Name and Shame - Edinburgh Royal

[highlander]

traumatic birth for mum and tot. Tot (obviously, doh!)not taking to boob for a few hours. Did they let her sleep it off? Nope. Did they shovel in formula? Yep. Was mum pumping? Yep. Was the colostrum saved for tot? Nope.

That's not the whole story, but tales like this make my boil

That is shocking. Did they throw the colostrum away?

Why on earth didn't they save the colostrum?

What's the whole story? Am already!

They didn't throw colostrum away? Noooo!

as some people may know when i had dd she would latch on but once she tasted the milk would stop and give up for about 6-8 hrs and after a lot of pressure from the midwives i gave her a bottle of formula, after 2 bottles of formula she wouldnt latch at all.

being a young mum i felt i had to do as they advised and i feel that it wasn't best in hindsight but now theres nothing i can do about it, next time im not listening to a word they say and i am going to breastfeed my baby, even if it takes days to get the lo on i dont care!!!

cases like this are terrible, surely breastfeeding should be premoted not put on the backburner!

OMG! When ds3 was in SCBU the nurse ran up to the SCBU from my ward to give him the colostrum I'd pumped! My blood is BOILING right now

I heard this second hand so I don't know the full details. I'm still angry

Oh don't get me started on this one. I gave birth there after a 24 hour labour overnight and forceps delivery. A drip was inserted, but no saline. And I wasn't allowed to drink. I was terribly dehydrated after an assisted delivery and hours later walked myself to the toilet alone with my legs still on pins and needles from the epidural.

When it came time to feed, I - completely ignorant of things like pumping, nipple shields, etc. - was give NO alternative to feeding at the breast for even one feed.

I was in horrible pain. About 24 hours after she was born, I was told to either feed her at the breast or give her formula. So I gave her formula.

It would have been nice to try to pump at least or been offered that just to get through the rough patch.

This time, I'm going in fully armed - with pump, bags, cup, etc.

What's sad is, like this time, I'd been leaking for weeks before the birth and had a wondeful milk supply.

This is very disappointing especially as this unit has Babyfriendly accreditation

Thank gawd for MN is all I say. When I first fell pregnant this time, I was dead set against even trying to breastfeed at all again. Now I know there's help if you run into trouble, and how to find it. Moondog kindly donated her old pump - which I'll use regardless to express after I go back to work - and others have helped w/tips for rough patches.

Am going to give birth again at the Royal next month, but as a different mother entirely.

It was a full 24 hours before my DD was even interested in feeding, and the midwives didn't mind in the slightest... then when I was ill and worrying how I would cope with feeding her, they assured me they would do everything in their power to make sure that my child had breast milk, from a cup so as not to confuse her with bottles!

Stories like this make me sooo , and also sooo thankful for all I had.

Is the Royal the simpson centre for reproductive health?

babyfriendly hospitals in scotland

Yes it is, mears. It's sometimes referred to as 'the Simpson's' rather than its full name, ERI - Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.

I was hoping things had improved in the 2.5 years since I gave birth.

The staff do all they can, but they're stretched to the max.

i had ds just down the road in livingston, when on pump for first time (18hrs after birth)i stupidly said should I throw away this 1ml of colostrum!! it was labelled and put in the fridge and when I next went to scbu - the syringe went with me........and at any chance the nurses pumelled my boob into his mouth to get to attempt to BF (have to add he wasn't on Oxygen or anything)

I was expected to feed her straightaway. She was born at 4PM on a Thursday and I was expected to feed her even though all she did was cry and chomp on me.

All the next day this continued until at midnight I gave her the bottle. I remember it b/c there was a replay of that night's Big Brother eviction on.

She then slept from a little after midnight till 6AM.

I've never understood this whole "feed em straight away" thing . Would you want to eat after going through all that??? To my mind, they have enough supplies to work on for a while after being born.

My DD wasn't the tiniest bit interested - she was happy and alert, but just not hungry. When she was hungry, she made it perfectly clear, and fed.

[email protected]

This is the e-mail for the BFI team at unicef. I know one of their members vaguely, and I am sure they would be interested in this.

I don't know ANYONE (out of at least 20 births) that has had a straightforward birth there.

My friend, after her emergency c-section @ 15 days over, asked for help to breastfeed her baby. She was told they were very busy and so was wheelchaired into a room and a breastfeeding video was put on for her. Naturally, she cried as this was no help and they suggested a bottle as baby was hungry...

expatscot - if you have bf probs call the nct bf line & come here to get some support. best wishes xxx

that is terrible. god the mum must be so mad

HOW has this hospital got babyfriendly accreditation?! Am very sure that Unicef would be very interested in this. It's all very well being overstretched staff-wise, but loads of mat hospitals are. If they can't offer the support, they shouldn't say they're babyfriendly

EPIS, I'm really glad you're feeling more positive this time round What a vile experience you had last time

I wish I'd known what I know now. In my bag I've already packed some snacks to keep me going, some bottled water, etc. In addition to breastfeeding gear and a list of numbers to call for help.

How is your pal doing now, highlander?

Hope things have improved.

My last 2 babies slept for ages after the birth and werent interested in feeding. UK hospital (Slough) threatened formula, fortunately ds2 woke up just in time and latched on.
French hospital where dd2 didn't even mention formula, and I didnt feel pressured at all. (Not sure how much breastfeeding support I would have got if I had been a first time mum)

It is best for babies to feed as soon as possible after birth. The earlier they feed, the higher your chances are of successful breastfeeding.

That being said, bullying of the "bf now or the baby gets the bottle" variety is just not sensible.

DD1 was delivered at the 'old' Simpsons, at 11.30am and there was no attempt to feed until midnight. Didn't happen so quick squirt of colustrum into wee container given by syringe, bobs your uncle etc. All of next day great, help latching on etc.

BUT this was on HDU (after hideous PPH) moved to main post-natal ward on day 3 and eh, support forget it! Boob shoved in babies month was the way to go - except by the unqualified 'nursery nurses' who were SUPER and the students who tried hard. Every midwife there without exception was useless!

Really disappointed to hear that nothing has improved - particularly since I complained at the time and in writing afterwards and was given a huge amount of soft-soap. B8ggers .