Why don’t U.S. hospitals let women sleep quietly for the night in the hospital after giving birth?

[Anonymous]

I had my last baby at Inova Fairfax 15 years ago by c-section. I was able to send the baby to the nursery so that I could get some rest and recover. I wasn’t in any condition to pick up and care for the baby alone and DH couldn’t stay with me because he was at home with our older kids. I can’t imagine a hospital refusing to care for newborns in the nursery.

Have things changed so much? Patients need to loudly complain to the hospital staff, patient advocate, their doctors, and insurance company. File a formal complaint, if necessary.

Lack of care for mothers and newborns shouldn’t be tolerated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one sleeps in the hospital. Everyone gets checks. Use the bassinet. Have someone stay with you.

No. The baby is a patient and should be cared for by hospital staff. Not by another patient that just had an intensive medical procedure.

This is such a strange perspective to me. I had two c-sections, and my husband spent the night in the room with me and lifted our baby, changed her diaper, brought her to me. The nurses did bring her to the nursery for a little while, but I much preferred my baby with me. As for sleep, ha, I had insomnia most of my pregnancy and I was used to go without. I slept when she slept and it all worked out!

Big difference between your husband changing the baby and lifting her in and out of the bassinet, and having to do it yourself, especially after a c-section. Not every new mom has someone available to stay with them. My dh was home with our toddler when I had #2. Thankfully this was before the baby-friendly movement fully set in, so I had a couple of hours of sleep here and there while baby was in the nursery. I couldn’t imagine managing the whole night with her alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had my last baby at Inova Fairfax 15 years ago by c-section. I was able to send the baby to the nursery so that I could get some rest and recover. I wasn’t in any condition to pick up and care for the baby alone and DH couldn’t stay with me because he was at home with our older kids. I can’t imagine a hospital refusing to care for newborns in the nursery.

Have things changed so much? Patients need to loudly complain to the hospital staff, patient advocate, their doctors, and insurance company. File a formal complaint, if necessary.

Lack of care for mothers and newborns shouldn’t be tolerated.

Please do some research. Baby friendly/no nursery has been the norm for 10+ years. The quality of care for new mothers is terrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one sleeps in the hospital. Everyone gets checks. Use the bassinet. Have someone stay with you.

No. The baby is a patient and should be cared for by hospital staff. Not by another patient that just had an intensive medical procedure.

This is such a strange perspective to me. I had two c-sections, and my husband spent the night in the room with me and lifted our baby, changed her diaper, brought her to me. The nurses did bring her to the nursery for a little while, but I much preferred my baby with me. As for sleep, ha, I had insomnia most of my pregnancy and I was used to go without. I slept when she slept and it all worked out!

Big difference between your husband changing the baby and lifting her in and out of the bassinet, and having to do it yourself, especially after a c-section. Not every new mom has someone available to stay with them. My dh was home with our toddler when I had #2. Thankfully this was before the baby-friendly movement fully set in, so I had a couple of hours of sleep here and there while baby was in the nursery. I couldn’t imagine managing the whole night with her alone.

+1 And in no other situation is a patient (the baby) expected to supply their own care taker while being a patient in the hospital.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had a C-section with twins. Honestly, it wasn’t that bad IMO. I didn’t really expect to get any sleep. Left early after both my deliveries.

My mom stayed overnight with me which was awesome.

This is key. My husband stayed overnight with our first, in 2014. For our second in 2017, I knew the score and we had DH stay the first night while his parents stayed with our older kid, and DH's sister stayed the second night so he could go home to the older kid and be rested. Obviously we are very lucky that family was local (SIL) or able to come in (inlaws). GW both times, and the second one was after they got the "baby friendly" designation.

Like a PP, I didn't really want to use the nursery anyway, and I was breastfeeding, but for someone without a supporting person I don't know how they'd manage. My kids cried all the time unless held (even after we got home but at least at home we weren't being woken for vital checks). On the last morning in the hospital I was so exhausted from having been up all night - even though SIL was there - that I fell asleep and slept right through the various checks and my baby screaming (according to SIL). And despite all that the lactation consultant never came by, and the hospital missed that my second kid had jaundice even though I said several times she didn't look right, etc. GW's strength is in birth, but not post-birth care by any means.

[Anonymous]

By my 4th, I was ready for it. I stayed only 24 hours, leaving as quickly as I could. I could never have done that with my first, but by then I had home help and figured the sooner my baby and I got to know each other, the better for us all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was fine with rooming in, had done it successfully at another (non DC area) hospital, but OMG after my C section I needed rest and at Georgetown there was a constant parade of nurses, techs, med students and the occasional doctor. I left as early as I could. They could have coordinated even a little bit to cut down on the number of nighttime interruptions. It was crazy to me that being at home with a newborn and toddler was more restful!

+1

The baby isn’t disrupting sleep that much, it’s the endless parades of checks, questionnaires, rotation, etc. Only a small part of it was medically necessary.

We went home the very first possible moment after the c-section - a day early - so I could rest at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sounds like those complaining should do home births. No interruptions for pesky hospital things there!

Really? Higher staffing and more sensitive care wouldn't provide better maternal care? It's your way or bust?

Why so combative? This person is offering a perspective. The hospital is where you need to offer this opinion/patient feedback.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A nurse dedicated to just a few patients would be able to provide medical care with as much deference to the patients' need for sleep and recovery

Absolutely. Understand care costs would go up. For some of us that would be more damaging than lost sleep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work as a nurse. We wake people up multiple times in the night to check their vital signs, give meds, and draw blood. Those post-surgery patients are not getting a restful night of sleep.

those patients should have their sleep protected too. not to mention that a woman with an uncomplicated vaginal birth does not need vitals checked.

disrupted sleep in the hospital was absolutely nightmarish for me post-partum. like, I actually almost felt delusional the second night.

You can sleep or we can make sure that you aren't bleeding out, showing signs of an infection, or having dangerous changes to your blood pressure. If you think you don't need that, then you should just go home. Making sure patients stay alive is more important than making sure patients have uninterrupted sleep.

Thank you.

We’re all tired are forget this part.

[Anonymous]

More coordination with checks could help.

[Anonymous]

As a guy who has now spent the night in the hospital with four different kids (two wives), it never even occurred to me or my wife that a baby would be taken out of the room? wtf? I guess it goes along with how everyone farms out the raising of their children to daycares and nannies and after school programs - might as well get started right away!

But, I do agree, the vital checking makes it a nightmare. What you would like to do is have nurses on standby and then you could call them in to do vitals when the baby is feeding and wake up every 2 hours instead of every 45 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a guy who has now spent the night in the hospital with four different kids (two wives), it never even occurred to me or my wife that a baby would be taken out of the room? wtf? I guess it goes along with how everyone farms out the raising of their children to daycares and nannies and after school programs - might as well get started right away!

But, I do agree, the vital checking makes it a nightmare. What you would like to do is have nurses on standby and then you could call them in to do vitals when the baby is feeding and wake up every 2 hours instead of every 45 minutes.

Thanks for the mansplaining. A c-section is major surgery. Some women labor for over 24 hours. Not everyone has a support person in the hospital overnight. Women who’ve just given birth need to recover. They can’t do that if they are the only caregiver for a newborn baby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a guy who has now spent the night in the hospital with four different kids (two wives), it never even occurred to me or my wife that a baby would be taken out of the room? wtf? I guess it goes along with how everyone farms out the raising of their children to daycares and nannies and after school programs - might as well get started right away!

But, I do agree, the vital checking makes it a nightmare. What you would like to do is have nurses on standby and then you could call them in to do vitals when the baby is feeding and wake up every 2 hours instead of every 45 minutes.

Because you were there, you unimaginative a-hole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:As a guy who has now spent the night in the hospital with four different kids (two wives), it never even occurred to me or my wife that a baby would be taken out of the room? wtf? I guess it goes along with how everyone farms out the raising of their children to daycares and nannies and after school programs - might as well get started right away!

But, I do agree, the vital checking makes it a nightmare. What you would like to do is have nurses on standby and then you could call them in to do vitals when the baby is feeding and wake up every 2 hours instead of every 45 minutes.

Thanks for the mansplaining. A c-section is major surgery. Some women labor for over 24 hours. Not everyone has a support person in the hospital overnight. Women who’ve just given birth need to recover. They can’t do that if they are the only caregiver for a newborn baby.

Here's some more mansplaining. If you can't have a support person then you probably shouldn't be having a baby

Wow. I’ll tell that to my husband who was home with our toddler. I’d mention it to my parents but they’re dead. And those military moms with deployed spouses? I’ll be sure to let them know your thoughts too. Lemme guess, you work as a hospital administrator?