"Care in paediatric ward"

My baby was admitted to the paediatric ward at 3 months old following an episode where I was worried about her breathing.

She was born at 35 weeks and I had been exclusively breastfeeding her. Her weight gain had been slow but before I went into the hospital no one had raised any concerns with her weight or feeding. Once In the ward the staff made inappropriate comments about my baby's weight, referring to her as scrawny. As a new mum I found this really distressing and a really unkind way to describe my baby. I was advised that I would get breastfeeding support from the infant feeding team but they never came and the breast pump for expressing which was advised by the drs never arrived either 

I felt like I was being pressured to bottle feed my baby despite wishing to breastfeed. I felt like what I was not doing enough for my baby and I didn’t receive any support to continue feeding whilst I was an inpatient. It felt like some of the staff really didn’t have the right knowledge and understanding of breastfeeding. I really wanted to breastfeed her and following my discharge home when all tests had shown no concerns the support I got from breastfeeding support in the community was amazing. However my confidence had already been knocked.

I had a second admission where again her weight was constantly seen as the focus of our admission when it was her breathing I was concerned about.

Again I felt undermined and pressured into bottle feeding. I was told if she didn’t put on a certain amount of weight in a few days then I would be admitted to the ward for a week! Still I saw no one in the ward to support me with a feeding plan that involved breast feeding. She was weighed daily and the stress this caused me was huge.

Care plans were changed and one dr told me I could go home and another said I had to stay. 

Overall both stays I had in the ward were stressful and emotional. A number of the staff in the ward were lovely and caring however the negative experiences I had really affected my overall experience.