Down to Birth #190 | Babies in the NICU: Three Mothers' Stories
No matter how beautiful, long, short or difficult your birth experience is, nothing compares to the agony of your brand new baby being whisked out of your arms and admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Special Care Nursery (SPC). Mothers in this position often experience less autonomy and authority over the decision-making and informed consent process than they did in their own birth experiences.
Today, we share the individual stories of three women whose babies ended up in the NICU or SPC with one common thread: Informed consent was insufficient or lacking altogether, interventions were performed without permission, and timely diagnoses for their babies were neglected.
Meet Cameron, whose home birth plans were derailed when she went into labor spontaneously at 34 weeks; Nicole, a mother of five and birth doula whose baby was grossly misdiagnosed until a year of age; and Erin, a mother of three who successfully insisted on breast-feeding in the NICU and followed her instincts to fight for her baby to get an early release from an unnecessarily prolonged stay in the NICU.
Each mother shares her story and her battle to feed, hold, comfort and mother her baby within the confines of NICU and SCN procedures and policies. And even though these three moms never met, they each came to the same individual conclusion when it comes to the advice they have for all parents: Know your rights, your breastfeeding expectations and your values, and use your instinct to defend all three relentlessly through your NICU experience.
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