A group of Hamilton women is fighting for the rights
of mothers to stay with their premature babies while they remain in neonatal
care.
The women presented a submission to the parliamentary
health select committee via video link yesterday after making a stand last
year. Neonatal Unity for Mothers and Babies, or Numb as the group is
known, has been lobbying the Government for a change in "normal" hospital
procedure to allow mothers to stay in the same room as their sick or
premature baby, while in neonatal intensive-care units. The women sent
a 2500-signature petition to Parliament last year and were asked to make a
submission on the topic, which they did.
Member Donna Booth said the submission was supported by
letters from midwives, the NZ College of Midwives, an obstetrician, the
Forward Up Foundation and the La Leche League New Zealand breastfeeding
organisation, as well as referenced research. Finally, last week the
group were contacted by the health select committee asking them to give the
presentation.
Mrs Booth said Numb hoped yesterday's presentation would
result in progress on the request. "We've been quite reasonable -
we're asking the Government to look into it quite specifically with tasks in
mind." She said the group was also asking the Government to make
provision initially for women to be able to room-in if they want to.
"We want women to be able to choose to do that - for those blocks to be
removed."
Now and in the past women who gave birth to a premature
or sick baby who remains in the NICU cannot stay with the child outside
hospital visiting hours, as can parents of sick children in other wards.
"The vast majority of mothers of premature and sick newborns find themselves
discharged from hospital after what may have been a frightening and untimely
end to their pregnancy, and relegated to the status of visitor," Mrs Booth
said. Mrs Booth, whose daughter Sarah was born seven weeks premature
in 2002, said being told to go home and leave her newborn baby was
soul-destroying.
"It was a very, very challenging experience. I had two
other older children at home so I understood as a parent how vitally
important being with my baby was." The select committee will now
decide whether to recommend action to Parliament. If it does, the
Government will have 90 days to report on what action, if any, was taken to
implement the recommendation.
by Linley Boniface (NZ Listener, May 24-30 2008 Vol 213 No 3550)
from:
http://www.listener.co.nz/issue/3550/columnists/11125/printable/close_encounters_.html
Kangaroo mothercare is cheaper than
incubators and benefits can include a healthy baby who goes home earlier.
Watching their premature baby through an incubator didn’t appeal to Krista
Fullerton and Forrest Chambers. Instead, the Palmerston North couple decided
to use their own bodies as incubators, keeping little Anaďs warm through
direct contact with their skin. Fullerton and Chambers used a technique
known as kangaroo mother-care, or KMC, which was developed in Colombia in
1978 to deal with overcrowding in neonatal units. In the West, it has been
popularised by a South African public health physician, Dr Nils Bergman. KMC
involves 24-hour skin-to-skin contact and exclusive feeding with mother’s
milk, usually by breastfeeding. Any medical treatment the baby needs is
delivered while it lies on its mother.
Although most new parents have no advance
warning of a premature delivery, Fullerton and Chambers knew their third
child would be born early. Fullerton’s waters broke at 32 weeks, and they
had time to research KMC before Anaďs was born six weeks early. But putting
KMC into practice wasn’t easy. In the fortnight following the birth,
Fullerton stayed in the neonatal unit holding Anaďs against her skin while
sitting on a -semi-reclining vinyl armchair (“very sweaty,” she remarks).
Chambers would take her place while Fullerton expressed milk or fetched
meals from the hospital cafeteria. The practicalities of staying in the unit
were difficult, and Fullerton and Chambers had mixed reactions from staff in
the neonatal unit – they believe some staff felt threatened that they’d
taken over responsibility for Anaďs’ care. But Anaďs thrived, and was
allowed to go home at 13 days. In retrospect, Fullerton and Chambers wish
they had spent more time briefing hospital staff in advance about KMC. Staff
encouraged parents to come in and cuddle their babies, but weren’t used to
having parents live in. “The care itself wasn’t hard – premature babies
sleep a lot, so I was often able to pick up a book or just lie there and
look at her,” says Fullerton.
Donna Booth had never heard of KMC when
her third child was born seven weeks early in 2002, but instinctively felt
she didn’t want to leave her. Booth ended up sleeping on a hospital couch
for a fortnight so she could keep Sarah with her as much as possible. “The
hospital finally agreed I could sleep on the couch on the condition that I
did it secretly, because they said if the other mothers saw me they’d want
the couch, too,” says Booth. “Some of the staff were supportive, but in an
underground way. I wasn’t entitled to free food from the hospital, even
though my baby was an inpatient, but some of the staff who were bringing in
food for themselves would make some extra for me.” After hearing about KMC,
Booth co-founded the group Neonatal Unity for Mothers and Babies. NUMB
believes mothers should have the same right to stay in hospital with a
premature baby as they would with a full-term baby or a child in a
paediatric ward. Booth says there’s a world of difference between neonatal
units encouraging -parents to visit their premature babies and those
allowing them to live in to provide the care themselves. “Hospitals get hung
up on the idea that they don’t have enough space, but all mothers need are a
reclining chair and a power point to plug in a breast pump. And there are
savings: kangaroo mother-care is cheaper than incubators, and babies usually
go home sooner.” Several research projects have concluded that KMC helps
babies’ oxygenation, heart rate, nutrition, ability to breastfeed, and
immune system development.
A study by Canadian researchers published
earlier this year also found that babies held against their mother’s bare
skin recovered more quickly from the pain of -injections. The World Health
Organisation’s view is that “almost two decades of implementation and
research have made it clear that KMC is more than an alternative to
incubator care. It has been shown to be effective for thermal control,
breastfeeding and bonding in all newborn infants, irrespective of setting,
weight, gestational age and clinical conditions.” Fullerton believes
kangaroo mothercare should be more widely known, and would like parents who
choose to use KMC to be given the support they need to stay in neonatal
units until their babies are ready to come home. Eighteen months after Anaďs’
birth, Fullerton says she has very happy memories of her first two weeks
with her daughter. “I felt really bonded to Anaďs, and it was a privilege to
be able to care for her. It was an amazingly special time for both of us.”
