QUOTE(doczane @ Jan 11 2019, 02:48 PM)
Parents have autonomy over their child’s care, of course u can take him out to another hospital if condition is permitting. If he’s unstable, hospital won’t allow but u can overrule them by signing AOR ( At own risk ) discharge which frees the hospital from any legal liability due to the decision.
Nurses have proper charting of the baby’s feed, they observe or will note you feeding him and they’ll chart it accordingly. So they’ll feed once the next cycle due if u are not around. All has system dear, we are not 3rd world country. But human error can happen, support them and make their life easier as well. Mistrust will cause over cautious and avoidance in their part which could lead to neglect. So loosen up
I trust that the medical personels are doing their best, but i am unsure about the system. They only feed once every 3 hours without taking into account the baby was fed with formula or breastmilk (mothers will pass milk to nicu but not everyone has enough milk, where formula will be used.) Isn't breastmilk will be digested faster, and babies will get hungry faster?
And i have observe some of the things:
1. If the baby happened to fall asleep during the scheduled feeding time, they will be fed, but try to force down the milk where most of them ended up on the napkin rather than in their stomach. At non-feeding time, baby won't be fed even though they're crying hungry.
2. Few days ago, the parent of the baby next to mine told me, my baby had cried non-stop for 30 minutes the day before (after I went back home). She had to call a nurse to calm my baby down with more feeding. He's hungry, but because it wasn't feeding time, he wasn't fed.
3. Yesterday, I had personally seen the another baby (in same room as mine) cry for 15 minutes without anyone checking on him. I too, have to call a nurse to check on him.
4. The feeding time was 12pm, 3pm, 6pm and go on.. Yesterday I had breastfed him at 12pm. At 2pm, my baby cry for more milk at 2pm. I gave him some, but he fall asleep after only drinking for 5 minutes. When nurse came at 3pm, she asked, and I answered I only managed to fed him for 5 minutes at 2pm. So she said she will skip feeding my baby, but I told her i would prefer her to top up as I really fed him very little. I went out for lunch and nursing, came back 5pm. I was told that since he hasn't woke up, she didn't top up milk for him. Considering he only drank so little at 2pm, he has gone 4 hours without milk before they feed him at 6! If I don't take the 2pm into account, he hasn't drink for 5 hours! So today, my baby's weight dropped by 40g. Sounds like small weight but for a 1.6kg baby, it's a lot.
We are constantly working very hard to make him gain 10g, then he just easily dropped 30, 40g in one day.
I admit that my baby is frequently lethargic and sometimes sleeps through feeding time, but the system failed to be flexible for babies with erratic hungry time.
5. I had witnessed a nurse accidentally knocking my baby's head on the phototheraphy machine. I was shocked and can only pray this only happen once and no permanent damage on him. What if this happens more frequently than I thought?
6. One nurse vs 4-5 babies at one time and they still have other duty to do, than to stay in the same room with the babies. Most of the time, the babies were unattended.
For almost two weeks now, we had been spending 10 hours daily at hospital, but unfortunately I cannot stay there throughout the feeding. I am still post partum and post-csection and I am starting to have dizzy spells and my surgery site hurts. Today is the first day when only my husband go there, insisting I stay at home to get more sleep. But I can't stop worrying. I am trying to find the best decision for my baby.
We had talked with other parents and many of them had easily spent 1 month, 2 months there. I am starting to worry because without the real 'intensive' care, I think it will be long before my baby can gain enough weight to come home with us.
I am also concerned that having breastfeeding him, he had since rejected syringe feeding cause he got used to snuggle with me. We can't stay at the NICU 24 hours to breastfeed him.
This post has been edited by lowlowc: Jan 11 2019, 06:40 PM