What, you might ask, is my safety zone? And just what do I mean by stepping out of it?
I am *one of those nurses* who feels like I can do a better job of doing some portions of normal newborn baby care under the radiant warmer. (Shock of all shocks! Yes, ME!) Not all of the newborn care, mind you, just some of it. Mostly the footprints. That's because we used to have this messy ink pad and paper system.
We know have this inkless system, which I am growing to actually LOVE. The more I use it, the more I love it. I didn't love it so much when we first transitioned to it. It was awkward. I can't find a picture of it, but let me describe it to you.
There is a cardboard sheet, about 5x7 inches. There are 3 rectangles on it: the far left is small, for the mother's index fingerprint, and the other two will fit for each newborn footprint. On the top side it's inkless. On the back side, there is black ink. You press the foot against the top side, with the paper you want to print underneath. It transmits the footprint without actually applying ink to the foot. No fuss, no muss!
Well, you need a hard surface to use it. We implemented small clipboards in each room to use the ink pad system when making footprints. At first, it was awkward: trying to hold the printer on the clipboard, with the paper you are printing underneath, while trying to grasp the infant's foot to make the prints. First prints, I found when using this new system, were very messy and not pretty at all.
Now, if you know me, you know I like to make the prettiest prints! This WOULD NOT DO.
So, I practiced. And practiced. And finally found the art of working it all out to create beautiful footprints for the families.
And, like I said, I stepped out of my safety zone recently, and actually tried doing a full set of footprints while baby was on mom. BEAUTIFUL!!!! They turned out gorgeous!!!
Mom and baby were only ever separated for all of 60 seconds when I brought the scale to her bedside to weigh and measure her infant.
Every single other newborn procedure was done with baby on mom's chest. Every. Single. One.
Now that folks, is the way it should be!!
14 comments:
Yay!
YOu are right, some things are best done under the radiant warmer. Usually those things are infant resuscitation with a bag mask. Why? Because it is difficult to get a good seal even when you are at the warmer. Even when you have done this for a long long time and have loads of experience.
That being said, vs don't need to be done on the warmer. Come to think of it, I used to work in a hospital that would put the baby in the tub with mom. So we could get them both washed after the delivery. Mothers loved it! The Nicu that came in later hated it!
This is a world I know little about, ATC, since I am always in the ER. Thank you for bringing it to me. Fascinating and fulfilling work, to be there in the first few minutes of life.
The inkless system was used for my daughter (born 3/5/10). I thought it was really neat!! No more messy ink on newborn toes.
Okay, now I have to have another one just to demand the scale brought to my bedside. *snicker*
I thought I was being brave demanding to wash my baby (I did this standing up and began having eye problems and was afraid I'd fall out so I declined to finish...again, the nurse could have brought ME the water and the stuff instead of having ME stand there right after birthing). At least I was the first to clean my baby's head (and I left stuff in the hair...ick...I couldn't see though!). I also don't understand why, after cleaning me up, they put my baby on the warmer and me in a wheel chair across the room. What? I inched my way over to the warmer and picked up my baby. Blah!
Blessings!
Dawn
So true about the footprints: nearly impossible on Mom! I wishwishwish we had this inkess system where I worked!!!
I fully intend to ask the nurse to do this while I'm holding the baby this time too. The hospital we go to puts the prints on the med. records too. I always have to ask for the keepsakes later, because they never do them voluntarily.
Thanks for keeping mom and baby together!
I had a hospital birth but no footprints. I don't understand the purpose of the footprints. Why is that done?
I stink at footprints! And we have the inkless system. Wish someone like you would come along and do them for me!
April - the purpose of the footprints is two-fold: it is one of the two mandatory identification methods for newborn identification at birth (the other is the ID bracelets). The other reason for prints is the memory cards for the families. It has also not been proven that footprints are an ACCURATE method of infant identification, usually do the poor printing process (not everyone takes the time to do them nicely and completely, some are rather smeared and would be useless for identification).
Good for you!
Great Job!
Yay, so happy that you are moving toward keeping baby and mom together as much as possible!
woohoo!! go girl!!
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