Hospital Policies

Nursenic78 · August 2012

What is the normal rooming in plicy? While I would like to kee my baby with me during the day, it woud be nice for the baby to go to the nursery for a few hours so i can sllep. I will be FFing so that shouldnt be a problem.

sesigs · August 2012

You will need to contact your hospital. Every one is different. However, I think the norm is becoming that labor, delivery, and recovery all happen in the same room (barring needing c-section). I know that my hospital got rid of the nursery and made all of the rooms private so that baby stays with mom (and dad) all the time and both mom and baby have the same nurse.

Halen0804 · August 2012

Like PP, our hospital didn't have a nursery for healthy babies (only the NICU). DD arrived at 11:45 pm so I was technically in the hospital for 2 nights. I had her in the room with me until about 10 pm the second night. I had my first hormonal meltdown from lack of sleep. My mom convinced me to have DD sleep by the nurse's station for a few hours so I could just sleep. The nurses brought her back to me when she was ready to eat. It was the best sleep I had until DD started sleeping through the night around 8 weeks.

Anne Mommy · August 2012

In my town, there is one hospital that still has a nursery. It's where DS was born and where we plan on having this LO at. You are on one floor for the delivery and moved upstairs for recovery. About half of the rooms have queen size beds and those are used first. If you have your LO on a weekend, they are probably full. You have the option of having your baby with you as much as you want. DS was born at 2am and I was in labor for 14 hours. I was ready to sleep. The nursery had him (except for feedings) until I went to get him in the morning. We had him in the room all day. It was nice that I could take him to the nursery when I wanted to shower and DH was somewhere.

I highly reccommend touring a few hospitals. The ones very close to my house did not make me feel comfortable, so I drove to the one I liked. Also make sure your doctor has privlidges there.

emriley84 · August 2012

I'm a mother-baby nurse. We encourage the babies to sleep in the room with parents. However we do have a nursery and we do a lot of the newborn testing (hearing tests, weights, carseat tests) at night so the babies are in and out, and we will keep them for a feed if the parents want.

The head pediatrician is very anti-nursery. When we remodeled he made the nursery a quarter the size of our old one. Our hospital is becoming "baby friendly", focusing on breastfeeding and babies staying with parents.

My personal opinion is new moms need sleep. If you want the baby to go to the nursery, you should be allowed to.

synchrosally · August 2012

Every one is different. My hospital doesn't have a nursery. All babies room in. That said, the nurses did take DS for a few hours in the hopes that I could sleep, but when they didn't return him on time, I started having panic attacks. I wish I could have a midwife this time so I can leave the hospital ASAP, but sadly I'm stuck with an OB.

JustDoIt62009 · August 2012

Definitely depends on the hospital and your preferences. From the time my daughter was born until we left the hospital (we were there 2 days), she only left my side for the tests that needed to be ran and I was usually in panic mode when she was gone more than 45 minutes. She was cleaned in the delivery room and then we all rolled to the recovery room together.

meheron80 · August 2012

Our hospital had a nursery but we did not use it. Our DD stayed the entire time with us (four days because of my complications). My H was great and the nurses were amazing. I was BF so when she woke I woke but the nurses did all the diaper changes and assisted with her a ton. Keep in mind you can sleep during the day too.

AmieVan · August 2012

Our hospital has a nursery that we had DD stay in at night. After having a c-section I could not have gotten out of bed easily that first night to get her to nurse. The nurses brought her in for feelings during the night and she was with us all day. IMO it was great after having surgery to get some sleep

candreco · August 2012

It really varies by hospital, so you should check with the one you're delivering at or ask when you do a hospital tour. In my experience though, it's pretty common for mothers to have the choice to room-in or have the baby in the nursery. There are hospitals that are exclusively room-in though, and babies only go to the nursery for checks and tests.

My hospital is primarily room-in, but you can send the baby to the nursery at any time if you want to sleep, shower, eat or whatever.

SewSewBlessed · August 2012

Like everyone else said, every hospital is different. The hospital I delivered at was rather new and they had a huge nursery that parents could have babies stay in if they wanted. I had L at 2:27am, but they had to take him to the transition nursery after I nursed him. He was breathing and weezing weird, so they wanted to be cautious. The tranistion nursery is a step up from the regular nursery, and a step below the NICU. I got him back around 9/10am, so I got some sleep. I had him all day, but at about 3am the next night, I really needed sleep, so I had him go to the nursery. I hated him being away from me, but I was exhausted. The only thing that upset me was that they didnt bring him back for his next feeding. I guess they decided that while they had them and the OB on duty was ready, they'd go ahead and do his circumcision. I was annoyed, because he was very late for a feeding, and then when he finally got back after his circumcision, he was groggy and passed out from the Tylenol, so he didnt want to eat. Since I was a FTM and BFer, I was stressing out about skipping a feeding. My advice is that if you have LO go to the nursery, make sure you lay down the law about when you want LO back.

kode0710 · August 2012

Every hospital will have a different policy. Every women/mother needs rest after labour and in the first few weeks! We did not have a nursery as an option but I managed to get some down time by doing the following. I had a no visitors policy at the hospital (my parents yes but I have 5 siblings and it would have been too much and we were only in the hospital for 1 day). If I was not feeding the baby my hubby took the baby so I could sleep. He walked her around the ward in arms and wheeled around in the bassinet.

Most (not all) babies are very sleepy and relatively quiet in the first few days as long as their needs are met (feed, cuddled, sucking no a pacifier if you choose not to breastfeed might help) so don't stress too much.

Also I requested that if/when people visited us at home that they please try to limit their visit to 30 min (seriously this is all I would handle) and to please bring food (a casserole or something easy to heat up) to help us ease into the family way so to speak - it worked out great!

MrsJ723 · August 2012

As others have said, I'd check with the hospital you're planning to deliver at. My hospital has a seperate Birthing Inn, with one side for delivery and one side post-partum. There is also a nursery, and we were given the choice of rooming-in or having DS go to the nursery at night. The first night we kept him and I was so exhausted that I kept falling asleep while feeding him. The next 2 nights (I had a c/s), we put him in the nursery at the suggestion of the nurses. This time around we'll probably put him/her in the nursery from night one as it will be the last semi-full night of sleep I'll be getting for quite a few months.

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