If your breastfeeding and you need to stay in hospital can you bring your baby?

[Inyourfacebidisg]

Hypothetical question, if you had sepsis or chest pains that required overnight observation, would you be able to bring your baby if you were breastfeeding?

If you can’t do they provide a breast pump?

No, that would be crazy,

When I was readmitted 2 weeks pp due to massive infection, my baby was allowed to stay also. I was placed back on the maternity ward, so not sure if that made a difference?

Of course you can’t,

You either bring your own pump and arrange with a family member to collect your milk, or let it dry up and bottle feed your baby.

Chances are, if it wasn’t a planned procedure then you’re not capable of looking after and feeding your baby anyway - or expressing.

No you can't. When I was in hospital when my son was 7 months old they wouldn't even get me a breast pump from the maternity ward because of cross-infection. I had one from home and had to just chuck the milk, it ended my breastfeeding tbh, I was really upset about it for ages.

If you had sepsis should you be breastfeeding?

Many hospitals do have a breastfeeding protocol in place for these circumstances. Although it's a good idea to look up on your local hospital's website, as most nursing staff are unaware.

My hospital allows it as long as another appropriate adult is there to care for the baby so the patient just feeds and rests. Generally the baby needs to be under 6 months, and the family would be allocated a side room.

If a patient is already unwell, mastitis on top of the illness can really impede recovery, so allowing baby to feed as normal is really beneficial for mother and baby.

Depends on what / why / where.

No, you can't.

And it was nigh-on impossible to get a breast pump too.

It was agony (and huge risk of mastitis, neither of which I think the (male) HCPs appreciated) and I ended up discharging myself after a few IV rounds of antibiotics.

I work in cardiology and we've had a few mums and baby's over the years. We always arrange a side room and are happy for you to bring baby. Maternity bring down a crib. We cannot care for the baby so visiting restrictions are lifted so dad or others can help. We've had non breast fed babies too (very young) and the children's ward have provided us with cold water sterilisers.

Honestly I’ve known people with sepsis and the principal worry is keeping them alive, not bloody breastfeeding. For anything less serious or not in ICU in an ideal world maybe you should be able to get a private room and be able to feed but I doubt it would come to pass. Probably better in that case to just get the baby brought to you for feeds. If I was in hospital I would not be happy with someone’s baby also being in residence. It was bad enough in the maternity hospital after I had mine

I wouldn't advise a small baby in a hospital esp now with all the flu and noro virus around.
At my hospital there's absolutely no chance of a side room , all full with infectious patients.
We have to juggle side rooms as it is.
The midwives on the maternity ward are not happy to look after medical / surgical patients.

No. There won’t be resources to care for them, there is barely enough for you

You absolutely can. The hospital might not know this but the infant feeding coordinator will. The hospital stafff won’t care for baby though. They may let partner stay to do that.

What would happen if the person needed emergency treatment, where would your baby go who would care for them. Sounds too risky to me

I don’t get why some people are so savage about this. Clearly there’s a spectrum - if you’re in ICU on life support.. probably not. Broken leg? They could arrange a side room. A tiny infant who can’t take food and won’t take a bottle could get very ill being away from their mother so all efforts should be taken to keep them together.

Emergency foster care is arranged in these circumstances

There's too many variables. But very young babies with a mother who is not in a life-threatening condition then lots of hospitals do allow this. You'd need to speak to the department/ ward you'd be placed on.

Short answer is yes you can bring your baby but you can't be responsible for it, so someone else has to come and stay to care for the baby. In reality not many places will have a room suitable for you, baby and person to care for baby.
This is in case you became unwell or arrested as this would leave staff responsible for baby which isn't appropriate.

Some strange reply’s here.

Quite often yes you can, depends on age of baby as they are very reliant on mum. So small baby most likely a side room would be arranged. If you’re having to go into hospital just speak with them, most nurses will try and be helpful to a breastfeeding mum.

Yes, depending on the circumstances and the ward and the reason you were in. Ultimately, the first priority is YOU. Your care would trump baby breastfeeding and safety of baby would be important.

I was recently in hospital for 4 days. And there would have been absolutely no way I would have been able to breastfeed and care for a baby. I couldn’t even sit up on my own and drinking from a cup and eating were difficult. I also would not have wanted a baby in that environment. The guy in the bed next to me had jumped off a building and the woman in the bed diagonally across was having a mental health crisis and had stabbed herself and was sectioned but kept trying to escape and being brought back by security. (It was a high dependency ward for head/neck/neurological issues; I was there due to cancer surgery on my head/neck, but the others I assume because of head injuries and needing to be watched closely by nurses). It was pretty grim. I would not have slept a wink with a baby there. My dc didn’t even come to visit.

I wonder whether the positive posters have only been in hospital when beds and side rooms are freely available?

Each time we’ve been in, there’s been an enormous wait in A and E (last one 36 hours) to even find a bed in the hospital, let alone a side room.

At the moment, the majority of side rooms will be for infectious patients.

I think it depends on the age of the baby, and also whether the risk to the baby/you is greater for them being there.

So if you had an ebf baby less than a month, that would be a higher priority than a 7 month old who (normally) who be at least on the beginnings of weaning.

If you were infectious/going to be around people who were infectious then they clearly wouldn't want baby to be there because of the risk.

If could be that if you were thought to be at risk of not resting enough/doing yourself more injury if you were getting up to deal with the baby, they might say no.

I suspect if it looked like you would need help to look after the baby, except in very few circumstances, then you wouldn't be able to.

I know someone who fosters and she's occasionally been called in for someone in this situation, but they will try and find a way of keeping them together if that seems best for both of them.

Yes. They are supposed to support breastfeeding mothers, especially if the hospital is part of the baby feeding initiative. You need to contact the infant feeding co-ordinaries at the hospital. How disgusting that you were refused. What are you supposed to do if you have an exclusively breastfed infant?

The hospital I had my heart surgery at were great with this. They let my baby stay with me until I went into theatre and brought her to me when I was in recovery.

Most hospitals have a written policy in this, so you could ask to see it. Most of the ones I have seen online agree that bf babies should stay with mothers wherever possible and give specific advice on the lengths the hospital should go to to support this.

Our hospital allows it.. they will put you on the maternity if no private rooms available.
Some mothers don't want to pump and put a teat in the baby's mouth.