The quality of service was excellent and the medical staff were attentive and respectful. The only problem was that nurses did not know much about breastfeeding and kept on insisting that newborn babies are starving and that colostrum is not enough and thus strongly advise to give formula in the early days. This interfers greatly with the milk production of the mother and also disbalances the flaura of the intestines of the newborn. They also were not so understanding about the need of rooming in (so the mother and child are not separated after birth in order to boost bonding and milk production stimulation through frequent nursings) and in addition I've heard them insisting that the mother needs to introduce bottle as soon as possible after birth if she is planning to come back to work. My friend giving birth in the same hospital actually followed this "advise" and as a result her daughter immediately refused her breast and till now my poor friend is exclusively pumping and bottle feeding, instead of enjoying the joy of breastfeeding. Bottle is not needed to be introduced early on. In fact, research shows that babies rarely have problems accepting the bottle later on, it's the refusal of the breast that becomes a real problem as soon as the child tries to eat from a bottle (which is much easier than breastfeeding). So I wish the nurses on maternity floor received some proper training in lactation management and started helping mothers in their attempts to breastfeed their babies, instead of making things much more difficult. It's a great hospital and everything except this was excellent there! It's really ashame they are lacking on breastfeeding knowledge. Especially that I heard that CMC is looking into a possibility of becoming "baby-friendly", which in normal terms means "breastfeeding friendly". Thanks!
I recently gave birth at CMC. We had given copies of our birth plan in advance to the midwives there, and had discussed it in great detail with our OB GYN, Dr. Eid, who I can thoroughly recommend. Even with the birth plan, it was not a given that the things we wanted were done by the midwives - though having discussed it with Dr. Eid in advance made it all much smoother (and he certainly stuck to the plan where possible). My impression of CMC and especially the midwives there is that they are not used to people wanting to have a natural birth, and a preference for a non medicated approach. The midwife in charge at the time of my childs birth would have i.e. insisted on continuous monitoring against our wishes (and the birth plan) if the birth had not happened so quickly that there was no time for it. Rooming in was not an issue for us at all. Breastfeeding was pretty much ignored - neither discussed or supported at all but also not hindered as described in the previous comment - except for an extensive questionnaire at the end that must come from Johns Hopkins. A detail of our stay at CMC that surprised me is that you need to bring everything for yourself and the baby - from sanitary napkins for yourself to diapers and clothes for both of you. This was never raised in any of our multiple previous visits there. Overall the staff were very helpful and friendly, and I would choose to give birth there again.
The quality of service was excellent and the medical staff were attentive and respectful. The only problem was that nurses did not know much about breastfeeding and kept on insisting that newborn babies are starving and that colostrum is not enough and thus strongly advise to give formula in the early days. This interfers greatly with the milk production of the mother and also disbalances the flaura of the intestines of the newborn. They also were not so understanding about the need of rooming in (so the mother and child are not separated after birth in order to boost bonding and milk production stimulation through frequent nursings) and in addition I've heard them insisting that the mother needs to introduce bottle as soon as possible after birth if she is planning to come back to work. My friend giving birth in the same hospital actually followed this "advise" and as a result her daughter immediately refused her breast and till now my poor friend is exclusively pumping and bottle feeding, instead of enjoying the joy of breastfeeding. Bottle is not needed to be introduced early on. In fact, research shows that babies rarely have problems accepting the bottle later on, it's the refusal of the breast that becomes a real problem as soon as the child tries to eat from a bottle (which is much easier than breastfeeding). So I wish the nurses on maternity floor received some proper training in lactation management and started helping mothers in their attempts to breastfeed their babies, instead of making things much more difficult. It's a great hospital and everything except this was excellent there! It's really ashame they are lacking on breastfeeding knowledge. Especially that I heard that CMC is looking into a possibility of becoming "baby-friendly", which in normal terms means "breastfeeding friendly". Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI recently gave birth at CMC. We had given copies of our birth plan in advance to the midwives there, and had discussed it in great detail with our OB GYN, Dr. Eid, who I can thoroughly recommend.
ReplyDeleteEven with the birth plan, it was not a given that the things we wanted were done by the midwives - though having discussed it with Dr. Eid in advance made it all much smoother (and he certainly stuck to the plan where possible). My impression of CMC and especially the midwives there is that they are not used to people wanting to have a natural birth, and a preference for a non medicated approach. The midwife in charge at the time of my childs birth would have i.e. insisted on continuous monitoring against our wishes (and the birth plan) if the birth had not happened so quickly that there was no time for it.
Rooming in was not an issue for us at all. Breastfeeding was pretty much ignored - neither discussed or supported at all but also not hindered as described in the previous comment - except for an extensive questionnaire at the end that must come from Johns Hopkins.
A detail of our stay at CMC that surprised me is that you need to bring everything for yourself and the baby - from sanitary napkins for yourself to diapers and clothes for both of you. This was never raised in any of our multiple previous visits there.
Overall the staff were very helpful and friendly, and I would choose to give birth there again.