Quote:
Originally Posted by SlackerDad  I guess my point is, they can have "policies" on whatever they like, but as someone else said, it's your baby. What are they going to do if you refuse to give the baby to them? Call the cops? LOL Send big orderlies in white scrubs to forcibly pry your (or your husband's) fingers away from the baby and hold you both down while the nurses take the baby away? Not gonna happen, so my suggestion is to do what we did and just say no.  Say it with a smile, add in an apology, whatever, but stand firm. |
Absolutely!
Hospital policies are all about convenience and smooth running. It is so much easier to have all the babies lined up in the nursery, so the staff can do the procedures as they have time. As if the babies are piles of paperwork to be tended to, not living people with a need to be in their mother's arms rather than left alone in a plastic box. You don't need to follow their policies. It is your baby. You can just tell them that
your policy is, the baby does not leave your room, period, at all, until you are leaving the hospital. And that the baby will not be getting a bath, period, at all, until you go home. No need to be argumentative or confrontational, just firm and matter-of-fact. Tell them you are sorry if it is an inconvenience, but your baby's needs take priority above all else.
I wish I had known this when I had my first in the hospital. I did make sure she never left our room without me or my husband, but then I ended up standing there in the nursery with her for about 40 minutes waiting for them to weigh and measure her. (All the while looking at two boys under warming lamps recovering from their circumcisions and listening to another baby being circumcised in the back of the room. Yes they did them right in the nursery. If I wasn't an intactivist already...) Anyway, that's when I learned that when they take the baby from your room to the nursery, that does NOT mean they are ready right then to do the check. They just want to get all the babies ready to go so that when they finally do get around to doing a check, they don't have to go and find the baby. All about their convenience, not about the patient's best interest. Thus, no need for you to go along with it. Lots of people have since told me they didn't let their baby leave the room and there were no real problems with that. You might get some grumblings, dirty looks, you might overhear comments made in the hallway about the overprotective crazy mom, but as PP said, who cares? You're never going to see those people again. Your baby comes before their needs. No need to be ingratiating to them to the point of compromising your policies.
As to the retraction, it sure couldn't hurt to have it in the birthplan. You might also want to phrase it as "no manipulation whatsoever of the foreskin." If you say "no retraction," lots of people would go right on and pull back the foreskin enough to see the urinary meatus because they think that isn't retraction (they think it only counts as retraction if you pull it ALL the way back behind the glans) and also they think that for some reason they simply
must get a good look at that urinary meatus! (they just don't get that it is an internal structure and that if the kid can pee you can trust that his pee-hole is just fine without poking around at it.)
Hope this is helpful! Have a great birth.
Jen
(I am on a waiting list for a birth center, but I don't expect to make it to the top)
