How to improve Neonatal care, your thoughts.

[felicitycp]

I had my son at 31 weeks by emergency cesarean, because of fetal distress. He spent 5 ish weeks in Neonatal and I had a fair few run ins with the Nurses and Doctors, over lack of communication, stupid comments and not feeling included in his care.
Well I have been asked to meet with the Women and Childrens Director at my Hospital to tell her what I think about their service and how to improve it:wack
What do you think would improve Neonatal care?

 

[winegums]

i'd be interested to know peoples opinions on this too, though it may depend on different hospitals xxx

 

[jenmc226]

My experience with the NICU at my son's hospital was fabulous. The nurses were so nice. They came to recognize me (and every other mother/parent) and the ones in my son's room learned my name. I was a first time mother and they pretty much taught me everything I needed to know. They walked me through bathing him, feeding him, diapering him, changing his clothes, etc. Unbeknownst to me they video recorded me holding him for the first time (after I woke up from my C-section). I found the video in my things when it was time for me to go home.
I was provided with a "million" little Medala breast milk bottles to fill and return for my son. And they would wash them and give them back for me to keep. They sent me home with all the diapers/wipes left in his opened packages as well as baby powder, diaper rash creme, baby wash. I was also sent home with thermometer and nasal bulb thingy. Pretty much everything he used got sent home with me.

My one "bad" memory is that my son was born with severe hypospadias (mostly cosmetic issues with his external genitalia) and it wasn't explained very well to me while he was in the hospital. He was in the hospital for 3wks and no one really talked to me about his condition. They did set me up with a pediatric uroligist to visit after he was discharged, though. Looking back it's not a big deal, but at the time it was frustrating not knowing what was going on.

Oh, I also was a bit disappointed when it came to help with breastfeeding. It was like bottle feeding was the default. It was up to me to make a stand regarding breastfeeding and ask for help. At the time I was scared and not nearly as out-spoken as I am now, so I just went with the flow. In his 3wks there I only had someone help me try to breastfeed him once - and it didn't go well. Ultimately I never got him to latch on and after pumping for 2mos I gave up on it and he was formula fed.

I understand that there are issues w/ preemie's that can prevent breastfeeding early on. My son was tube-fed for a week or two. But preemies more than other babies really benefit from breast milk. I think they should be more supportive and proactive regarding having mother's breastfeed.

 

[AP]

oh jenmc226, we do have quite different experiences! For us it seemed that breastfeeding was always the first option put to us after tube feeds of ebm, followed by bottle feeding ebm/formula.

I found odd nurses are noisy - on another preemie forum im on this seems very common.
I found some nurses literally talking about howthey couldnt wait to go home and counting down th ehours til their shift ended.

 

[felicitycp]

I found the breast feeding help ok, the encouragement was good. But the factual help was poor, everyone told you something different
Some of the nurses were great and then others were bad, I over heard bitching about other staff!!
I think the nurses need to understand for them it is a job but for us every minute in there changes our lifes. I dont know how to stop them being complasent when they do it every day.

 

[dainti2001]

As one of the mums said, every hospital is different, I have been in Neonates for almost 3 months and some of the nurses are extremely good and explain everything, whilst some of them can't be bothered. I have heard nurses bitch talking moms as soon as they leave the room, even though am there...how do they think i felt?!

What i would suggest is more uniformity in what the nurses do because one nurse will tell you to feed the baby one way and another tells you to feed in a completely different way, this is confusing for first time mums like myself who doesn't have a clue!

Another thing is to have more support in the hospital for the parents. I found in my first weeks i was in a whirlwind and if my husband wasn't supporting me i would have gone into the deepest realms of depression. No one cared about me, its just about the baby.

 

[Laura2919]

I experienced care at 3 different hospitals and there wasnt much to pick from to be fair. I didnt like one nurse at the hospital in Kent. She was rude and told me I had too many visitors. My mum, OH mum and OH and myself (silly cow) They didnt all enter at the same time so I didnt see what her issue was.
When they were brought up to a hospital closer to me there was a nurse who watched everything we did like we were shoplifters.. It was awful and each time I went to touch my child she would be there. In the end I made a complaint and she was taken off the care rota for the twins. When I came in one morning and was told they could come home there was also another nurse who told me she would be telling the consultant she thinks his decision is wrong. I made a complaint again because I didnt see it was fair to get my hopes up and then they were allowed home, the consultant told me his decision was final and no nurse would change that. So they came home.
But in the four weeks we were there all the NNU's were fab. We were able to set up the times we wanted to come in (I came in 3 times a day at 12pm,4pm,8pm) We were kept informed about every change.
They were considerate and helped as much as possible. One afternoon OH and I went in and a baby had flatlined. We were told that we had to wait outside as we werent to know anything about his care. We obviously understood and the little boy made a full recovery... He was much older than the girls and much earlier too.

 

[nineena]

Overall i think our NICU experience was generally very good, the majority of the nursing staff couldnt do enough to help and support you. I dont know if its the same in all neonatal units but for me it would be invaluable if it was anyway possible for there to be facilities for parents to stay overnight. The NICU Ella was in had 50 beds but only 6 parent rooms and having to leave my baby overnight was one of the most heartbreaking things i had to do. Also there was little continuity with staff due to the size of the unit and you'd have the same nurse a few days in a row then it'd be someone that didnt know you or your baby. Oh and in our NICU there was surgical nurses and general nurses and it was stupid having a general nurse look after a surgical baby

 

[Mumof42009]

I experienced 6 different scbu's with my 4 and everyone is different, I agree with the attitude of the nurses can be really bad and used to hate it when as soon as your back is turned they are talking about you. I also felt after ds was born they never listened to anything I said when I told them I thought he had a milk allergy. It wasn't until he had gone into ICU 3 times then they listened to me.