By: Kristen Eriksen
Okay, so you are having a baby! Such an exciting time! Here at Lowell General (and at every area hospital) there are many classes you can take in preparation for the birth of your baby. It is a great idea to take some of these classes to learn about delivery, infant care and breastfeeding. When your baby is born, many things tend to be forgotten or not be what you expected. This precious infant is plunked into your arms, and some new parents just don’t know where to begin!
That is where we, the staff at your hospital, come in! A large part of our job is to teach you everything you need to know before you go home in 2-4 days. This is no easy task! We work very hard to have a list of topics, videos, books and handouts to offer for every topic we think that new parents may need information about. Part of our job requirement is to sign off a checklist of topics before you are discharged home. Sometimes I think that our patients forget that what we do is as much teaching as it is nursing assessment.
One of the biggest challenges that we face as nurses, however, is getting all that information to our patients. We need to individualize our teaching style to each patient. A patient having their third child doesn’t need the same training that a first time parent needs. A mother who bottle fed her first baby but wants to breastfeed her second infant needs different information as well.
As I already mentioned, we have 2-4 days to complete all this teaching. I am quite sure that our patients and their friends and family don’t realize that we need to be with the new family for a good amount of time. When we attempt to have a teaching session with our patients, we are interrupted by phone calls and texts that our patients are receiving, TV programs, visitors, doctors, other hospital staff, meals, the need for rest and infants needing to eat (they need to eat so often!). If you or your baby have any additional medical needs, they will have to come before our teaching finishes, too.
Some friendly words of advice from your nurse blogger include:
- Do your homework before you deliver. Take classes, do some reading.
- Take advantage of the information we give you. Read the handouts. Watch the videos.
- Remember to jot down your questions. You will forget them if you don’t.
- Watch the instructional videos instead of regular TV. You will have plenty of time to watch TV during late night feedings at home.
- If you are bombarded with visitors, ask them to give you a break to rest, spend time with your baby, and take advantage of the knowledge we have to offer to you.
- Give us some time and your undivided attention so that we can help you.
- Read the instructions for your carseat before you are ready to put your baby in it to go home. You need to secure the baby in the seat and the seat in your car yourself.
- Remember that you can always call us after you go home with questions. Who else will happily take your call at 3 AM? We probably woke you up at 3 AM to feed your baby or make sure that you were alright. Now you can return the favor! Well, we won’t be sleeping anyway!
Have fun and enjoy your new baby!!
