Canossa hospital - BF issues

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firsttimedad

Registered User
Hi,

I'm giving birth in Canossa soon, c-section, around 8pm. I called them to ask what's their rule on Breastfeeding, they say they will give the baby to me asap after delivery, then last feeding in the room ( i won't get a private room) is 11pm. Next time they will bring baby to me is 6am.

My dilemna now is i cannot walk yet on the first night to go to BF room, they say if i have another mom in the room (most likely), they cannot send baby to me, unless we talk to the other mom if it's okay or if she will BF too.

Question - worst comes to worst, what should i let them feed my baby? plain water or glucose water? in a cup? definetely not formula.

When will the colostrum comes? Nurse says baby is still sleepy on the first few hours, wonder if baby can survive how many hours before she/he needs to BF again. Worst is we will give her/him one water feed.........really making me worried on BF. We can't afford a private room.

Thanks if anyone has suggestion as i'm making a birth plan.
 
Worse comes to worse put up a big giant fuss and complain to everyone and take it up with the head nurse and higher if you need to. That is riduculous to make the baby starve all night long because of a policy. they should either be bringing the baby to you, or at the very least, getting you into a wheelcahir if you can't walk and taking you to the baby!. I'd also take several articles with me discussing the dangers of giving water/glucose water/formula with me. I don't know if any of that will work, but it seems like some of the people who have posted on here, have said when they complained a lot , were able to get their own way. I haven't had a baby in hong kong, and glad of it, some of the stories on here are just unbelievable! Is there any common sense
 
Just to add to your questions. colostrum starts coming in around 5 months of pregnancy, so it is definatly there when your baby is born. a Healthy baby is bvery alert right after birth and will start to show feding cues within an hour after birth. In fact if you were to just place the baby on your abdomen immediatly after birth, the baby will wiggle his way up to your breast and self latch! it takes then awhile, but they know what to do all on their own. Then usually the baby will have a good sleep after the feed, but they wont normally not feed all night long!
 
i've had 2 babies at canossa.

they usually have a 4am feed for the babies. you can ask the nurses/ aides to wake you up. they will be reluctant because they say you will need the rest, but you can insist. you should bring a small alarm clock/ watch with you because in their busyness, they might forget to do so.

if you can't walk to the room, ask for a wheelchair. when i did the 4am feed, i was the only one there. luckily my baby was awake at that time and fed quite well. but during the first 2 days he slept right through a couple of feeding times and nothing i could do would wake him.

if you don't want to supplement your child with water/ glucose/ formula then persist with it. everytime i handed my baby back to the nursery, without fail the nurses asked me whether they could top him up with a bottle. i always said no, but i felt that a lot of other mums felt pressured and gave in.

if your baby is hungry you will know it. if your baby slept through a feed, then ask the nurses to let you know if the baby wakes up crying for hunger before the next scheduled feed time. don't feel like you are bothering or pestering them.

breastfeeding is not easy, do your own reading/ research beforehand, don't just rely on the advice of the nurses there. it will vary depending on which nurse you ask. HTH
 
Why would water or glucose water (which is just sugared water) be better for a baby than formula? Sounds odd to me. If it is a choice between baby starving, having water, sugared water and formula, isn't formula the obvious choice? It is an awful lot closer to human milk than sugared water, yuck.
 
Thanks ladies, i will insist then that i will be wheelchaired so i can BF.

How about if i ask for pump so they can give my milk to baby?

Cha-cha, were you c-section and what time did you delivered? were you wheelchaired to the nursery? I know they are BF friendly during the day but not at night time. I really don't mind walking or not sleeping but the first night is crucial as i'll just have the c-section, i don't know if i can stand up right away, maybe not as i will have dextrose.

Hope Sarah of LLL can give more tips on how to handle this situation.
 
I gave birth at Canossa and they took my baby to my room every 2 hours during the night. I think you should talk to the other mum in the same room and tell her how important it is for you as it is your first one. I'm sure she will understand, and at the end everything will be fine.
They always tell you to rest, but every 10 mn someone comes to take your temperature/blood pressure, check if you want to go to the toilet, bring your meal/take your meal... you'll get much more rest once at home ! :D

Anyway, make sure you get some help for the first bfeeding, it's not as easy as it looks, and being guided by a nurse makes the whole difference.

By the way, people at Canossa are very nice, and you'll find all the help you need.
 
Unless you are extremely, extremely lucky, the first 3 days there's not enough milk for you to pump and feed your baby. Had both my babies in Canossa, their staff is nice. Just tell them what you want and they will try to accomodate your wishes the best they can. I definitely would not resort to bossiness and start flashing any "I know more than you" info at the drop of a hat. My experience is that you will get much more if you do not rub people the wrong way.
 
I'm not sure that any hospital is in a position to keep a baby from it's mother - espeically if there is not a medical reason. Just INSIST. Cry if you have to.
With so much information on the benefits of BF, and espeically with the recent formula scandal, when are the private hospitals going to get their acts together and allow mothers to keep their babies with them?
I know that people are paying for private care - but mums and their babies should be together. 'Rest' is a misnomer for 'it makes the nurse's jobs easier'.
 
Thanks frenchy and Andrea, it's nice to hear from moms who gave birth there. Yes, i will not resort to bossiness, just thinking i can't BF my baby on the first night makes me cry now. So the most i can do is (1) ask the other moms in the room if they will allow me (2) make a birth plan that i'm not giving any water nor formula (3) they wheelchair me to go to nursery (will they allow that?)

Agree that nurses there are nice, i spoke with the head nurse and she seems supportive but it's their policy not to bring baby to room after 11pm.
 
I was there end of 2007 and for the 1st night shared room with a mommy who had CSection. She actually had the baby brought to her in the room and did not have to go to the nursing room. Think 1/2 way thru the 2nd day, they try to encourage her to go to nursing room to feed, but I heard the nurse very nicely saying she should see how she feels first.

It's great that you are so insistent on solely breastfeeding from the word go, but please relax and enjoy your baby. The nurses would try to accomodate you, but if they don't and you cannot feed as you want to, it is also not end of the world either.

It was a personal choice for me to have rest and not do the middle of the night feed whilst at hospital, but I managed to breastfeed both mine, 1 till 9 months and the other 14 months.

So, what I am saying is if all goes to your plan, then great, but if not, it's ok too, your baby will not be disadvantaged in any way if she takes formula/water a few times. You have to keep in mind that your plans may change anyway depending on how you feel after the birth, how well your baby feeds or how much milk you produce. Please don't get stressed over "plans" or whether they go exactly as you envisage them. As long as your baby is happy and healthy, everything else is relatively unimportant.
 
Thanks Andrea for your advice, really appreciate it. Yes, you are right, as long as baby is healthy. We can switch to BF even if they give formula for one feed.
 
Dear Firsttiimedad,

I hate being asked this question because I really don't have a good answer to it. If I was allowed to change one thing about Hong Kong hospitals I would stop the separation of mothers and babies - no matter how they are fed. I just don't see how a new mother is meant to start a relationship with her baby when they aren't together.

Having said that I realize that we need to work within the system to implement change. Often we think of the hospital policies as sacred. But in fact the doctors can and do bypass them everyday. Thus one way around them is to get the doctor on your side. If the baby's doctor instructs the nurses that the baby is to have only breast milk and that the baby needs taking to the mother in the middle of the night to feed it is much more likely to happen.

When a new mum has just has a baby she feels very vulnerable and is likely to do exactly what the nurses tell her, even if it is the exact opposite of what is written on her birth plan. This is where the father, who isn't in the same emotional state, can help by reminding the new mum of what she wants. He can also tell the nurses what they want as nurses seem to listen more to men than to women!

In 2000 there was a large study of mothers in Hong Kong who wanted to breastfeed. I spoke with one of the researchers and she told me a number of things that helped mothers to be successful:

Mothers with pre-natal breastfeeding education were more likely to succeed - there is too much conflicting information in hospitals for you to learn from the nurses.

The mothers who succeed actually had as many problems as the mothers who didn't but they had support. Find the support while you are still pregnant so that you know who to turn to when you encounter a problem. (And remember the earlier you call for help the easier the problem is to correct.)

The mothers who were assertive were more likely to succeed. As mentioned above this may not be easy straight after birth. Personally, I've always found tears rather than shouting a much more useful weapon in Hong Kong.

And if you find that things are really going wrong in the hospital give me a call (2548-7636) as I only live 10 minutes away for the Cannossa.

Best wishes,
SARAH
 
Firsttimedad
Please don't worry too much. I also remember being extremely concerned before I gave birth about the nurses feeding my baby formula or sugar water. As AndreaY says its a personal choice and you might end up changing your mind. In the end, I was so tired after 20 hours labour that I let them feed my baby in the night with sugar water and some formula. But I still managed to BF successfully until my LO was 15 months old, so it didn't make any difference in the end. What I do think made a difference was that I had a lactation consultant visit me 3 days after I gave birth and then twice a week for the next few weeks. That really helped boost my knowledge and confidence.
 
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