Silly question about C/S hospital bag... - Page 3

[Storm Bride]

Betsy...in terms of how much the nurses were around, your experience doesn't sound unusual. I found that they weren't around very much, but when they were, they pestered me a lot. They also made a habit, especially during my last stay, of banging open the door to my room, so if I happened to be sleeping, I'd wake up.

Of course, compared to the lactation consultant who walked in, nudged dh out of the way and grabbed my baby and my breast, without so much as introducing herself...the nurses were a dream!

[InstinctiveMama]

Granny panties are good but women's underwear is always so expensive. I just bought a pack of men's tighty-whities. They worked great and were a LOT less expensive!

[Meg Murry.]

Originally Posted by maxmama

God forbid. Not some NURSE!

I am SO tired of the eternal assumption that the nurses in the hospital are there solely to sabotage birth plans, make breastfeeding difficult, cause pain, yada yada yada.

Then perhaps so many of them should stop doing just that so often.

OBVIOUSLY not all of them do. OF COURSE.

That said, I find the "eternal assumption" to be very much the norm, and nurses who are supportive (and knowledgeable) about breastfeeding and cosleeping are relatively rare. Mine used the time-honored tactics of bullying, intimidation, and nighttime visits favored by Gitmo personnel and L&D nurses everywhere to achieve their ends.

[maxmama]

Originally Posted by Meg Murry.

Then perhaps so many of them should stop doing just that so often.

OBVIOUSLY not all of them do. OF COURSE.

That said, I find the "eternal assumption" to be very much the norm, and nurses who are supportive (and knowledgeable) about breastfeeding and cosleeping are relatively rare. Mine used the time-honored tactics of bullying, intimidation, and nighttime visits favored by Gitmo personnel and L&D nurses everywhere to achieve their ends.

You know, how many nurses do you personally come in contact with during a hospitalization? Maybe five? Ten? I've worked with dozens, and while some are clearly burned-out, the majority are working damn hard to walk the line between hospital policy, provider orders and patients. Nurses are an easy, often understaffed target with remarkably little power in most institutions. These are bigger issues that need to be addressed on a societal/institutional level.

As far as the nighttime visits go, I'm required to do vitals twice during a night shift. I get no joy from waking anyone up, and I ask people to call when they're up to pee or feeding their babies, but I have to do it unless there's an order from a provider to hold vitals . If you don't want to be woken up, get an order that says I don't have to. That's part of what I'm talking about with a reflexive blaming of nurses.

[Meg Murry.]

Originally Posted by pumpkinsmama

I just want to say that nurses probably treat people the way they are treated, like almost everyone else in the world. If you walk in suspicious and defensive I would be less likely to even want to help you, let alone make sure all your wishes are followed. .

Speaking only for myself, I "walked in" believing that the nurses would be helpful and supportive. Boy, was I disabused of that pretty quickly. Now I'm gun-shy based on previous experience -- not only my own, but the experiences of other people. Just as some nurses respond negatively to a negative attitude, some patients do too.

[Meg Murry.]

Originally Posted by maxmama

You know, how many nurses do you personally come in contact with during a hospitalization? Maybe five? Ten? I've worked with dozens, and while some are clearly burned-out, the majority are working damn hard to walk the line between hospital policy, provider orders and patients. Nurses are an easy, often understaffed target with remarkably little power in most institutions. These are bigger issues that need to be addressed on a societal/institutional level.

I agree -- I work in a profession which is comparable to nursing in this regard. Regrettably, like some of the people with whom I work, some take out their frustration on the people for whom they're assigned to care.

[GalateaDunkel]

I am not a nurse but I have to agree with those who are protesting the demonization of nurses. Horror stories about L&D nurses were a major part of what made me wait too long to transfer, leading to maternal exhaustion. When I finally got there I had the shock of my life: THEY WERE WONDERFUL. Yes, some of them were misinformed about some things, but the LEAST compassionate of them had more compassion in her little finger than both my HB mw's put together. (And as far as technical birth stuff goes, I can hardly blame them for not finding a natural solution to my problems when the midwives themselves hadn't been able to.)

This major disjunction between what I had been led to believe and the reality I ultimately experienced is much of what fuels my current skepticism about the natural birth advocacy community. Not to mention the mean-spiritedness of painting a whole group of people with such a broad brush.

[wifeandmom]

I credit my post-op nurse for my ability to successfully nurse twins. I truly do not believe we would have made it with one of my girls if we hadn't had this particular woman the night after my girls were delivered. She was beyond excellent.

My post-op nurse after #3 was born was another story, but to his credit, he'd been pulled from the oncology floor, had never worked mother/baby a day in his life, and he looked like he was 12 to begin with. Bless the guy's heart, he was nice enough, just completely clueless.

I never stayed long enough to have too many nurses after delivery, but the ones I had overall were excellent. I think with ANY profession you'll have some bad apples, but I can imagine if a patient comes in EXPECTING their nurse to be awful, it certainly won't help matters.

I've found that you get a lot further being NICE to someone who is there to help you rather than ASSUMING they are out to make your life in general miserable.

[OnTheFence]

Originally Posted by Meg Murry.

Speaking only for myself, I "walked in" believing that the nurses would be helpful and supportive. Boy, was I disabused of that pretty quickly. Now I'm gun-shy based on previous experience -- not only my own, but the experiences of other people. Just as some nurses respond negatively to a negative attitude, some patients do too.

I have as well. Coming from a family that has nurses, you want to treat them kindly and with respect. However if i want something done my way, and its not endangering me or my child, I think I have the right to speak up for myself. With my first csection I could barely speak at all -- I was treated badly by the nurses. I was roughed up and got little sympathy at all and I was drugged without my consent. The kindest person to me was my student nurse. With my second surgical birth I had no problems at all with my nursing staff, however with my last birth I did -- and I was a lot more laid back.

[BetsyS]

Originally Posted by wifeandmom

My post-op nurse after #3 was born was another story, but to his credit, he'd been pulled from the oncology floor, had never worked mother/baby a day in his life, and he looked like he was 12 to begin with. Bless the guy's heart, he was nice enough, just completely clueless.

As a new grad nurse, I used to get pulled to the postpartum floor. I worked L&D, but I was clueless about postpartum. Alot of hospital (managers, especially) have the idea that any nurse can work any place. And, they especially think postpartum is an easy place to work. Not so!!

I feel bad for all those women that I took care of back then. I didn't have the foggiest clue. I didn't have any children of my own back then, and I didn't get any orientation to postpartum, so I had to ask my more experienced coworkers about everything.... There was no intuition on when to help with breastfeeding and when to back away. Shoot, I wasn't a big help on breastfeeding anyway! : And, I consider myself a good, competent nurse. It took me a while to feel comfortable with postpartum.

So, I can totally see how you can be cared for by a nurse that's nice enough, but just not helpful.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by wifeandmom

II never stayed long enough to have too many nurses after delivery, but the ones I had overall were excellent. I think with ANY profession you'll have some bad apples, but I can imagine if a patient comes in EXPECTING their nurse to be awful, it certainly won't help matters.

I've found that you get a lot further being NICE to someone who is there to help you rather than ASSUMING they are out to make your life in general miserable.

That may be true. But, I went in with my first fully thinking the nurses would be supportive. I got a very rude shock. I had one nurse in five days who wasn't awful...one. The rest of them were condescending, nasty and extremely unsympathetic to the fact that I'd had major and totally unexpected surgery. I tried really hard not to let that colour my expectations for my subsequent surgeries, but I'm sure it did to at least some extent.

That being said...I had an angel for L&D with my last. She gave up her own lunch hour to stay with me after my surgery, so that I didn't have to go to the post-op recovery room. That's the only time I've been able to have my baby with me after my surgery, and it was 100% because of that nurse. The postpartum nurses drove me crazy, but the L&D nurse was an angel.

[shelbean91]

To comment on the orders of vitals, I did ask my doc to limit vitals to only the day (or when they had to do baby's anyway) and he had no problem with it, once the iv was out.

Also, ds2 was pretty jaundiced during the hospital stay, so he was under the lights in another room for about 24 -36 hrs (don't remember for sure). He came to me when he was hungry or every couple hours for feeding for 1/2 hr to an hour. Dh was bringing the kids for a visit at a time that didn't match the 'regular' feeding time, so I told the nurses they would be there for an hour and I needed ds2 to be there and for them to please call the doc for me to get it 'cleared'. I knew they couldn't do that w/o the proper orders. When I asked her, she sort of gave me attitude of 'wellllll, I don't know......' I just told her I'd call him myself if needed and my family would see the newest member. Of course, she called him and he was fine with it.

If you're not sure on what they're doing, ask if it's YOUR dr's orders or hospital protocal. At least then you know how to handle it.

[Storm Bride]

ARGH! That was another one last time. One nurse told me ds2 looked "slightly jaundiced". Well...I couldn't see it, but they're more used to those god-awful fluorescent lights than I am, so whatever. My family doctor walked in the next morning (about 10 hours later), and told me that he was a "beautiful baby and has such lovely colour" - she repeated this on both subsequent visits, as did my OB.

The second night I was there, the nurse looked at ds2's chart, said "oh - jaundiced, is he?...well, I can't tell for sure...I'd better put down that he still is". What was that??

Fortunately, they didn't think he needed any special care for it, although I got harrassed constantly about making sure I fed him enough. But, he wasn't jaundiced - not even a little bit (I was sure after seeing him in daylight the next morning). Why on earth would two of my nurses put that in his chart?

[shelbean91]

With us, it really was jaundice. Ds1 had to be readmitted at 10 days old b/c his bililevels were 23ish. Ds2 was around 18/19. They went down after he was in the lights and we ended up having a biliblanket at home for 5 days.

[camelcamel]

Originally Posted by InstinctiveMama

Granny panties are good but women's underwear is always so expensive. I just bought a pack of men's tighty-whities. They worked great and were a LOT less expensive!

Great idea! I wouldn't have thought of that, but will probably end up going that route.

Thank you, everyone, for the excellent advice and suggestions. BTW, baby turned! We're close to due date now, and he has dropped, so we're hoping that he stays. He's been vertex for about 2 wks now, so we may be in the clear. Will still be using a lot of the advice you have given, though, in packing our bag. Would never have thought to bring our own blankets, but it's a great idea and we're doing it for sure!

Thanks again, everyone!!

[MommytoTwo]

Ask your anesthesiologist to lower the drape and/or get a mirror so you can watch your baby being born.

[Cigilteach]

breech - c/s?

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[camelcamel]

Hi again!
Sorry, I guess I wasn't very clear on my last post, Cigilteach - baby has turned vertex/is no longer breech, so no c/s planned at this point. We weren't scheduling a c/s anyway, our doc was more than happy to let me go into labour naturally and labour for a while before doing the c/s.

I did a LOT (we're talking hours and hours and hours) of research on c/s vs vaginal birth of a breech baby. In the end, though I know it is possible to vaginally birth a breech baby, I did not want to since all of the risk is on the baby - whereas with a c/s any risk would have been to me. Between posing a risk to myself or the little one, I'd rather take the risk on myself. Though the risk to the baby is small, with a vaginal birth there is still the risk of hyper-extending the neck or having other issues with oxygen availability, etc., and I just didn't want to risk it. Again, it wasn't a matter of being "told" I had to have a c/s, but rather looking into what the options were with a breech presenting baby and deciding on my own that what I wanted was to go into labour naturally, labour for a while and then have the c/s - because either way there would be some risk, and with the c/s the risk was to me, not baby.

I do think a lot of people think breech = c/s, which is unfortunate because you can birth a breech baby vaginally, if that is what your choice is. I am a big fan of educating yourself so that you know all of your options before agreeing/deciding on which route to take. I chose what I felt best about (DH was okay with doing it either way - his focus was entirely on having a healthy baby and healthy mom, whichever way), but can certainly see that others may have the exact opposite feeling and would certainly be justified in seeking out someone who is experienced in vaginal births for breech babies.

Hopefully little one won't turn back round to breech. We're quite close to due date now, so it's fairly unlikely (though not impossible!). Am excited-scared-happy-and totally freaked out about labour and delivery!!

Thanks so much for your thoughts and concern, Cigilteach!

[Cigilteach]

Camelcamel,

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[roslyn]

I forgot to add for planned c-sections. Years go when I had breast reduction surgery my surgeon told me to bathe with Betadine wash the week prior to the surgery. The night before, bathe and wash your hair with it. Apparently it helps reduce the possibility of infection. I have, unfortunately had lots of surgeries since then and following his advice I've never had an infection.