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Hospitals do poorly on breastfeeding support (Associated Press)  

post #1 of 17
6/12/08 at 8:10pm
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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25124745/
post #2 of 17
6/12/08 at 8:21pm
Why am I not surprised? The 25% of babies given supplements is awful. I never heard of a supplement given to test a baby's ability to feed, what's that about? Is that for preemies?

At least they hit the nail on the head with the "gift packs"! Quit giving them!!!
post #3 of 17
6/12/08 at 8:26pm
I wish there were a law that a mother had to specifically give permission with signing some official form for her baby to be given formula. In other words it should expressly be a crime to give a baby formula without the mother's legal consent. Am I dreaming?
post #4 of 17
6/12/08 at 8:53pm
No kidding... kind of hard to support breastfeeding when the entire staff is steeped in formula-feeding mentality. At the hospital in which my son was extracted, in front of every maternity bed was a poster lauding the importance of colostrum and specifically mentioning that the tiny amounts could not be measured. That did not stop multiple personnel from asking me how many mililitres of colostrum had I given my son.
post #5 of 17
6/13/08 at 12:13am
I'm not surprised at all.

My son was in the level 2 nursery after he was born, and I swear, the neonatologists and nurses seemed to do everything they could to sabotage our chances of breastfeeding. They very nearly succeeded, except I am more determined than they are ignorant of breastfeeding! They told me that nipple confusion didn't exist and it was something that some women made up just to scare moms away from using bottles, and that they have never ever had a mother to have a problem with it. They fed my 5 lber the same amount of formula they feed the 10 lb babies, and increased it by 10mL every feed so that he'd throw up because his stomach was so stretched out. Then, every time he'd vomit, that would add an extra day to his stay in the nursery. I finally confronted one of them on the third day and demanded to breastfeed my baby. He looked straight at me and told me that it was up to the nurse as to when I'd be allowed to nurse him! : So...yeah, I'm actually surprised the numbers in that article are so low!
post #6 of 17
6/13/08 at 12:29am

hospitals...

I've heard of that before - vomiting in babies that were breasfed, but somehow, nurses also gave them formula. It can be dangerous, and in one of the cases I know, baby started loosing weight, until her mom figured out what was happening (and did not allow the nurses to take the baby even for a minute).
post #7 of 17
6/13/08 at 12:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by KikaKika View Post
I've heard of that before - vomiting in babies that were breasfed, but somehow, nurses also gave them formula. It can be dangerous, and in one of the cases I know, baby started loosing weight, until her mom figured out what was happening (and did not allow the nurses to take the baby even for a minute).
Oh, I wanted to room-in and our original plan was to not let him out of our sight, but he was a preemie and couldn't breathe on his own the first 7 hours and almost had to be transferred to another hospital, was on a 3 day course of antibiotics, and then became jaundiced, so he had to be in the nursery. He had to be supplemented because, despite pumping, I didn't have any milk. No wonder, since I wasn't allowed to hold him much or nurse him at all until the 3rd day! I ended up with very low supply (only ever made 3-10 oz a day), so I don't doubt his need for the supplementation. I just hate that they pushed his little tummy to handle more than it could, and that I wasn't allowed to supplement at the breast for each feeding. All those wasted opportunities for bonding...

If we ever have a full-term healthy baby, I will not let the kid out of my sight around those doctors and nurses. They've taught me not to trust them. From my experience, I've learned that our hospital's breastfeeding friendliness exists only in their advertising.
post #8 of 17
6/13/08 at 1:01am
Quote:
Originally Posted by meowee View Post
I wish there were a law that a mother had to specifically give permission with signing some official form for her baby to be given formula. In other words it should expressly be a crime to give a baby formula without the mother's legal consent. Am I dreaming?
I agree. Formula is a potentially harmful substance and should not be given without the consent of the mother. When DD was in the NICU I was pumping faithfully and storing my milk in the freezer at the Ronald McDonald house like they told me to. I asked about her first feed for days and they kept saying, "Oh she'd not ready yet, not even close". Then I got a call one morning that they had given her Similac for her first feed! WTF? I cried for 2 days. Everything I wanted for my baby had already been stolen away from me. I wasn't the first to hold her, to bathe her, to feed her...and they couldn't even respect that I wanted her to have my milk for her first feed!? How freaking inconsiderate can you be to a mother who doesn't even know if her baby is going to live!?

And when I confronted them about it, they were like, "Oh we just don't think formula is a big deal." I told them it was DISGUSTING that they would give formula to a sick baby when there was breastmilk available. No excuse for it.

Of course, they didn't care what I thought and told me they could give whatever they wanted to my baby if they deemed it medically necessary. I was so glad to get her home and away from those crazy people, who pushed formula on us the ENTIRE time she was in the NICU. But I stood my ground and she never got anymore after that first feed.
post #9 of 17
6/13/08 at 1:17am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bandgeek View Post
Then I got a call one morning that they had given her Similac for her first feed! WTF? I cried for 2 days. Everything I wanted for my baby had already been stolen away from me. I wasn't the first to hold her, to bathe her, to feed her...and they couldn't even respect that I wanted her to have my milk for her first feed!? How freaking inconsiderate can you be to a mother who doesn't even know if her baby is going to live!?

Oh Mama, how awful!


ETA: I see that you are EPing for you - especially after all that stress!
post #10 of 17
6/13/08 at 1:44am
I had a bit of a "yeah...duh" moment when I read the headline, but it's still good seeing it reported. I though the article was pretty good. I thought this was particularly interesting:
"Of hospitals who gave supplements, 30 percent gave sugar water and 15 percent gave water. Experts say there are no good nutritional reasons to use those, but it is commonly done to quiet crying babies separated from their mother."

Quote:
Originally Posted by Jaysfamily View Post
Oh, I wanted to room-in and our original plan was to not let him out of our sight, but he was a preemie and couldn't breathe on his own the first 7 hours and almost had to be transferred to another hospital, was on a 3 day course of antibiotics, and then became jaundiced, so he had to be in the nursery. He had to be supplemented because, despite pumping, I didn't have any milk. No wonder, since I wasn't allowed to hold him much or nurse him at all until the 3rd day! I ended up with very low supply (only ever made 3-10 oz a day), so I don't doubt his need for the supplementation. I just hate that they pushed his little tummy to handle more than it could, and that I wasn't allowed to supplement at the breast for each feeding. All those wasted opportunities for bonding...

If we ever have a full-term healthy baby, I will not let the kid out of my sight around those doctors and nurses. They've taught me not to trust them. From my experience, I've learned that our hospital's breastfeeding friendliness exists only in their advertising.
Wow, talk about making a difficult situation even worse. OT, but have you checked out the preemie board? You might could find some good discussions there.
post #11 of 17
6/13/08 at 8:02am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bandgeek View Post
I agree. Formula is a potentially harmful substance and should not be given without the consent of the mother. When DD was in the NICU I was pumping faithfully and storing my milk in the freezer at the Ronald McDonald house like they told me to. I asked about her first feed for days and they kept saying, "Oh she'd not ready yet, not even close". Then I got a call one morning that they had given her Similac for her first feed! WTF? I cried for 2 days. Everything I wanted for my baby had already been stolen away from me. I wasn't the first to hold her, to bathe her, to feed her...and they couldn't even respect that I wanted her to have my milk for her first feed!? How freaking inconsiderate can you be to a mother who doesn't even know if her baby is going to live!?

And when I confronted them about it, they were like, "Oh we just don't think formula is a big deal." I told them it was DISGUSTING that they would give formula to a sick baby when there was breastmilk available. No excuse for it.

Of course, they didn't care what I thought and told me they could give whatever they wanted to my baby if they deemed it medically necessary. I was so glad to get her home and away from those crazy people, who pushed formula on us the ENTIRE time she was in the NICU. But I stood my ground and she never got anymore after that first feed.
OMG, I am so sorry that you & your baby went through that! That is criminal!
post #12 of 17
6/13/08 at 9:17am
That's terrible, and it's not just in the states either. My breastfeeding relationship was very nearly sabotaged by hospital staff here too. First they didn't give her to me for nearly 1/2 an hour after she was born (via totally unnecessary forceps delivery). The nurse then pulled down my t-shirt, stuck the baby on my breast for about a minute - wouldn't let me hold her because I was still being stitched up - then disappeared with her.
As soon as I got to my room I ended up roaming the halls looking for her - they wouldn't let me keep her in my room with me because they said she needed observation. For what? Her apgars were 8, 9 & 9. She was fine - all she needed was me. They only brought her to me to feed about 4 times in the first 24 hours - I kept complaining but most of the nurses spoke no English and i only speak a little Czech, so they just ignored me. They would stand over me the whole time I was trying to feed her. I would try to just relax with her, do skin-to-skin and help her to latch on naturally, but that wasn't good enough. They would just grab my baby and my boob and shove them together. They also enforced 10 minutes on each side. And we had to weigh her on what looked like big greengrocers scales before and after each feed. The smallest increments on the scales were 5g and with baby moving and the small amounts that colostrum comes in it was very hard to get an accurate reading, and they just kept insisting that she wasn't getting anything at all. She lost 10 % of her birth weight, which I knew was quite normal, especially since she was 3 weeks past her EDD and hadn't passed any meconium until after she was born. But they decided she wasn't getting enough - though there were no clinical signs of dehydration or hypoglycaemia. They supplemented her with formula without my permission - even without telling me and then despite my protests made discharging her from the hospital conditional on me feeding her a bottle of formula. I cried and cried - they had ruined the birth of my child, they had kept her away from me when we needed each other most and now they wanted me to feed her Nestle's Best Poison with an artificial nipple. But there was nothing I could do - I fed her the bottle in order to be able to take her home. This was over 72 hours after the birth and my milk still hadn't come in. I knew that most of that was the stress of the situation in the hospital and I didn't think it would get any better if we stayed there, so I gave in to get her and me out of there as soon as possible. And wouldn't you know it as soon as we got in the door of my flat and I sat down to feed her my milk came in with a bang!
But I was shocked and horrified by the lack of understanding and support of breastfeeding. Enforced schedules, timed feedings, not realising that colostrum is the perfect food for new babies, babies do lose weight after they're born... And then to top it all I got mastitis a week later, which I still haven't recovered from because the doctors I saw here refused to prescribe effective antibiotics despite me telling them that the mastitis was caused by staph, which a subsequent milk culture proved, and that amoxicillin was ineffective against staph infections - they wouldn't prescribe me anything else because I was breastfeeding. I told them about Hale's "Medicines and Mother's Milk" book - but naturally they didn't care
So the first few days of my daughter's life were far from perfect and poorly treated mastitis has shadowed our now 5 1/2 month breastfeeding relationship, because medical 'professionals' don't know the first thing about breastfeeding.
Sorry that was so long..
post #13 of 17
6/13/08 at 2:16pm
Jaysfamily - so sorry to hear what happened. I think it's good for all of us to hear what exactly is going on in hospitals - like you said, to prepare for the next time and to warn others. I also heard of stories where lactation specialists, that work in certain hospitals, were very unsupportive (??!!).
It is sad, but moms really have to fight for everything during those couple of days in hospitals.

Take care and thanks to everyone who shared their experience here!
post #14 of 17
6/13/08 at 2:38pm
Wow, I mean I do believe it, but just wow how can you be in that field and so blatantly ignore the facts.

Also did this subheadline bother anyone:
Quote:
1 in 4 medical centers gave supplements to healthy newborns, study reports
As if to unhealthy newborns supplements are ok. :They need breastmilk even more!!!
post #15 of 17
6/14/08 at 12:50am

Lobby your legislators.

Quote:
Originally Posted by meowee View Post
I wish there were a law that a mother had to specifically give permission with signing some official form for her baby to be given formula. In other words it should expressly be a crime to give a baby formula without the mother's legal consent. Am I dreaming?
There SHOULD be a law!! We have to sign to permit a childcare provider to give/use anything more than SOAP! (I guess that's probably a state law)

sigh. I guess they figure medical staff should know better. I wonder if nurses have to have an order from the baby's doc to give formula... If so its the docs that need to change...

Mamas, we need to get ORganized! Who is lobbying for stuff like this? Or working towards lobbying? LLL?
post #16 of 17
6/14/08 at 7:46am
Jaysfamily-- that is horrendous. I'm so sorry. I think I might even consider getting a lawyer if that happened to me. There's plenty of evidence that formula can do harm, and they knew what your wishes were.

My hospital was horrendous. They kept formula in every room, each nurse gave me different advice about breastfeeding, and when I needed a CT scan to check for pulmonary embolism they told me I had to feed formula for 48 hours after the test. Which was absolutely untrue. I didn't have to stop for even a second. They didn't mention that if I gave her a bottle it might mess up her latch. It just goes on and on. It's outrageous how little they understand about breastfeeding.
post #17 of 17
6/14/08 at 10:30am
I dreamed of a natural birth with my midwife, but my footling breech son thought otherwise, so we ended up at a hospital. They were very supportive of nursing, except for one nasty night nurse.

My term son, healthy and strong, nursing like a champ from the hour he was born, supposedly "needed" formula at 1 am. You want to make a new mom mad? Come into her room while she's sleeping, rouse her baby, and say you are taking him to the nursery to eat. I got my post-surgery butt out of bed and followed that woman to the nursery to make sure she didn't give him any formula. It turns out the test she HAD to take him to the nursery to administer was a blood sugar test, highly portable and could have been done in our room. His readings were on the low side, but I would not let that woman give him formula. I took him back to my room and nursed him until he fell back asleep.

The next night she told me that if I didn't want him to have formula I should AT LEAST give him sugar water.
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Mothering › Forums › Breastfeeding › Lactivism › Hospitals do poorly on breastfeeding support (Associated Press)