Our hospital touts itself as a baby friendly hospital. Among other things, we encourage moms who want to breastfeed or pump for their babies to do so. We try to support them, as best we can, to be successful and happy with that decision. We do not, however, sacrifice children at the alter of "Give Me Breast or Give Me Death" idealism. Sometimes babies need help - IV therapy, tube feeding, or even giving expressed milk by bottle if need be. We try to transition them off IV fluids and onto feeds as soon as is possible and reasonable.
If you refuse to allow your borderline premature child to receive nutrition from any source other than your breasts and your child has not peed in over 16 hours and their bili is increasing, then we will have a problem.
We will not unnecessarily replace the IV for an indefinite period of time if your child can handle digesting his food just fine but is too tired to breastfeed sufficient amounts around the clock. He is a premie- it's not unusual to need some time to grow and catch up. It isn't unusual to need a gavage feed here and there. It's not a knock against your baby or your beliefs. Your child needs to eat somehow, and if they cannot do it exclusively by breast yet, then we need to find another option.
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2 comments:
I had a c/s, and my son's blood sugar was 50 when he was born. Although I didn't want him fed formula, I am glad that they did, because I'd rather he get formula and no brain damage than chancing it. Fortunately, we have a wonderful breastfeeding relationship, and it's been three months now. There's a definitely line between being reasonable, and well... not.
You are absolutely right about there being a line between reasonable and not. And that line exists both for parents and nurses.
The number of times that I've heard from a parent that a nurse didn't want to use the breastfeeding scale for test weights or help them to nuzzle their babies is just as frustrating. We are there for many purposes, and facilitating breastfeeding is one of them that I wish we could/would embrace more.
It sounds like you and your son have done great! Congratulations!
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