Tell me about....

[SharonAnne]

The stuff they do to babies after they're born in the hospital. I know about eye drops, anyone know what they are for? What shots and stuff do they give?

My midwife mentioned that now is a good time to start researching this sort of thing, so they can have in my chart what I do and don't want done to the baby.

I thought I'd start my research here. :)

[jerawo]

There are three things that are usually done in the hospital. A lot of these are done out of the hospital too, because they are the policy of the state. Note: Even if something has to be done, you always have the right to decline it. I know some but not all the stats - I think Henci Goer covers these in her book. My midwife is very anti-intervention, so she's given me a lot of alternatives to what is typically done.

1. Eye goop aka antibiotics - This is a thick liquid that is put in the baby's eye very soon after birth to prevent infection from bacteria in the vagina. Unless you have an STD, the baby's eye getting infected shouldn't be an issue. Also, breastmilk works just as well as the eye goop. The reasons mothers decline this is because it blurs the baby's vision. Some moms choose to delay this for a few hours until after bonding and nursing time. Most likely I'm going to decline this completely, and use breastmilk if there is a reason my midwife is concerned about an infection.

2. Vitamin K shot - given to the baby soon after birth to promote blood clotting in case there is a clotting disorder. I don't know a lot about this, but again I'm going to decline this unless there is a lot of bruising on the baby or other signs he/she may have a clotting disorder.

3. Heel stick - I believe this is done soon after birth then again somewhere between 2-14 days after the birth. The blood drawn is used to test for rare but usually severe/deadly disorders in the baby, most of which do not show signs for several months. I think I'm going to combine both heel sticks into one, and do this somewhere between 7-14 days after the birth. There are also ways for this not to hurt the baby as much, such as warming up the foot and doing the stick while nursing which I'll probably do as well.

[Awaken]

Jennie, thanks for that info. I have been wanting to look into the erythromycin and vit K to see if that is something we really needed to do. We did it with ds (birth center) but I hadn't gotten to read up on it beforehand at the time.

I mean, there is no way I could have gonorrhea (I think why they do the eye stuff- to prevent blindness in case you have it?) and besides, my mw tests for it (already had that done) and I"m neg. obviously, so I'd feel comfortable skipping that. Thanks for the reminder about breastmilk- I don't know why I didn't think of it since I used it with ds for various infections!

The vit. K I have to find out more about.

[SharonAnne]

Jennie, thanks for posting all that. I was more familiar with that stuff than I thought I was. :LOL

I'm thinking we're gonna skip everythign but the heel stick. I love your idea of doing it while nursing. I'll talk to my mw about that.

Thanks!

[~Nikki~]

You should check with your local hospital to see what kind of tests are done there. I think it varies from place to place. I don't remember them using eyedrops, and I know that Brynn didn't receive any shots in the hospital. The only thing they did was the heel stick, and I think it was harder on me than it was on the baby (I insisted on being there, and hobbled out of bed a few hours after the c-section so that the baby would never leave my sight).