Birthing Classes

[aggiebug]

Jun 24, 2016 7:39:28 GMT -5 goldenlove3 said:

I never would have thought that BFing could be more complicated then what I'm picturing in my head. I'll definitely take advantage of any LC. My hospital is "baby friendly" so I'm sure I'll have a lot of resources available to help.

Have you talked to mom's that have experiences at that hospital? Unfortunately baby friendly sends red flags for me. Not all are bad, but they can be especially for a ftm.

[grapefruits]

Jun 24, 2016 19:47:24 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

Jun 24, 2016 7:39:28 GMT -5 goldenlove3 said:

I never would have thought that BFing could be more complicated then what I'm picturing in my head. I'll definitely take advantage of any LC. My hospital is "baby friendly" so I'm sure I'll have a lot of resources available to help.

Have you talked to mom's that have experiences at that hospital? Unfortunately baby friendly sends red flags for me. Not all are bad, but they can be especially for a ftm.

What kind of red flags? Curious, because my hospital is also baby friendly.

[aggiebug]

Jun 24, 2016 19:53:39 GMT -5 grapefruits said:

Jun 24, 2016 19:47:24 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

Have you talked to mom's that have experiences at that hospital? Unfortunately baby friendly sends red flags for me. Not all are bad, but they can be especially for a ftm.

What kind of red flags? Curious, because my hospital is also baby friendly.

First my hospital wasn't baby friendly so take this as second hand information, but I had a few friends with terrible experiences at baby friendly hospitals.

I'm general it seems they place a lot of guilt on the mom, refusal to take baby away to allow mom rest of necessary, refusing to offer a pacifier to help sooths the baby, refusing of offering formula is bfing is not successful. One friend literally had her husband go get formula from a store to feed their child. Go read the UO thread on parenting from this week for more examples (first few pages).

I think you will be fine, but I would suggest taking your own pacifier, take a bottle and a canister of formula just in case (you generally get a free canister before baby arrives from somewhere), and just remember your health and your voice matters. So don't let them make you feel guilty.

[grapefruits]

Jun 24, 2016 20:03:22 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

Jun 24, 2016 19:53:39 GMT -5 grapefruits said:

What kind of red flags? Curious, because my hospital is also baby friendly.

First my hospital wasn't baby friendly so take this as second hand information, but I had a few friends with terrible experiences at baby friendly hospitals.

I'm general it seems they place a lot of guilt on the mom, refusal to take baby away to allow mom rest of necessary, refusing to offer a pacifier to help sooths the baby, refusing of offering formula is bfing is not successful. One friend literally had her husband go get formula from a store to feed their child. Go read the UO thread on parenting from this week for more examples (first few pages).

I think you will be fine, but I would suggest taking your own pacifier, take a bottle and a canister of formula just in case (you generally get a free canister before baby arrives from somewhere), and just remember your health and your voice matters. So don't let them make you feel guilty.

I think a lot of this has to do with personal preference and with the particular hospital. We went to the same baby friendly hospital with DS1, and they definitely encouraged breastfeeding and made sure we had constant access to LCs, but they also sent us home with bottles of formula and nipples, just in case. They never made me feel guilty about anything. True, they do not take babies away to the nursery, but I never wanted him to be out of our sight anyway. When they took him to the nursery to do the PKU test, DH went with them. We got to do his first bath together in our room. We never asked for a paci so I don't know if they would have given one to us, but we didn't want to use a paci until our breastfeeding relationship was well-established anyway. We didn't use one until DS was about four weeks old.

I had a terrific experience at that hospital, which is why we're going there again this time.

[aggiebug]

Jun 24, 2016 20:16:37 GMT -5 grapefruits said:

Jun 24, 2016 20:03:22 GMT -5 aggiebug said:

First my hospital wasn't baby friendly so take this as second hand information, but I had a few friends with terrible experiences at baby friendly hospitals.

I'm general it seems they place a lot of guilt on the mom, refusal to take baby away to allow mom rest of necessary, refusing to offer a pacifier to help sooths the baby, refusing of offering formula is bfing is not successful. One friend literally had her husband go get formula from a store to feed their child. Go read the UO thread on parenting from this week for more examples (first few pages).

I think you will be fine, but I would suggest taking your own pacifier, take a bottle and a canister of formula just in case (you generally get a free canister before baby arrives from somewhere), and just remember your health and your voice matters. So don't let them make you feel guilty.

I think a lot of this has to do with personal preference. We went to the same baby friendly hospital with DS1, and they definitely encouraged breastfeeding and made sure we had constant access to LCs, but they also sent us home with bottles of formula and nipples, just in case. They never made me feel guilty about anything. True, they do not take babies away to the nursery, but I never wanted him to be out of our sight anyway. When they took him to the nursery to do the PKU test, DH went with them. We got to do his first bath together in our room. We never asked for a paci so I don't know if they would have given one to us, but we didn't want to use a paci until our breastfeeding relationship was well-established anyway. We didn't use one until DS was about four weeks old.

I had a terrific experience at that hospital, which is why we're going there again this time.

Yes I definitely don't think all of them are that difficult which is why I originally asked if she had talked to other moms at that hospital. I do strongly agree with rooming in fwiw, and breast feeding support for that matter, (I disagree with no pacifiers, and science does too), it's the tactics of guilt and pressure if things are not going well that can be a problem.

[grapefruits]

I should say that many moms I know have used pacis on day 1 and the kid and breastfeeding relationship turned out just fine. We just made the choice not to start that early, and DS was fine without it.

[aggiebug]

Jun 24, 2016 20:39:18 GMT -5 grapefruits said:

I should say that many moms I know have used pacis on day 1 and the kid and breastfeeding relationship turned out just fine. We just made the choice not to start that early, and DS was fine without it.

Yup and pacifiers have been shown to reduce SIDS risks so I think they are beneficial. I think you can have a good or bad experience and any type of hospital and it's always great to connect with mom's who have btdt at the same hospital you are going to. I just would pack a few extra things for a baby friendly hospital and be prepared to voice my needs a little more is all. I just have had several friends recently have very stressful experiences at baby friendly hospitals and one was having anxiety going back for the 2nd kiddo which makes me sad.

I probably came off too negative in my first post, that was unintentional sorry about that.

[goldenlove3]

aggiebug A couple of my cousins had babies there and I've heard nothing but great things. I think I'll be fine there.

[goldenlove3]

After reading the first page of UO, I have never seen an anti-formula or anti-pacifier poster at my hospital. Also the nurse at my intake quickly talked to me about what baby friendly is there and she made it seem very much like it was my choice whether I BF or not. Hopefully that's the same mentality for the hospital as a whole because I like it there. I'm not worried.

[aggiebug]

Jun 24, 2016 21:33:03 GMT -5 goldenlove3 said:

After reading the first page of UO, I have never seen an anti-formula or anti-pacifier poster at my hospital. Also the nurse at my intake quickly talked to me about what baby friendly is there and she made it seem very much like it was my choice whether I BF or not. Hopefully that's the same mentality for the hospital as a whole because I like it there. I'm not worried.

Great! That is awesome. Like I said varies of course. I am glad you have cousin with first hand experience.

[dashook]

I delivered DS at a baby friendly hospital. He did not room in with us, mainly because the complications I experienced after delivery prevented me from getting out of bed until 38 hours after he was born. But they brought him into the room religiously every two hours when he was hungry, sent the LC to talk to me, got me started pumping (milk was delayed coming in, again due to complications), gave me my nipple shield, etc. I found them very helpful and not pushy at all. Maybe that was partly because I had made it clear that breastfeeding was something I really wanted to do, but even with the rooming in, they didn't make me feel guilty about it.

It is interesting to me that people's experiences can vary so widely on this.