When I was pregnant I read a lot on here about people having horrible experiences w/ hospitals, OB's, nurses, and peds and I was prepared for the worst. Almost afraid about my hospital birth but I just had a great experience but I am also more mainstream than some when it comes to things like vax, and medical tests and such.
I was just surprised. My OB was giving me the talk about induction when my due date was approaching and he said "I dont believe in inducing before the due date b/c the baby is "too big" bodies dont normally make babies they cant push out" He said he only induces before the due date if theres some serious health risk unless the mom just wants to. He recommended an induction for 1 week overdue but I could have talked him into letting me go 2 weeks. Luckily I didnt need to.
The nurses were great at the hospital. Everyone acted so releived when I told them i was breastfeeding. You know how all the nurses on each shift have to ask the routine questions well, everytime it came to the bf or ff question I said breast and they would say "good!" w/ extreme enthusiasm and a big sigh of releif. lol I guess they get sick of hearing moms say formula.
Even when she was a tad jaundiced she had to be under the light they wanted me to nurse her every 3 hours then supplement so she would get the jaundice out of her system but they told me NO bottles (at all until she was 3 weeks old) and they didnt recommend formula. They wanted me to pump after each feeding and syringe feed it to her. They were just all against bottles. Even though she was only getting 10mm of colostrum they were like "dont worry about it. Babies dont even have an appetite for the first couple days." They were all worried about making sure I didnt let her suck on the actual syringe but use my finger.
I fell asleep w/ her in my hospital bed several times, mostly on accident, and the nurses would come in to check vitals. They didnt say anything and didnt seem to have an issue w/ it. Her pediatrician was great. He was very encouraging about breast feeding too.
They came in and told me all about skin to skin contact and kangaroo time (I already knew but still) i was just really shocked.
I didny refuse any routine interventions, though. It may have been a different story if I did. I dont know. but i do hate how they dont ask you about anything. They make it seem like you dont have the option to refuse. Thats annoying.
I was just surprised. My OB was giving me the talk about induction when my due date was approaching and he said "I dont believe in inducing before the due date b/c the baby is "too big" bodies dont normally make babies they cant push out" He said he only induces before the due date if theres some serious health risk unless the mom just wants to. He recommended an induction for 1 week overdue but I could have talked him into letting me go 2 weeks. Luckily I didnt need to.
The nurses were great at the hospital. Everyone acted so releived when I told them i was breastfeeding. You know how all the nurses on each shift have to ask the routine questions well, everytime it came to the bf or ff question I said breast and they would say "good!" w/ extreme enthusiasm and a big sigh of releif. lol I guess they get sick of hearing moms say formula.
Even when she was a tad jaundiced she had to be under the light they wanted me to nurse her every 3 hours then supplement so she would get the jaundice out of her system but they told me NO bottles (at all until she was 3 weeks old) and they didnt recommend formula. They wanted me to pump after each feeding and syringe feed it to her. They were just all against bottles. Even though she was only getting 10mm of colostrum they were like "dont worry about it. Babies dont even have an appetite for the first couple days." They were all worried about making sure I didnt let her suck on the actual syringe but use my finger.
I fell asleep w/ her in my hospital bed several times, mostly on accident, and the nurses would come in to check vitals. They didnt say anything and didnt seem to have an issue w/ it. Her pediatrician was great. He was very encouraging about breast feeding too.
They came in and told me all about skin to skin contact and kangaroo time (I already knew but still) i was just really shocked.
I didny refuse any routine interventions, though. It may have been a different story if I did. I dont know. but i do hate how they dont ask you about anything. They make it seem like you dont have the option to refuse. Thats annoying.
) we were left on our own and we almost wished we WEREN'T! Being first time parents we were so nervous. And it was hard to get out of the "Can we do X to her?" instead of "i AM going to do X to her". I almost wished we had someone to kind of show us how to do things and reassure us.
The only thing I had to advocate was declining the admission bloodwork. For everything else, they must've referred to my birth plan because nothing was offered or done. 
I'm so happy the experience was so positive because DH still hasn't changed his mind about wanting a hospital birth over a home birth so it looks like I'll be going back there for future babies.
:
). I crossed things off the consent forms with no hassels. No one said a word about vaccine refusals. Did have to do the PKU before release and a repeat today because we checked out early... DD did get the eye goop because we forgot to say anything (it all went so quick, there was no time for the birth plan to come out)... no one said anything about cosleeping (and policy says babies are supposed to be in the nursery during certain hours)... We were not allowed in the nursery for the check ups, but it was pretty understandable because they were at absolute capacity.
What the hell is wrong with some of these nurses? old school. I think she didn't like me, didn't like that I was opinionated and wouldnt just hand my baby over to her, the "expert".
