Baby nurse people

[ilovebed]

I'm working on updating my birth plan. Since it's looking more and more like I will not have blood pressure issues, or pre-eclampsia again (yay!) I'm giving some thought to my original birth plan from 4 years ago with E....which was never really feasible b/c of the induction and complications.

I remember one thing that really bothered me was all the stuff they did to E without talking to me about it first. Like that ointment they put in her eyes, and blood draws, etc. I really want to include in my birth plan that I would like to be ASKED first. Like the eye ointment thing...isn't that just precautionary just in case the mother has chlamydia? I don't have any STD's. Is it really necessary? I just really don't want her to be welcomed to the world be having a bunch of gunk smeared in to her eyes if it's not necessary. 

Also, they pricked her heel twice to take blood. I don't know why. Nobody ever told me anything. To calm her down they gave her sugar water. Nobody asked me about that first. I don't want them to do that. I will nurse her to comfort her. 

Do I have a right to request these things? Can I decline to have the eye ointment? Will the nursing staff hate me if I demand these things?

I feel like I really just want to deliver my baby, hold and nurse her right away...and then be left the fukc along unless there is an actual medical need to treat either one of us. Or, at the very least I want someone to tell me what is going and ask for my consent first. 

[MrsPotatohead]

Feb 9, 2016 17:40:38 GMT -5 ilovebed said:

Also, they pricked her heel twice to take blood. I don't know why. Nobody ever told me anything. To calm her down they gave her sugar water. Nobody asked me about that first. I don't want them to do that. I will nurse her to comfort her.

I don't know about most of this (although I could ask H if you want), but I did a medical rotation in genetics in grad school and this is VERY important in determining whether a baby has one of several severe genetic diseases. The horrible side effects (like permanent brain damage) of eating certain amino acids, for example, are completely preventable with specific diets (not like celiac, think pre-made smoothies for their entire lives, you might have heard of PKU) and so this test is done on all babies immediately. These conditions are very rare, but it's super important to know immediately. Stuff like this becomes standard to catch those rare occasions (ETA: and apparently mandated, not surprised).

You can absolutely ask about anything you are concerned about, they probably just don't bother explaining this because it's so common practice. I think any good doctor is happy to answer all your questions

ETA: they are possibly running the blood for other stuff too that I don't know about, this is just one example of something they do it for (I think also blood glucose? and probably other things)

[MrsPotatohead]

I just looked up the ointment thing evidencebasedbirth.com/is-erythromycin-eye-ointment-always-necessary-for-newborns/ sounds like you're right, it's just to prevent eye infection if the mom has an STD. So yeah, I assume if you are negative then it's not necessary.

I get in these 'arguments' with H all the time about stuff like this and here's why: I know my own medical history and that *I* don't need something (and follow it up with all my scientific reasoning). However from 'his' (the physician) perspective SO many people don't actually know their medical history well enough or lie (this is so weird to me, but very common). So doctors/hospitals come up with standard protocols to do the best they can to prevent disease/bad outcomes to cover all of these cases.

I would be in the same boat as you and I think you can ask about not doing it because you know you don't have an STD. If they resisted (which to be fair lots of people think they don't have something and how are they to know you're telling the truth?), you could ask if it's really about STDs and would they test you to prove you are negative to avoid the ointment. That's my best guess if you really want to avoid it!

[InBetweenDays]

I would definitely do the heel prick/PKU test. The sibling of one of E's classmates has PKU and if it goes undiagnosed it can lead to a number of very serious complications. But you can certainly ask to comfort nurse rather than having them give sugar water.

[ilovebed]

MrsPotatohead, chilerellanos,
Wow, thanks! This is really helpful! I'm all for doing the recommended screenings and vaccines, etc. I should also say that they may have told me about what the heel prick was for but I was just out of my mind from sleep deprivation. It was a very long labor. They sent a social worker in to talk to me. Lol.

It sounds like all are necessary and important except for the eye ointment. I think I'll decline to have that done.

I don't think anyone gave her a bath after birth. I bathed her at home. And then I did take her to the pediatrician within 48 hours so maybe that's when the PKU test was performed. Maybe they were just testing blood glucose in the hospital. I don't know.

All I know is that if they weren't coming in to wake me up, they were coming in to wake her up. Someone was in our room disturbing us constantly after a 2.5 day induced labor and maybe I lost it a little bit. Sleep deprivation turned me in a very bad patient. My poor OB came in on his day off in his bike shorts and a tank top to release me because the on-call hospitalist didn't feel comfortable letting me leave and I lost my shit on her. Haha. God. What I pain I was.

[tacocat]

Heel prick/PKU is really important and I would always recommend that (I think it's required?).

The ointment fights those infections that can cause blindness and while mothers are tested they still put it in because status can change, NOT saying you have anything but moms who do are not always aware or truthful. The vision level of a newborn is pretty blurry compared to what you are used to anyways. I also thought I heard other bacteria can cause infections as well.

Vitamin K is really important for blood clotting (all newborns are deficient) but I imagine you could wait until after skin to skin. You could ask if it could be done while nursing?

[ilovebed]

Also, so awkward. A new client of mine is an on call hospitalist at the hospital where I will deliver. I pray that she is not the one who has to deal with me. Haha. I warned her ahead of time that I'm not a good patient. Plus...how weird would it be to see your lawyer's vagina? Especially under those circumstances. I can send her a thank you note "Great job with the stitches! See you at your next estate planning appointment."

If all goes according to plan...HA!...I'll labor at home. Go to the hospital. Deliver that sweet girl in no time at all with no complications and then I'll be on my way home

[ilovebed]

Feb 9, 2016 19:23:11 GMT -5 tacocat said:

Heel prick/PKU is really important and I would always recommend that (I think it's required?).

The ointment fights those infections that can cause blindness and while mothers are tested they still put it in because status can change, NOT saying you have anything but moms who do are not always aware or truthful. The vision level of a newborn is pretty blurry compared to what you are used to anyways. I also thought I heard other bacteria can cause infections as well.

Vitamin K is really important for blood clotting (all newborns are deficient) but I imagine you could wait until after skin to skin. You could ask if it could be done while nursing?

Yea...I get that. Mom could be STD free all along and then contract it from her cheating husband or something. I'm sure that kind of thing happens more than anybody would like to admit. 

[tacocat]

ilovebed - Yeah, the nurses I have been learning from said it is why they consider it standard. I am sorry you had a bad experience. I think it is so important to explain to people why we are doing things. I know it is hard in real life though when 1000 things are happening. I hope you have a good experience this time!

[picksthemusic]

You got some great advice! Just remember, as a patient, NO ONE can do anything to you/your baby without your permission. Period. If you don't want anything done to your or your baby without your consent, say so in your birth plan and communicate that to your care team. Also, from the sounds of it, you might do well having a doula.

Good luck!!

[tacocat]

Feb 9, 2016 19:28:50 GMT -5 ilovebed said:

Also, so awkward. A new client of mine is an on call hospitalist at the hospital where I will deliver. I pray that she is not the one who has to deal with me. Haha. I warned her ahead of time that I'm not a good patient. Plus...how weird would it be to see your lawyer's vagina? Especially under those circumstances. I can send her a thank you note "Great job with the stitches! See you at your next estate planning appointment."

If all goes according to plan...HA!...I'll labor at home. Go to the hospital. Deliver that sweet girl in no time at all with no complications and then I'll be on my way home

My classmate went into labor and our instructor was the nurse that was there. She was so glad someone else could assist with delivery, lol.

[ilovebed]

Feb 9, 2016 20:24:55 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

You got some great advice! Just remember, as a patient, NO ONE can do anything to you/your baby without your permission. Period. If you don't want anything done to your or your baby without your consent, say so in your birth plan and communicate that to your care team. Also, from the sounds of it, you might do well having a doula.

Good luck!!

We had a doula with #1 and she was wonderful. This time we aren't having her. Mostly bc of the expense, and we (mostly H) feels more comfortable with the process and our ability to advocate for what we want.

[karebear219]

I read the other day some where that sugar water helps infants with pain.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using proboards

[ilovebed]

Feb 10, 2016 8:21:33 GMT -5 chilerellanos said:

Feb 10, 2016 8:19:00 GMT -5 karebear219 said:

I read the other day some where that sugar water helps infants with pain.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using proboards

It does. We dip a pacifier in it for circumcisions.
But we don't just give fussy babies sugar water.

Yes. They gave it to her to calm her after the third heel prick