Keeping your baby in your room inmediately after birth

Parenting and Education (Other) General Pregnancy
1

My daughter and i have been reading a lot about the importance of having your baby the first minutes of his life close to the mother. We read that mother and baby should not separate after birth unless there is a medical problem that requieres it. as express by the WHO World health Organization when evidencing the steps toward breatfeeding.

Here, in Peru, the government is trying to regulate that the baby stays with the mother in the room. It is called ‘alojamiento conjunto’ like 'together

rooming’ and is the tendency but the hospitals not always follow this laws since there is no penalty if they do the contrary.
First we have most of the doctors and hospitals that prefer to do caesarea for commodity and cause they charge more for their services. So if you are sleepy

with anesthesic, you can not keep your child.
If your baby came from vaginal delivery they usually take the baby to the babies room to do them the tests according to the hospital’s policy.

If this where the case, how can you defend against them taking your child or how do you know it is really required for medical reasons? Just have to trust the doctors or the hospital?

I will like you to share your experience during your baby’s birth.
Sorry i can not give you my experience cause my last ‘baby’ was born 27 years ago and many new discoveries have arouse in the mean time.

Please try to answer the following:

  1. Was it vaginal delivery or caesarea
  2. Did you had skin to skin contact with your baby as soon as he was born, for how long?
  3. or how many minutes after birth did you keep your baby in the same room and if it was taken, for how long?
2

I’m Canadian. The Cesarean rate in Canada is on average double the WHO recommendation of 15%. The best way to avoid a Cesarean in Canada is to be an informed mother, hire a doula, and do what you can to find a midwife or Dr. that is receptive to vaginal delivery. Knowledge is Power and Mothers who understand the importance of vaginal deliveries are more likely to fight for them/be prepared to birth without drugs or medical intervention.

In Canada ‘Rooming Together’ with the baby is also becoming policy in most hospitals. They still do have ‘baby nurseries’, but they encourage the baby and mom to stay together as often as possible. Again, the best way for a mother to increase this happening is to be informed and knowledgeable. It helps for the Mother to have continual labour support (such as a doula) to stay with the Mother and help her with the new born baby. The Mother and Baby are more likely to room together if the Mother has continual support/help other than the hospital nurses.

My babyboy stayed with me from birth until I was discharged from the hospital. During my hospital stay the only times babyboy wasn’t with me in my arms or beside me in bed was the 30 minutes while I was birthing the placenta. During this time my partner held him. There were also a few quick trips for me to use the facilities or eat, during this time I invited my sister to hold him. I note that babyboy soothes very easily for my sister and I suspect that is because he knew hours after his birth.

I was only in the hospital for 12 hours, so that my family and I could go home to the comfort of our own bed.

3

When I took the hospital tour I asked about everything. They told me that could do almost anything if they know what mothers want. But the problem was that mothers usually do not tell what they want and then they complain if something is not as they wanted… So I told them what I want and even if it was not a regular procedure of the hospital, they let me… I asked to have the skin to skin contact IMMEDIATELY after birth and they let me even if it is not a common practice. I asked to have the baby with me on my room even the first night (they usually takes the babies for the first night to the nursery romm so mothers can rest after delivery) but I insisted on having baby with me all the time, even the first night. And they let me.
I am used to ask for what I want and it is well worth it!!!
The answers:

  1. Vaginal birth
  2. Skin to skin contact within seconds after birth (for about 5 minutes), then nursing within 30 minutes
  3. Baby was with me in the same room for about 2 hours after birth, than we both moved to another room where we were together all the time.
4

I had a doula - would HIGHLY recommend one. I wrote out my wish list of what I wanted from the hospital and it was given to me. I had an EXTREMELY long experience and was beyond exhausted though so when he was born I was less than coherent (More than 10 hours after waking on a Wednesday I was induced. Over 40 hours after being induced I gave birth. I was “awake” the entire time - over 50 hours in total.) My doctor put him on my belly as soon as he came out. They wiped him off a bit and he (with the help of my doula) crawled to my breast. My doula helped him latch and he began sucking immediately. I lay there completely limp and did all I could to stay awake. He stayed with me/my husband unless I asked them to take him to the nursery - which I did (hadn’t planned to) because I was just so exhausted that I was very emotional about everything - I was quite overwhelmed…closer to terrified lol Lack of sleep can do that.

  1. Vaginal
  2. Immediate skin to skin and nursing as they stitched me up.
  3. He was with me and my husband for about 85% of the time away only because I was practically comatose!
5

For medical reasons I had to have a planned caesarian delivery but I still had skin to skin contact with my baby almost immediately after birth and was breast feeding her within 30 minutes. The paediatrician took her for about maybe 3-4 minutes (but in the same room) to check she was breathing well and had no other problems. They then brought her straight back to me to hold. I was feeling tired but not so drowsy that I could not hold her. Having an epidural and not a general anaesthetic helped with this. There was a moment or two that I felt a bit light-headed and shaky and I was scared I would drop her so my husband held her for a couple of minutes until I felt better (I thought this was really great for early bonding for them too).

She stayed with me from that point onwards all the time until I left hospital after 3 days. The hospital had a great cot which attached to the side of my hospital bed and meant that I could pull her gently towards me and pick her up to feed her for myself, even after having had an operation. It also helped to have a breast feeding specialist nurse in the ward who helped us overcome a few early problems.

I am from the UK and I think nowadays it is very rare for babies to be taken away from mum unless they are really poorly. I’m not even sure they have nurseries any more, just the special care units for very ill babies. One thing that can help is to plan beforehand what you would like and just insist on it throughout being really clear about what is important for you. Do you have birth plans as a routine? This can be a great way of thinking about what different issues might arise and how your daughter would prefer to deal with them. Because people are so exhausted during the delivery, it can be difficult to think clearly so can be good to plan in advance. For example here is a UK birth plan site:
http://www.nhs.uk/Planners/pregnancycareplanner/Pages/BirthPlan.aspx But I would also recommend thinking about a range of different possibilities, because of course, you can never be 100% certain what issues might arise during a delivery, and need some flexibility / being prepared for the unexpected.

I was always very clear in my own mind that I wanted skin to skin contact as early as possible and to try to breast feed as soon as possible. I thinkthey’d have had to drag my dd away from me if they’d tried to put her in a nursery lol

6

We had a vaginal delivery. I had originally wanted the delivery to all natural, but after over 20 hours in labor and allowing myself to become angry with others around me, I gave in and got the epidural. I had lost control of my own pain management. No biggie.

My husband “caught” our son, and the doctor had him set our son on my belly right after he had come out. I immediately stripped down my top half and pulled him to my chest. They barely had time to wipe him down. They then took him to a side table with a heat lamp and wiped him down, gave him a little bath, etc. Meanwhile, my husband was removing his shirt so that he could hold our son to his chest for a few mintutes and give him back to me.

I immediately went into breast feeding encouragement and Josiah latched on almost instantly. When they moved us to another room, he nursed the whole trip, even in the elevator.

The few times that they took my son away to the nursery for checks, either my husband, or my husband and I followed. We were the only parents there, though. :frowning:

I would hold him as much as possible, but not when I was sleeping. The hospital bed had a poor design. Honestly, they should be prepared for co-sleeping. At those times, either my husband would hold him or he would sleep in the crib right next to my bed. Oftentimes, one of us would drape our hand over the side and place it on his chest or stroke his hair.

We stayed in the hospital for 3 days. That was hospital policy. I live in Alabama, US. I would have preferred a home birth, but midwives are still illegal in Alabama. So ridiculous.

When we got home, he would often sleep on our chests. We tried putting him in a cradle, but even then he would fall asleep on us first. And over time, we just let him stay in our bed all night lol. He still wonders into our bedroom at around 3 o’ clock in the morning.
I just leave the bedroom doors open after he’s fallen asleep. :slight_smile: That way i don’t have to get up. I figure, if he thinks it’s worth walking all the way across the house, then it must be worth it. :slight_smile:

7

2010BEBES, it is so commendable that you investing much time and effort to research all different options together with your daughter. What a wonderful support she has.

A lot of bad experiences in the hospitals are simply result of not being informed and not knowing what would be the best for mommy and baby. So just informing yourself and deciding what you want from your experience is already a very big step! :yes:

Having a good support for mommy, whether it is a doula or even you, is very important. In labor mommy needs to be given chance to listen to her body, to be able to be undisturbed and in tune with her baby, and it will be the responsibility of support person to ensure that others do not interrupt that. It will be very important for mommy and support person agree beforehand on different possibilities and decisions.

Of course, the best would be to have a baby with the midwife in my personal opinion. Most midwives practice physiological midwifery, letting the cord pulse and cutting it only after it ceased pulsing; letting mommy and baby have skin to skin contact immediately; immediate nursing; rooming in, etc. But if you don’t have a choice but to go to the hospital, just make your wishes known and have the support person be your “guardian”. After all remember, it is your baby, your decisions and your experience.

Have a good luck with the birth and let us know how it went!

Please try to answer the following:

  1. Was it vaginal delivery or caesurae – Natural vaginal water birth
  2. Did you had skin to skin contact with your baby as soon as he was born, for how long? – Immediately in the water, nursed in the water while the cord was pulsing, with first cord was cut after 15 minutes and we got out of the pool; with second I got out of the pool with the baby still connected to me with the cord, cord pulsed for another 54 minutes and then we cut it. Never was separated, I hold the baby all the time, newborn exam was performed right there in my arms and next to me on the bed.
  3. or how many minutes after birth did you keep your baby in the same room and if it was taken, for how long? Never was separated.
8

Annisis, you are describing just how it went. She was all prepared for vertical delivery without anestesy but at 6 am after much pain she forgot about mental control and decided epidural was OK. At 6:30 her husband took a nap and i and stay with her until 7:15 am that the pain started again and the effect of epidural was faiding…Darya was comingo. So I wake up her husband and he enter just in time to see her come out and give her first cry.
She had skin to skin contact inmmediately for some minutes and the baby tryed to latch but didn’t. There was no way to leave her with them. I follow tha baby to the babies room her i saw through the window while she was clean, weight etc. Almost after 1 hour they took the baby to her room and from that time on they stay together. This was the 21st and i took them to their home yesterday 23. Both are doing great.

But… i have a cold :ohmy: :ohmy: maybe from the bad night so i will not go until i am perfectly ok.

Thanks all for sharing. That was very usefull and who knows, maybe next year we pass through this again ths time with my daughter in law. :yes: :yes:

9

I want to give natural birth when i went to normal checkup in my 40th week doctor check for the opening . at that time i didn’t feel any contraction. also doctor ask me to admit after three day even i didn’t have any contractions. in third day i fee little bit of low back pain. so i went to the doctor . he admitted me there he said that only 1.5cm open at that time. kept me there for 17 hr to check for normal and natural opening but open 3 cm . after 17hr they induces me . its very painful. after 12hr i got fevor and baby hart beat high also my urine bag full with blood. at that time 9.5 cm opened. but nurse told my husband baby passed motion so they can’t keep me there for natural birth.

     i did  caesarean  and my baby boy in in good health. he didn't pass motion even they lie. 
i sow my bay  during the caesarean  nurse show me and bring him close to my face  just touch two faces for few seconds.

after one hour i got my baby to feed. . and few min later again they took baby from me and keep us separate.
after 4hr i got my baby . cox they kept me in operation theater for 4hr for no use
its really bade memories. spending time in hospital

wish no one face something like this

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