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Care of 3 day old baby with jaundice.

Posted By Grand mother

"Care of 3 day old baby with jaundice."

About: Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske) / Maternity

(as a relative),

Baby was brought into maternity ward late November 2018 by his caring parents as they suspected his jaundice had got worst. Baby was given a light test then a blood test, the results of these took a staggering 6hrs to materialise whilst mother and baby lie on a bench in a brightly lit area with no facilities!

Once omitted parents were told in very emotive language your baby is starving and we need to express your milk to see whether it has come through and how much your baby is receiving and then supplement it if necessary with formula.

Great a plan, the parents thought we will definitely go with this. Small amount of formula was given. Things seem to be going the right way to get rid of the bilirubin, blood cells,causing the jaundice and to get the baby to settle on the light pad.

4 o'clock in the morning baby is screaming his little head off as Midwife who is now on duty is refusing to give out any formula and his mother's breast milk is not enough to feed him. Eventually after the constant insistence of his Mother, formula milk was given and she was able to settle baby on his light mat. Treatment had begun 10hours after being omitted on to the ward!

This midwife who refused to give my daughter formula milk to help her baby get rid of his jaundice( which was the plan) total destroyed any confidence that my daughter had as a first time mother to be able to feed her baby. Her husband was so stressed after the experience he had cried and it has taken me 2 weeks to build up my daughters confidence with the help of a pediatrician friend of mine.

I believe that babies discharged from hospital who are on formula rather than breast fed, these maternity wards are penalised. I cannot believe that the stress that my daughter and her husband let alone the their baby were put through on the Wheal Fortune Ward is down to targets which result in money allocated to that ward! If we were in another world country I could understand the lack of formula milk but in Britain! I dont think that what happened that evening on the Wheal Fortune ward by the midwife is not Care and I believe changes must be made!

After my experiences of child birth and being a first time mum I really thought 30years later things would have improved, how wrong I was!

A totally disappointed and angry Grandmother.

 

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Responses

Response from Angela Whittaker, Lead Digital Midwife, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust 5 years ago
Angela Whittaker
Lead Digital Midwife,
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

I manage the maternity digital information system

Submitted on 16/01/2019 at 09:27
Published on Care Opinion at 10:30

picture of Angela Whittaker

Dear Grandmother,

Thank you for taking the time to post your comments. We do value all comments both positive and negative and use them to shape our service.

I am sad to see that the care you daughter received regarding the infant feeding was lacking. If a breastfeeding mother comes into hospital we will always support her decision to breastfeed. However when a baby is ill it may be necessary to give some formula, as a supplement to the breastfeeding, but this is only when medically indicated and after counselling the mother. We will try to preserve the mothers milk supply by offering breat milk first;expressing if the baby if too unwell to go to the breast and then offering a top of of formula. I am sorry this was seen by your daughter as refusing to give milk rather than trying to support her natural milk supply and the continuation of her breastfeeding.

Please can I reassure you that we do not have 'financial' targets in regards to infant feeding and are not penalised for anyone who leaves formula feeding. We do promote breast feeding, as this is part of the wider public health agenda but our priority will always be the mothers choice and clinical needs. This is why we have an Infant feeding team and not just a breastfeeding team.

It you daughter would like to discuss this further with me, I would be very happy to hear from her. I would retrieve her notes and could discuss her care on a one to one basis.

My e mail is angela.whittaker3@nhs.net or my phone is 01872 252684.

Once again, thank you for highlighting your concerns that I have fed back to the ward and the wider team.

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