to think parents might prefer a midwife full of cold to none at all?

[HarderToKidnap]

Can't give too much background detail, but imagine this. You have come home from hospital with your baby and you are expecting a midwife to visit you. Maybe you are anxious parent, maybe you are having problems feeding. You get a phone call cancelling your home visit and putting it off until the next day. Meanwhile a midwife who feels perfectly well has been sent home from work because she has a streaming cold - well past the sneezy/infectious stage (besides which her hand hygiene is impeccable and she ALWAYS catches it and bins it) because "it will cause parents to be anxious".

Newborns rarely if ever get colds in the same way adults do, so not much chance of passing it to a baby. I think parents would rather the midwife came with her cold than their visit be cancelled. AIBU?

'Newborns rarely if ever get colds in the same way adults do'.

Correct. It's far worse and is called bronchiolitis. my dd had it at 9 weeks and spent a week in hospital with a tube into her stomach and on oxygen. she was lucky she didn't have to go on a cpap machine.

i would not want anyone coldy around my baby.

It seems a shame she cant do her job but i can imagine a lot of parents would complain, especially parents of the first baby and some people are very anxious. Actually im not sure i would be too keen on someone coming with a streaming cold, and i am quite laid back, so i think most people would not be happy? I would have thought theres some other midwife work she could have done though like taking blood from pregnant ladies or something not with the newborns?

Having had 2 newborns who did catch colds within days of coming home and consequently found it difficult to feed, I would rather not see anyone who was streaming with cold, no matter how good their hand hygiene. If I was that anxious, I would speak to whoever rang me to postpone the appointment about my concerns, but I think I would still rather wait till the next day.

Nine weeks is prime time to start getting colds and chest infections. I am talking her about proper, days old newborns who very very very rarely get either (they do get infections of course, just generally not that type).

As the mother of a second baby I would laugh and hand her some tissues. With my PFB though? I would have freaked right the fuck out.

I think most first time parents of newborns would really object to a midwife with a "streaming cold" visiting their home.

Also, even if the baby didn't catch the cold I wouldn't be particularly overjoyed at catching a cold whilst trying to recover from childbirth.

I wouldn't have let her through the door and would have been very cross that someone clearly not well had been sent to see my precious new born.

YABU

dd1 came out in spots the day dd2 came home. so dd2 also had chicken pox at 21 days old in addition to bronchiolitis at 9 weeks. plus something else awful at 4 weeks.

i don't give a damn whether it's pfb or dc5, i don't want someone sick around my babies!

Don't they know cold germs are everywhere? their little snotty siblings bring them in from school - DH from work - much rather have peace of mind that all ok from midwife.

YABU I wouldn't want to take the risk, PFB or not. Why tempt fate? And of course newborns can catch colds, they are not immune, far from it!

Can they? Only, I have been a midwife for years and seen thousands and thousands of newborns. Never seen one with a cold, though.

I think they were right to send you home, sorry.

It wasn't me. I am just being nosey and wondering what you thought of the situation. If I have a cold I ring in sick and then watch Jeremy Kyle.

well op, i think you can see it would cause some parents to be anxious. especially around their lil newborn.

although generally i m of the 'soldier on' school of thought on mild illnesses, if everyone who sees you is horrified when it is part of your job to reassure them - probs not worthwhile?

I would have understood having an appt reschedulted to the following day. Perfectly reasonable IMO.

Unlike the m/w who was suppposed to come and weigh DD the day after she was discharged from hospital after losing 20% of her birthweight and never turned up, or phoned to explain why.

My DD2 got her first cold at 2 weeks old and nearly ended up in hospital. having experienced that there's no way I would be happy to have a midwife with a cold handling my baby tbh.

rsv,bronchiolitis all transmittable to newborn- newborn colds can be serious

streaming cold?you mean running nose,sneezing,coughing. hardly conducive to newborn health.they were right to send you hope

I wouldn't want a midwife with a cold around my newborn and would rather not see anyone at all.

And actually, I wouldn't want a midwife with a cod around me a few days after giving birth. No sleep, up all night establishing breastfeeding and knackered after labour is bad enough without adding a cold into the mix.

Make that a midwife with a cold - midwife with a cod would be an interesting prospect.

After my DS was born my MW was on hols, so I had a visit from a different one, who then got ill, so I got visits from a 3rd. Doesn't your health authority have MWs on standby? I really appreciated those early visits, just to be told I was doing fine. Surely if one MW has a cold, someone else could cover her first child mums. Maybe I'm just lucky to have a great local health service.

I thought parents were told to avoid ill people with newborns as a matter of course? I think they were taking the sensible option by not allowing her to go visiting potentially vulnerable patients.