumb move, I know) but I requested that they bring him back AS SOON AS he started to wake so that I could feed him. Both nights the nurse on duty mentioned that she could feed him.
8. Encourage breastfeeding on demand. D. They were helpful when asked but I definately wouldn't say that they were encouraging since I had to always ask for the help. Our local hospital never explained to me how breastfeeding on demand will help your milk come in and helps to establish how much milk your body makes for your infant. Thank goodness we took that class at another hopsital!
9. Give no artificial teats or pacifiers to breastfeeding infants. F. Obviously they gave him both but in their defense I needed the nipple shield (artificial teat) and we agreed with the nurse that he could have a pacifier since it is proven to reduce the risk of SIDS.
10. Foster the establishment of breastfeeding support groups and refer mothers to them on discharge from the hospital or clinic. D. Through my own research I have found that our birthing hospital does have a breastfeeding support group but I doubt that anyone ever goes to it because it was never mentioned the entire 4 day stay despite my obvious breastfeeding issues and my obvious want to breastfeed my baby.
I think that one of the main reasons that breastfeeding is so taboo and not really seen in my area is the poor education of mothers in the hospital. I trust my doctors, nurses and local hospital to tell me what to do. They are the experts, or so I thought. I was, and still am, extremely disappointed by their lack of support and seeming lack of knowledge about breastfeeding.
More than once during my stay I was told to give him formula because he wasn't getting enough and was maybe jaundice (even though his counts ALL came back normal). My milk didn't come in until the day I was released. I knew that milk doesn't come in until 3-4 days after the birth from my own research, but this was NEVER mentioned at the hospital. I have friends who gave birth at the same hospital who didn't do their own research and were foolishly led to believe that they don't make enough milk for their baby because they weren't making enough on the very first day! They are now formula feeding because of bad advice from medical professionals!
If you are pregnant, please find a local breastfeeding class to find out as much as possible about breastfeeding. I'll fill you in on some of the things we learned in our class tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment