Hospital Policy is not Law

On thursday last week I went to my first birth as a doula, it was a wonderful honour and I learnt so much.

The thing I learnt the most is that you can manipulate the system. The sad part is that you have to, you have to manipulate, cover your bases, think ahead and watch your back.

The key word is policy, the policy for one of the speedbumps in this birth is to take the baby away from its mother for 24 hours for observation in special care.

When the Dr arrived and said that he planned to take bubs away the new father said 'no, if you need to have bubs in special care fine, but her mother is going too' the Dr then tried to convince him that that wasn't policy, but when questioned why the policy existed it became apparent that it was because of ease for the staff.

Taking a baby away from its mother for 24 hours because its easier for staff. That just doesn't seem right to me. New babies, need to be with their mums, they are hardwired, as is mum, to be together to suckle and smell and be comforted after their amazing journey by each other, it would have to be pretty convincing policy to make me give up my child for 24 hours.

Thank goodness the father felt ok about standing up for their rights, after going and checking with his colluges the Dr came back and said not only would they not have to be separated but mum and bub could go back to the ward and the hourly checks could happen there.

I guess the point of this rant is to remind you no matter why you are in hospital, you have to give consent, they can't force you to do anything even if they think they can, you are their client and just because its policy doesn't mean that the reason is your well being ask why its policy and if you are still unhappy, do something about it.