Epidurals and bfing

Chookie wrote:

In article .com,
"Cheryl" wrote:

I think you're right. As someone from Sydney who first gave birth two
years later I would have to say that the 93% figure is probably only
correct for those who had a 4-7 day hospital stay and were not from a
non-English speaking background.

Ethnic background doesn't seem to make much difference. The last set of stats
I saw (a few years back) indicated that OS-born women had slightly higher
BFing rates than Australian-born, but I am not sure the difference was
statistically significant.

I haven't seen studies but anecdotally the only people I've known to
not breastfeed in hospital are those who are NESB and first generation
in the country, which led me to believe it was cultural. Mea culpa.
That said however given that two of the four hospitals I've given birth
at were very white anglo-saxon areas (RNS and Hornsby) and the other
two (Westmead and Ryde) I really didn't spend any great amount of time
in so there's a good chance my experience is warped from the norm.

Cheryl

Me Myself and I wrote:
I have had NICU babies in the UK and NZ. When DD1 was born in the UK I
didn't have clothes that fitted her (literally when she was born) so they
supplied clothing but we were told we could dress them in clothes we brought
along as long as we cleaned and dried them ourselves. We could also use
preemie clothes that were in the NICU and available to anyone to use, but
most new parents feel a need a label their child as their own by wearing
clothes from home if you know what I mean.

In NZ we were expected to supply all clothes needed. Initially this was of
no concern as 32 weekers only wear a nappy, but when they go into a normal
nursery you must supply the clothes. If you are unable to dress your child
then they will use hospital gowns and donated woollen clothing but this is
very discouraged.

My Australian experience sounds much the same as your UK experience.
When Thud was born (2.7kg) he was admitted to NICU and all the clothing
was provided when he was able to wear clothes, at which point he was
2.5kg. The only clothing I had to provide was the clothing he came
home in roughly 2 weeks later, although I was welcome to bring stuff in
as long as I took it home to wash it. When Mischief was born (2.2kg)
she was dressed in hospital clothing as well. Actually when Mischief
was in hospital the only babies who were in disposables were those in
special care nursery, all the full term healthy babies were expected to
use the cloth nappies provided by the hospital or provide their own
disposable. This was partly to have an easy check on output (is the
nappy wet? Yes? All good then) rather than the process they went
through with Thud in NICU where they had to weigh the dry nappy and
write the weight on the front then weigh it again when it was taken off
him to try to evaluate his output.

There are a lot of women who make clothing specifically to donate to
hospitals for premmie babies to wear, the patterns and materials are
quite different to regular baby clothing so I really appreciated having
access to those clothes and I'm sure the nurses found them easier as
well.

Cheryl

cjra wrote:

Cheryl wrote:

I think you're right. As someone from Sydney who first gave birth two
years later I would have to say that the 93% figure is probably only
correct for those who had a 4-7 day hospital stay and were not from a
non-English speaking background. Most Australian hospitals do not
offer formula to babies and often they ask you to provide your own if
you are choosing to formula feed from birth.

Wow! Interesting concept. Far cry from most states (all but MA I think)
here who allow free samples of formula. I think in principle, that's a
great idea, but how do they deal with those low income folks? Here
that'd be people who rely on WIC for their formula. I know one should
argue BF is free, and therefore even more reason to BF if you're low
income, but there are other issues such as working at a low paid job
with no time for pumping breaks (some moms only take a few weeks
leave).

In Australia there is no WIC. Those who are electing to use formula
have to pay full price for it once they have discharged from hospital
and I believe it's something along the lines of $15-20 a tin. I think
it has to do with the "baby-friendly" accreditation business, they will
provide formula if your baby is admitted separately from the mother due
to illness or if the mother becomes too unwell to breastfeed but
otherwise you are expected to at least give breastfeeding a go for the
1-4 days you are admitted to hospital. Like i said, it's only for
those who _choose_ to formula feed from birth. Unless you've failed
to breastfeed a baby before most mothers here would at least attempt it
with their newborn.

Cheryl

On 2006-12-14 17:08:18 +0800, "Cheryl" said:


I haven't seen studies but anecdotally the only people I've known to
not breastfeed in hospital are those who are NESB and first generation
in the country, which led me to believe it was cultural. Mea culpa.
That said however given that two of the four hospitals I've given birth
at were very white anglo-saxon areas (RNS and Hornsby) and the other
two (Westmead and Ryde) I really didn't spend any great amount of time
in so there's a good chance my experience is warped from the norm.

Cheryl

I find the opposite. The women who choose not to BF from birth are
more likely to be from Ireland or a multipara. But in W.A. there are
more UK-born women (and Midwives!) than Australian or other-born.

Jo
--
Woman, Wife, Mother, Midwife

"Cheryl" wrote in message
ups.com...

Me Myself and I wrote:
I have had NICU babies in the UK and NZ. When DD1 was born in the UK I
didn't have clothes that fitted her (literally when she was born) so they
supplied clothing but we were told we could dress them in clothes we
brought
along as long as we cleaned and dried them ourselves. We could also use
preemie clothes that were in the NICU and available to anyone to use, but
most new parents feel a need a label their child as their own by wearing
clothes from home if you know what I mean.

In NZ we were expected to supply all clothes needed. Initially this was
of
no concern as 32 weekers only wear a nappy, but when they go into a
normal
nursery you must supply the clothes. If you are unable to dress your
child
then they will use hospital gowns and donated woollen clothing but this
is
very discouraged.

My Australian experience sounds much the same as your UK experience.
When Thud was born (2.7kg) he was admitted to NICU and all the clothing
was provided when he was able to wear clothes, at which point he was
2.5kg. The only clothing I had to provide was the clothing he came
home in roughly 2 weeks later, although I was welcome to bring stuff in
as long as I took it home to wash it. When Mischief was born (2.2kg)
she was dressed in hospital clothing as well. Actually when Mischief
was in hospital the only babies who were in disposables were those in
special care nursery, all the full term healthy babies were expected to
use the cloth nappies provided by the hospital or provide their own
disposable. This was partly to have an easy check on output (is the
nappy wet? Yes? All good then) rather than the process they went
through with Thud in NICU where they had to weigh the dry nappy and
write the weight on the front then weigh it again when it was taken off
him to try to evaluate his output.

There are a lot of women who make clothing specifically to donate to
hospitals for premmie babies to wear, the patterns and materials are
quite different to regular baby clothing so I really appreciated having
access to those clothes and I'm sure the nurses found them easier as
well.

Cheryl


My Australian experience was that just about everything was provided, for
both mother and baby (cloth nappies, baby gowns, sanitary pads etc). Though
you were welcome to bring your own. OTOH, this was a private hospital so it
may well be different from the norm. Oh, and it seemed you were pretty well
expected to breastfeed too. I'm not sure what support you'd get if you had
trouble breastfeeding, as I had none at all (so lucky!) despite having an
epidural (emergency caesarian).

Cheers,
Liz

cjra wrote:
keeps track of what each parent brings? Even in daycares in the US,
many just supply all those things (food, diapers, wipes) because it's
much simpler than trying to keep track of who has what.

That has not been my experience - At the daycares we've used, each
child has a cubby for their stuff, and in the case of infants and
toddlers, two cubbies - one is above the diaper changing station, with
diapers and wipes for that child.

Babies often cannot use one type of diaper or another, so the parents
provide the ones that work for that child.

(I was evidently allergic to almost all disposables, but could tolerate
the el cheapo brands -ie, not pampers or huggies or Luvs - for a
somewhat longer period of time, because they used fewer scents and
perfumes). Mom had to shop around for a provider - even in the early
1970s - who would deal with cloth diapers!

Cathy Weeks