Labor-What did you pack in your hospital bag?

[chloelovesdisney]

Amazing they gave you all that. I have been a maternity RN for over 27 years. We have supplies for you while you are in house. We will give you the disposable supplies in your room & the baby's crib to take home, but no way can we give 2 weeks of pads & a month of diapers to every patient. And any linen (blankets, t shirts, gowns, etc) are to be left in the hospital, just as any other hospital patient would do. We have about 260 deliveries a month. The hospital would go broke!

The night nurse packed up two shopping bags of supplies and left them in my room and the nurse that discharged me packed up two shopping bags of supplies to take home as well. I was told from other friends that had delivered there that they would be sending me home with a large amount of supplies. They give every mom a Chanel gift bag with several full size items and a baby gift from Ralph Lauren. They also have a professional photographer come in and take baby and family pictures in your room. I'm sure the cost of everything is added into the bill somehow or they do this from a gift from a hospital benefactor. The hospital caters to the neighborhood crowd which expects a higher level of service. I guarantee that giving away a couple of inexpensive receiving blankets and shirts is done for a reason.

I didn't think it was anything over the top, my friend delivered at a different hospital and the night before discharge they had a steak dinner with a bottle of champagne. We only had regular hospital food, although at least they had something available around the clock.

 

[SydSim]

What this thread has shown is that different hospitals do different things
For instance, my hospital's cafeteria closes at 8pm and we only have a small amount of snacks for our maternity patients. We supply everything that our patient needs in terms of feminine supplies.

We don't send our patients home with enough extras to last for a couple of weeks, but will allow them to take home anything that they have in their room, minus linen. We have lactation consultants that see every nursing patient (without being asked). That being said, every one of our floor nurses is trained in ways to assist with breastfeeding.

Some of our patients' pediatricians will come to the hospital once the baby is born, others will see them upon discharge (we have in-house neonatologists who see the other babies.)

All of our patients have vaj-j bleeding, to some extent, after delivering and yes, our c-sections still bleed (and sometimes for weeks).

Most of our patients stay in the hospital as long as they can and many of them place their babies in the nursery at night (although our hospital has started a rooming-in campaign in hopes of having more patients keep their babies with them 24/7 - if they are physically able - but that's a whole other thread.) I know that there are hospitals that have no respite nursery, only an admission one.

Lastly, our hospital have interns, residents, attending doctors and anesthesiologists at the hospital at ALL times (I know that there are hospitals that must call in some of their doctors once the patient arrives).

So, each patient's experience can be vastly different.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

What this thread has shown is that different hospitals do different things
For instance, my hospital's cafeteria closes at 8pm and we only have a small amount of snacks for our maternity patients. We supply everything that our patient needs in terms of feminine supplies.

We don't send our patients home with enough extras to last for a couple of weeks, but will allow them to take home anything that they have in their room, minus linen. We have lactation consultants that see every nursing patient (without being asked). That being said, every one of our floor nurses is trained in ways to assist with breastfeeding.

Some of our patients' pediatricians will come to the hospital once the baby is born, others will see them upon discharge (we have in-house neonatologists who see the other babies.)

All of our patients have vaj-j bleeding, to some extent, after delivering and yes, our c-sections still bleed (and sometimes for weeks).

Most of our patients stay in the hospital as long as they can and many of them place their babies in the nursery at night (although our hospital has started a rooming-in campaign in hopes of having more patients keep their babies with them 24/7 - if they are physically able - but that's a whole other thread.) I know that there are hospitals that have no respite nursery, only an admission one.

Lastly, our hospital have interns, residents, attending doctors and anesthesiologists at the hospital at ALL times (I know that there are hospitals that must call in some of their doctors once the patient arrives).

So, each patient's experience can be vastly different.

My baby did stay in the nursery at night but the nurse brought him to my room to nurse and would then bring him back to the nursery so I could get some sleep. The day I was discharged the nurse said I could stay till 11:59pm if I wanted, but I left after lunch, shower, and a breast pump demo.

The nurses did all try to help with the nursing, but the lactation consultants really gave good tips. I think they should have someone there on all shifts but so far they are only on 12 hour day shifts. I think if they are serious about nursing they should make it a priority 24 hours a day.

On a separate note, I had three nursing pillows, the Boppy, my BrestFriend and I think it was called the Mambo. I liked the my BrestFriend the most by far, so if you shopping for one I recommend that one.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

I've done pediatrics and nursery for a long time. We couldn't do this either, unless people were walking out with hospital linens / or are hiding supplies and asking for extra. I have truely needy patients that I have to beg for supplies for - a blanket here, a set of special formula here, or a cab ride there. What is bad is that I can rarely get social services to get me what I need for the ones that do need it. So I'm really surprised to hear that.

The nurses and lactation consultant told me the formula companies give the hospitals all of the formula for free, which they don't care for because they are trying to promote nursing. Why in that case is it hard for you to get the patients formula? I didn't even want any and they put some in my bags just in case.

 

[sookie]

The nurses and lactation consultant told me the formula companies give the hospitals all of the formula for free, which they don't care for because they are trying to promote nursing. Why in that case is it hard for you to get the patients formula? I didn't even want any and they put some in my bags just in case.

What I meant was specialty formula. I should have been clearer - so, if the baby has a medical problem where they need a special high cost formula, there have been times where I have had to make calls to get vouchers from social work so that the parents can go and get enough formula to last them until their WIC appointment, or until their insurance kicks in, or until the specialty formula is shipped to their home per special order, or whatever. It seems like I have some families who really don't have anything, and they are struggling. They are the ones I was referring to. And then the providers and nurses are really trying to get them resources and we have a hard time tracking those resources down. It would be easier to just be able to hand over what is needed!

A lot of the time, the hospital cannot dispense more than 1-2 days of specialty prescription formula to take home, if that. So that can be an issues.

We are switching to a breastfeeding initiative at our hospital that is really strict. So we buy all our formula. That has always been true of specialty formulas that are available by prescription only (those are very high cost and are never available freely).

Regular formula used to be provided freely, but I believe they won't accept free formula at our particular facility anymore. That probably does vary from place to place. Our hospital does not accept promotional items from formula companies anymore either - no more "formula" diaper bags with formula OR breastfeeding items in them either. That used to be common too. The hospital and breastfeeding experts feel that this negatively interferes with staff and patient perception of breastfeeding as well.

 

[MrsPete]

About hospitals giving away this or that:

Years ago -- I was still in college -- I went to the grand opening of a brand-new hospital. One thing I remember clearly was the tour guide's discussion of the labor/delivery area. This was when the concept of mom staying in one room for labor and delivery was just catching on -- previously mom had labored in one room, then she was moved to another room for delivery, finally another floor for her recovery.

The guide explained that the hospital had tried to make the delivery rooms as nice as possible -- but not because they were concerned about being nice to new moms. He explained that when a woman is expecting a baby, she has time to look around and choose her hospital. Then, if she's had a good experience there, she tends to think of this as "her hospital", and in an emergency she'll take her family to that same place again. So, according to that hospital, it's good business to provide nice suites, special meals, have mom leave with bags of goodies.