This is Day 78 of the Green in 365 series!
This is a long post, but bear with me because I think it’s a really important topic to cover as we begin talking about green and natural baby and child care! No better place to start then when our sweet babies are first born!
Last week I got to be with my younger sister at the hospital as she gave birth to her first baby, a healthy baby boy! She labored and birthed without medication and I was so proud of her! It was amazing to get to be a part of the miracle of birth, this time as an observer instead of an active participant!
But while spending time with her and my new nephew in the hours after his birth, I was reminded of one of the main reasons that we chose to have our third baby at home. Often, the staff at the hospital will do things to you and your brand new baby without your explicit knowledge or consent.
For example, about an hour after his birth, as my sister was holding her son in the hospital bed, he peed on her. The nurse took him to change him and asked if it was a good time to do his footprints. My sister agreed. The nurse then placed the baby on the warming table and left the room. I assume to get the necessary supplies, but the baby was left there alone, and of course, started crying.
My sister and I looked at each other, kind of bewildered, like, ‘Why would she take the baby and then just leave him there on the warming table all alone?‘ Couldn’t my sister have held him until the nurse came back and was ready? I placed my hand on the baby’s chest to comfort him, but when the nurse returned she said, “Oh, it’s good for the baby to cry, it gets their lungs all cleared out.” I’m not sure if that’s an old wives tale or not, but I think it’s the mother’s place to decide whether her brand new baby should be left to cry or not.
Then a couple minutes later, again, we were watching the nurse as she got ready to measure the length of the baby, and all of the sudden she picks the baby up by his ankles and holds him upside-down to measure him! I have never seen a nurse measure a baby in that way, and it was kind of shocking to us all – it was just for a second, but she was hanging the baby upside-down!
These are just a few little examples, and really nothing major or life-threatening, but still, it felt like the attitude of the hospital staff was, “I’m in charge. I know better than you, and I’ll just do whatever I want with this baby.” Almost like the mother and family aren’t standing right there watching!
And the reality is, that often when you have a hospital birth, there are things done to your baby that you may not even realize, or be aware of. You’ve just given birth and are exhausted, and you’re stuck in the hospital bed and not with your baby as they examine him or take him to the nursery.
It’s important for you to know that you absolutely do have a say in what happens to your baby in those hours right after birth. If you’re pregnant, be sure to educate yourself about your hospital’s standard newborn procedures before you go into labor, so that you can add your preferences to your birth plan, and let your birth team know, so they can help to advocate for you and your baby with the hospital staff.
You’re not trying to be difficult, but this is your newborn baby, and you have the right to decide how his first few precious hours and days of life are spent, not the hospital staff.
5 Standard Newborn Procedures You Can Refuse
1. Eye Ointment
We’ve all seen the pictures of newborns with their eyes smeared shut with some clear goupy stuff. Well, that goupy stuff is erythromycin ophthalmic ointment, an antibacterial used to protect babies from an infection which in rare cases can cause blindness. However, this type of infection is only caused by a mother with chlamydia or gonorrhea.
If you have been tested for STDs and know there is no risk that you have either chlamydia or gonorrhea there is no reason your new baby needs to be treated with erythromycin ophthalmic ointment. Also, even if your baby does develop the infection, they are easily treated today with antibiotics which prevent blindness. Read more
2. Vitamin K Shot
Vitamin K is given routinely as a shot to newborns in order to prevent a very rare, but serious, bleeding disorder. New babies are born with lowered levels of Vitamin K which is necessary for normal blood clotting. Some people argue that because basically all babies are born with lowered levels of Vitamin K, there must be a good biological reason for it, and they also believe there may be serious side effects of injecting a new baby with high levels of Vitamin K, and refuse the shot for that reason.
Others believe it is cruel to give a newborn baby a painful shot when they have just been through the trauma of birth. If you’d like to avoid the shot, but still give your baby the blood clotting protection of Vitamin K, you can request an oral dose that is an effective alternative. Read more
3. Hepatitas B vaccine
Many parents don’t know that when the nurse takes the baby to the nursery for “routine procedures” that one of those procudures is to give them a vaccine for a sexually transmitted, or blood transmitted, disease, Hepatitis B. I don’t want to get into a discussion about whether we should vaccinate our children or not, but I have no idea why the medical establishment says it is okay to give brand newborn babies this vaccine, for a disease they have almost no chance of getting, when they are so young and their immune systems are so vulnerable. You can request that your new baby does not receive this routine vaccination right after birth! Read More
4. First Bath
We go to great lengths to make sure we only put the purest and safest products on our new baby once we bring them home from the hospital, but what about their first bath at the hospital? To begin with, if your hospital normally does the baby’s first bath in the nursery, you can, of course, request that it be done in the room with you. You can also request to help with the bath, instead of just leaving it up to the nurse, and you can bring in your own safe and natural baby shampoo and soap for your baby to be bathed with.
Another option is to skip the first bath all together. Babies are born with a protective covering on their skin, vernix, that has been shown to be very beneficial to the baby, including immune boosting properties similar to those found in breast milk, as well as providing protection and hydration for a new baby’s delicate skin. At the very least, you may want to delay the bath 24 hours to allow the vernix to absorb into the baby’s skin. Read More
5. Time in the nursery
Finally, your baby does not have to spend any time away from you in the nursery if you don’t want them to. I remember after my daughter was born and I had been awake for 24 hours that in my exhaustion I sent her with the nurse to the nursery. Then my husband and I looked at each other with such a strange feeling because we had just sent our baby away and neither of us were with her. They brought her back just over an hour later, not even enough time for me to sleep, with a bow in her hair and I wondered what else had happened to her while she was away from us. That was precious time in her first hours of life that I will never be able to get back.
If there are procedures to which you have consented that need to happen while you’re at the hospital, you can request that they be done in the room with you, while your baby is with you, so that your new baby never has to leave your side in it’s first few hours and days of life. If your baby is getting a shot, or the heel prick to complete the newborn lab test, the nurse can do that while you are nursing your babe to help comfort them and ease the pain.
The hours after your new baby is born are so, so precious and yet can also often be overwhelming. Things can move quickly and sometimes without your understanding of what is happening to your new baby. If you are planning to give birth in a hospital it’s important for you to make sure you understand the hospital’s policies for newborns so that you can make the best informed decision regarding the care of your newborn baby.
Did you refuse any standard procedures when your new baby was born? Did you meet resistance from the hospital staff or were they accommodating?
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*Disclaimer: Please remember I am not a doctor, and this post should not be taken as medical advice. Please do the research on these issues and decide for yourself what is best for you and your family.
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Thanks for the reminder about why none of my babes have been born in a hospital. My first two were born in free standing birth centers, and my second two were born at home. I was having some complications with baby number 4, and we were worried I was going to have to deliver her at the hospital. Thankfully, it all worked out and she too, was born at home. People thought I was crazy to be worried about having my baby in a hospital – but it’s foreign territory for me. It felt like getting ready to have a baby for the first time all over again:-)
I really wish more people would research and understand what happens during and after a hospital birth and how mom & baby are both affected. Thank you!!
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Great post! Thanks so much for sharing!
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Hello!
Thank you for this post! I am 40 weeks a 1 day pregnant with my first child and I am planning to labor and deliver naturally. We are having a hospital birth but our hospital is very small and I am able to have a birth plan that will be followed. I have done so much learning since becoming pregnant. We are refusing all of these except the vit. k. I am going to ask for it orally rather than through a shot. Thank you for this post it re-assured my decisions!
I think that in some areas circumcision is an assumed procedure. That is one optional thing that many parents should put thought in to. I ended every sentence to the nurses with “no bottles, I am breastfeeding” when my daughter was born and “we are not circumcising him” to every nurse after the birth of our son. Unfortunately I could not be as strict about breast feeding with him because he was taken to another hospital right away to address a birth defect. But I did pump and had a circle of family and friends who delivered the milk… but that is a whole other story!
What an excellent post! I am so was able to share it and if you hadn’t asked for shares I would not have found you!! You are right on, and from an old OR nurse, we are seeing horrible practices these days reflective of the lack of respect for life that USED TO BE much more normal!! God bless you for getting this out to others!! PS, would you consider linking-up on the Deep Roots ‘EOA’ link-up yesterday and every Wednesday? I appreciate your writing, and it is just the information your Mothers need
Thing are different in the UK, as standard here they give the Vitamin K shot only and that’s it. I’m actually shocked they put nasty eye cream and give a Hep B vaccine as well as the vitamin K shot. Here they don’t how you anything, never ind bathe the baby for you
Trial and error!
I refused the vitamin k and requested immediate skin to akin and breastfeeding of my DD. unfortunately she was moved over to a paediatrician’s table for examination as she was induced due to having pooed before birth.
Thank you so much!! I’m 26 weeks with multiple High Risk factors so not only will baby be induced early but I’m sure he’ll (yes, it’s a BOY!) be taken away from us at some point for testing. Good to know these things now so I can ask many questions to the hospital ahead of time and ensure some, if not most, of our wishes are followed.
I wish I would have read this prior to my first baby. I was in control with baby #2 though.
Great post!!
I have always been able to pick and choose which of the things you listed above in my hospital births-that is, until I moved to Texas. The nurses in my hospital there were quite pushy and told me it was state law to to the Vitamin K and eye ointment. I knew enough about the Hep B to know I had the right to refuse it. I’m still angered by the whole situation since I have told my OB in advance of my aversion to the things you listed, and he never told me what the law allegedly required. At my 6 week postpartum check up, he seemed just as surprised as me. I’m not sure whether I was duped or whether it is, in fact, state law, but either way, it was an infuriating way to start off being a mom. Thankfully it was my 3rd baby, so I wasn’t as emotional as after my first!
I am appalled that anyone would administer Hepatitis B vaccine or perform a circumcision without informed consent! As a nurse with a background in labor/delivery/postpartum and NICU, I know that in the states of Ohio and Indiana you must have a consent for any of these things. The Vit K injection and erythromycin ointment to the eyes are probably covered in the admission consent to treat. Parents need to be aware of what they are signing at admission. I have a friend who is very much against vaccines and didn’t realize that she had consented to Hep B vaccine with many of her children. You need to make your voices heard that there are specific things that you do NOT want to have done for your child so the staff will be aware of them. A birth plan would be an excellent way to handle any of these things. I know that as a healthcare provider, I must try to accommodate reasonable requests. (It was a pleasure to help families have a natural birth experience. It is a joy to be able to encourage moms and dads in caring for their wee preemies and encourage moms in breastfeeding and pumping.)
None of my children received the Hepatitis B vaccine in the birth hospitals. My oldest was bathed in the room a few hours after he was born by the nurse, but in front of my husband and myself. I wanted to give my dd her first bath, but I was too unstable after she was born (hemorrhage) and some “thoughtful” nurse gave it to her. I was very adamant when I had my younger sons that I was the one to bathe them, they could stay “dirty” until I or they would be ready. Fortunately, I was able to give them their first baths.
Unfortunately, some facilities are more open to accommodating parents than others. (I worked at a hospital where ALL babies went to the nursery at 1 hour of age for the nurses there to bathe and examine them. I was not impressed with that at all, but most of the population of parents really didn’t seem to care.) Do your research and know your rights. That is my best advice. But keep in mind, sometimes the best plans and intentions for a beautiful and natural birth experience can be thrown awry by emergencies that are not anticipated (prolapsed umbilical cord, breech presentations, or premature deliveries come to mind.) When everyone is stable, find ways for baby to be skin to skin with mom or dad. Take lots of pictures and remember that a healthy baby is more important than a birth plan! (There is some grieving with the loss of the desired experience, but years later cherishing a wonderful child will shadow that grief.)
Good to know! I had a wonderful birth in a hospital (and a big, giant, famous one, at that!) I was extremely comfortable and trusted the doctors and nurses completely. They were doing everything to make sure I could deliver my twins naturally (but with an epidural in case of emergency C.) They told me about everything they did to my babies and actually didn’t even asked about immediate skin-to-skin. My daughter wasn’t breathing right away, so I didn’t hold her for a few hours. But even though they each only weighed 4 pounds, they gave my son directly to me after making sure he was okay. It was quite stressful few weeks before the birth and it was miraculous that they were as healthy as they were. I credit the doctors and nurses there with the health and safety of my children. Had it been back when things were always done naturally, my kids wouldn’t have survived.
Interestingly, the only one of those that is done “routinely” in the UK, is the Vit K shot. We are given thee choice beforehand of the preferred method of administration. All those others are not done. The ones I ave more of an issue about are premature cord clamping, or not giving skin to skin. The latter is now asked of you before delivery, but you have to ask for delayed cord clamping.
We don’t have “nurseries” in the UK. The only time your baby leaves you, is if you ask for help with a fussy baby if you need sleep. Otherwise, they are right with you all the time.
Great reminders though – thanks.
I just think if all else fails and you dont remember all 5 things…..remember you are the mother!! That new baby is yours, not the hospitals! Be sure to assert your authority as a parent. If the staff wants to do any check up on your new one but you want to hold her or feed her, you can politely deny the nurse to take her and its alright.
Hepatitis B vaccines are given because most people who contract this life-long, miserable disease do so as children, and the first six months of infection can be acute and require hospitalization–not something you want your baby to go through! Here is the CDC’s website–they address the concerns of parents of newborns: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/hepb/fs-parents.html.
Thanks for your comment Eve, and for contributing respectfully to the discussion. In the interest of talking about facts and not just scare tactics, I’d like to know what statistics there are showing that, “most people who contract this life-long… disease do so as children”?
Thanks,
~Emily
Sorry if it sounded like scare tactics–I do think it is great to ask questions and understand your healthcare, and I’m glad you are encouraging people to do that. But it’s also important to remember the bigger picture, where there are still global epidemics of preventable infectious diseases. Our choices affect others, and their choices affect us, and we have to balance our values in that context.
To clarify about Hep-B, I am talking about chronic infections, where even with treatment, the person’s body cannot rid itself of the virus, and this can lead to liver failure, cancer, and eventual death. Adults who are infected can (in the majority of cases) be successfully treated and the liver can recover, but according to the World Health Organization’s statistics, 90% of infants infected during the first year of life develop chronic infections; 30–50% of children infected between one to four years of age develop chronic infections. Globally, 2 BILLION people have this virus–it can be sexually transmitted, or the result of poor sanitation, or contact with blood (transfusions, shared needles, etc). The virus can live outside the body for 7 days. Of the 2 billion people who have it, 240 million are chronically infected (and at least 600,000 people a year die as a result of Hep-B complications–possibly more aren’t reported). So many people are going around living normal lives with this. A newly infected person might not feel sick for a month or two. By a newborn receiving the vaccination right away, it’s ensuring that the risks are minimized, from the mother (not to insult or shame anyone–an adult woman might have been exposed to the virus in a variety of ways that are nobody’s business but her own), at the hospital itself (this virus can live for 7 days, remember?), and the complete vaccination series protects for at least 20 years, safely seeing the child through those early years where the virus could take hold for life. There’s a tendency for people to take this topic very personally, like it would be some failing on their part to ever be exposed to the virus, but really, it’s just a fact of life. Maybe that one time on spring break your tattoo artist forgot to change the needle. That one person you dated didn’t know yet they were infected. And so on. But it helps to raise awareness of problems and solutions. Some fast facts from WHO:
Hepatitis B is a viral infection that attacks the liver and can cause both acute and chronic disease.
The virus is transmitted through contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person.
Two billion people worldwide have been infected with the virus and about 600 000 people die every year due to the consequences of hepatitis B.
The hepatitis B virus is 50 to 100 times more infectious than HIV.
Hepatitis B is an important occupational hazard for health workers.
Hepatitis B is preventable with the currently available safe and effective vaccine.
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs204/en/
I saw this blog post on a friend’s fb timeline. While I appreciate the whole premise of going all “natural” with regard to most aspects of life, blogging that “Often, the staff at the hospital will do things to you and your brand new baby without your explicit knowledge or consent” is a borderline scare tactic. Anyone who has a good Ob/Gyn should recieve information about the procedures the hospital uses during and after labor and delivery. IF the doctor’s office and/or hospital don’t provide this, the mother should be smart enough to ask. I had my children 6 and 8 years ago and can’t recall one time they did something with either of my sons without asking or explaining first. I refused the Hep B shot – as a matter of fact – my children got all of their shots later than what is recommended. I was allowed to spend as much time as I wanted with my boys – they roomed in. I was asked before they took them to the nursery the first time. And to be honest – I was more than ready for my first born to be taken within an hour of him being born. I labored for 2 days with him, was sick as a dog the last several hours of labor, and almost had to have a c-section at the end because I barely had enough energy to push. I was exhuasted and needed to rest. Do I wish things would have gone smoother with his delivery? Sure, but I’m certainly not going to beat myself up because I allowed my body to rest for a couple of hours. I bonded wonderfully with him – without spending uninterupted time with him in the beginning.
I guess what I’m getting at is this – It is your job as the mother to be fully educated prior to going to the hospital for delivery. If you do not take time to speak to your doctor and the nurses at the hospital, you are giving them permission to do whatever they deem necessary. And whether some might believe it or not, everything they do is for the health of newborns as a whole. Your baby might not need eye ointment (and that’s okay), but who’s to say the infant in the room next to you doesn’t need it? It’s a guessing game for the hospital staff…unless YOU speak up.
BTW…I don’t know where your sister had her baby, but if a nurse would have picked my newborn up like that, I would have reported her (and probably opened up a can of……..on her). That is not safe or appropriate.