Just switched to St. Luke's.....

measton

I just left Wilford Hall and changed to Lone Star OBGYN and delivering at St. Luke's. I was reading the thread about St. Luke's v. Methodist. Did anyone have any positive experiences at St. Luke's that they could share? My first son was in the newborn nursery for 3-4 hours at a hospital in another state, and this is one of the things I most regret about that birthing experience!

 Michelle

kami1977

I know that people have been able to have their babies bathed in their room at St. Lukes.  However it really depends on the nurse you get, since I requested it and my nurse put me off, however I have no doubts that my nurse our second day there would have done it for me.   Overall I was satisfied with my experience with St. Lukes, but next time I'm insisting on having my baby bathed in the room or he's not getting bathed.

measton

Gotcha! This helps. Thanks for the feedback!

kikijones

I delivered at St. Luke's and had a great experience. Every nurse I dealt with was great.

I didn't have any problem with them taking her to the nursery for her checks/bathing/etc...We actually requested for them to take LO to the nursery a couple times. We also had one night where she got extremely fussy and we had no idea what to do, so our night nurse took our LO and worked with her until she had calmed back to sleep.

But, of course I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with their baby leaving them for an hour to be checked by the pediatrician or what have you...

kami1977

kikijones:

I delivered at St. Luke's and had a great experience. Every nurse I dealt with was great.

I didn't have any problem with them taking her to the nursery for her checks/bathing/etc...We actually requested for them to take LO to the nursery a couple times. We also had one night where she got extremely fussy and we had no idea what to do, so our night nurse took our LO and worked with her until she had calmed back to sleep.

But, of course I don't understand why anyone would have a problem with their baby leaving them for an hour to be checked by the pediatrician or what have you...

I'm sure you didn't mean the bolded to sound judgemental but it comes across that way.  That said there are multiple reasons why a parent may not want their child removed to the nursery and their wishes should be respected as long as they are not detrimental to the child.

1.   Bonding time with their newborn child.  I was extremely excited to give birth to my child and I wanted to spend as much time with him as possible.   It was very frustrating to have him taken from me hours after he was born for 4 hours to the nursery to have him bathed.   My son was having a hard time maintaining his temperature after birth, so they put him under the warming lamps by himself.  Research shows skin to skin contact is more effective at raising and maintaining a newborn's temperature than the warming lamps with the positive of allowing the mother or father to bond with their child.

2.  Breastfeeding.  Frequent nursing is especially important for a newborn along with skin to skin contact.  These things help bring in the milk.   The four hours he was away from me in the nursery were four hours he wasn't nursing or receiving skin to skin contact.

3.  The nursery staff may not follow your wishes.  Due to breastfeeding I didn't want my son receiving a pacifer in the hosiptal.   When we were moved to couplet care I made this clear.  However when my son was returned from a visit to the nursery he came back with a pacifer in his bassinet, because he was crying and the nursery staff wanted to quiet him down and had to many babies to pick him up and comfort him.   I also have a friend whose newborn was given formula without consulting her or letting her know afterwards it was given.  The only way she found this out was by requesting her son's medical records from the hospital.

4.  I attend all my son's peditrician visits.   Why should I not be allowed to watch in the same room as my son is examined by his peditrician?   This is more of a peditrician issue than a hospital issue, but I or my husband is present for all peditrician visits now so why when I had the most questions would I not want to be present when my son is being examined. 

All parents are different and in the absence of a serious medical issue I firmly believe that their desires should be respected.   If you want to send your child to the nursery that is fine but please realize that others may want something different for their child.