Author: Christie del Castillo-Hegyi

The Illusion of Choice: Baby Friendly USA Says Newborns “Should” Room In With Their Mothers

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by Jody Segrave-Daly, Veteran NICU/Nursery nurse, IBCLC retired and Cofounder of the Fed Is Best Foundation 

The standard of care for most hospitals, especially those who are Baby-Friendly certified, is that mothers stay with their baby after birth in their room, 24 hours a day, which is known as rooming-in.

Baby Friendly’s recent blog says that mothers have choices about nursery care in their Baby-Friendly certified hospitals; but then they say babies SHOULD stay in the room, no matter how they are being fed. This statement gives parents mixed messages and implies they don’t really have a choice at all. In many hospitals, it is not just implied; nurseries have been eliminated outright. 

“Regardless of whether a mother is breastfeeding or formula feeding, they should room-in with their newborn.” 

 – Lori Feldman-Winter, MD, MPH 

According to the World Health Organization, rooming in began as a way to promote early breastfeeding and to encourage bonding. Step 7 of the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding calls for hospitals to “enable mothers and their infants to remain together and to practice rooming-in 24 hours a day.” 

Despite the WHO’s 2017 expert panel’s finding that 24/7 rooming-in was ineffective at promoting sustained breastfeeding after discharge (but recommended it any way) and published tragedies of harmed infants while rooming-in, The World Health Organization and UNICEF continue to include rooming in for healthy newborns in the Ten Steps to Successful Breastfeeding policy.

Since adopting the rooming-in policy, inexcusable consequences such newborn falls from parent beds and near deaths and deaths from accidental suffocation while breastfeeding or doing skin-to-skin care (known as Sudden Unexpected Postnatal Collapse or SUPC) have skyrocketed, highlighting the urgent need for families to have access to nursery care. 

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“Parenting Classes Need to Discuss Other Feeding Options, Not Just Breastfeeding”

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Hello,

I saw on your website that you guys are encouraging parents to share their feeding journey and I thought I would share mine.

My baby was born March 6, 2021, after 48 hours of labor which resulted in a c-section, just shy of 39 weeks gestation. She was 6 pounds 3 ounces and healthy as can be. My plan was always to breastfeed, so the lactation consultants (LCs) in the hospital helped me right away with latching. We discovered a tongue tie and that was corrected when we left the hospital. 

We then had our 2-day old appointment with the pediatrician, and the baby had lost more weight than they wanted to see. So, we continued breastfeeding on demand and had an appointment to see a lactation consultant in 2 more days for a weight check. At that appointment, the baby had lost more weight and was now down to 5 pounds 7 ounces. So, they wanted me to supplement after each feeding then pump after each feeding, including at night. They told me to do this while telling me to eat and drink more and somehow get more rest because all of that contributes to milk production. I was exhausted. The LC said I can try giving her the supplement with a tube or syringe or bottle, “whatever I wanted to try.”

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National Women’s Health Advocate Describes How A Baby-Friendly Hospital Starved Her Baby

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Sarah Christopherson is a mother and the Policy Advocacy Director at the National Women’s Health Network, a non-profit advocacy organization in Washington, D.C. She talks about her breastfeeding experiences and her recent experience in a Baby-Friendly hospital where her child became severely dehydrated and lost 15% of her birth weight while in the hospital. She discusses how policies can negatively affect patient health and how systemic change is needed to support positive patient health outcomes and prevent patient coercion.