Hi everyone,
I wanted to write this post after using mumsnet (lurking!) to reassure me when my baby failed the newborn hearing screening and we had to wait 2.5 weeks for follow up tests.
I had my baby by c-section on the 23rd July. He is my first child. The next morning, around 21 hours after baby was born, the hearing screener came to our room. There was no explanation of what was happening. She did not ask when the baby was born (this will all be important later!) and she did not ask how he was delivered.
She did the first screening - the little earphone test. He was not quiet during this time but was not sleeping - just gurgling and making newborn sounds. She told us it was ‘unsatisfactory’, left the room and came back to the second screening using the pads on his head. She said for this screening he needed to be clean for the pads to stick. Needless to say, so soon after a section, the pads were falling off. She told us it was unsatisfactory and we’d need a follow up. No reassurance despite seeing how visibly upset we were. No information given. No time to discuss it.
This experience ruined my first weeks as a new mam. I would just look at my baby and cry thinking I’d done something wrong. Luckily for me, all the other health professionals we had contact with in those weeks was incredibly reassuring and reading your fab posts on other threads on here helped me out.
Fast forward to his hearing test, we were lucky enough to have the head of audiology. I complained (and cried!) about the manner of the woman who carried out the first screening. I was more worried about her lack of empathy but actually it turns out her actual practice was wrong. For example, during the follow up test I was BF my son and the noise he was making meant it was too loud to carry out the test effectively. He was 5x louder in the hospital during the initial screening yet the screener didn’t tell us this would be a reason he would fail initially. Apparently the second screening should have never happened as it is now an outpatient test and we should have had it explained to us! Here are some takeaways I wish I’d done that I hope will be a comfort to some of you or prepare you when you have your baby:
- If your baby is making noise, ask if they can come back later.
- If your baby is unsuccessful for the first screening, you can opt out and ask for a follow up outpatient appointment.
- Make your screener away you have had a c-section or quick birth if you have - these babies have more fluid and are much more likely to ‘fail’.
- Ask the screener to come back later either for the first screening or a follow up! Ours was ridiculously early.
- Make sure you get leaflets etc if you are referred to the hospital for a later appointment.
hope this helps anybody who is having the same worries we did x