Do Irish Hospitals Support Rooming In?

national | consumer issues | opinion/analysis

Wednesday August 08, 2007 13:41

by Emer McGann - AIMS Ireland

emer at aimsireland dot com

Rooming in’ involves the care of a newborn infant in a cot near the mother’s bed instead of in a nursery during their hospital stay. This has very many positive advantages for the mother and baby in terms of bonding and getting to know the new baby’s routine in the early days of its life and also the instant availability of the mother for feeding, a recognised bonding time be it bottle or breast. Rooming in also has many advantages for maternity hospitals in terms reduction in requirements for nursery spaces in hospitals and therefore, reduction in numbers of staff required to supervise the nurseries and take care of the infants. Most Irish maternity hospitals operate a full rooming in policy but the question is - Do Irish Maternity Hospitals support rooming in?

AIMs Ireland conducted an online poll to find out what matters to Irish women in terms of maternity care. 15% of women listed lack of postnatal support as their main concern in the Irish maternity services.

In their replies, women with traumatic deliveries and C sections, who were physically restricted by complications following the birth and often under the influence of morphine and other drugs administered post surgery described how they were left alone to look after their own and their infant’s needs. These women spoke of their distress at being physically incapable of taking care of their infant and how this lack of post-natal support affected them mentally; increasing anxiety, and promoting feelings of loneliness and failure that often had a lasting impact on them.

Women in wards mentioned how they and neighbouring patients would often take care of each others infants in order to use the toilet or take a shower. Restrictive visiting policies put in place in maternity hospitals for security reasons mean that even family support is unavailable to these women outside of visiting hours. However, to expect new mothers to rely on the character of absolute strangers in the bed next to them in the absence of sufficient staff coverage hardly represents a comprehensive security policy. There are potentially serious health and safety implications from lack of support for rooming in mothers in maternity hospitals and currently these are not being addressed.

Putting in place a rooming in policy in a hospital without providing the necessary support to women does not achieve the benefits of successful rooming in. Bonding is not enhanced between a stressed out mother, who is in physical pain, and her child. Maternity hospitals need to look at whether they are putting in place a rooming in policy for its mother-baby benefits, or for benefits to the balance sheet, it is not the same thing and it certainly does not represent the mother friendly-women centred care that Irish hospitals wish to achieve.

For More information please contact:
AIMS Ireland at: info@aimsireland.com

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Comments (1 of 1)

births

by mcbett

Sun Aug 12, 2007 12:31

mcbett at gmail dot com

I have two dear friends who just told me yesterday they gave birth to a child.
This makes me think of this article:
Both of them live and work in Dublin but they are foreigners , like me.
Both of them arranged to have their happy nativity back in their own respective countries and I agree.
I would NEVER get recovered into an Irish Hospital and I would never wish my son to be born here, for simple safety reasons.
Sorry for saying this, but I had very sad experiences in these sad places that are supposed to be hospitals and the saddest problem is that the personnel is totally unqualified and not sufficient to resolve simple human factors of emergency.
It was not like this in the past I believe, as my experience years ago seemed slightly different.

It maybe depends on the social condition you are considered in as you pass that threshold?

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Do Irish Hospitals Support Rooming In?

Comments (1 of 1)