8 - Sunday, October 2, 1988 - North Shore News

MAILBOX

No

new mother

Dear Editor:

Recently 1 gave birth to my se-
cond child in Lions Gate Hospital.
The quality o* care was in general
good, but I must mention one very
major complaint, It concerns their
policy of “rooming-i in’? — having
the infant stay in the room with
the mother.

I am certainly in favor of room-
ing-in being as available as the
mother wishes it, but at LGH I
was appalled to find it was virtual-
ly mandatory during all but a few
night hours.

The nursery is listed as officially
closed during four hours of the
day (9:30 to 10:30 a.m., noon to !
p.m., 5 to 6 p.m. and 9 to 10
p.m.), but every time I attempted

CONGRESSIONAL

AMBASSADOR
PRESIDENTIAL
SUPREME

URETHANE SUPREME

to leave my daughter there during
the other hours, hoping for a rest,
she was returned to my room in a
very short time with the explana-
tion that ‘‘the nurse’ was going
for coffee or was busy.

By comparison, St. Paul’s Hos-
pital, where I had my first baby
2% years ago, has a nursery that is
always open: open for mothers to
take their babies to their rooms 24
hours a day if they wish, and open
to mothers returning the oabies to
the care of the willing and
available ‘‘nursery aunties’ at any
time. It was a considerably more
comforting and relaxing. environ-
ment in which to recuperate from
childbirth.

1 delivered this baby by
Caesarean section, which is major

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abdominal surgery and one would
expect it to be treated as such. |
was in constant pain and frantical-
ly tired, but from the very day
after surgery { was forced to stay
up until 10 every night, when the
nursery would finally accept
custody of my baby until 5 or 6 the
next morning.

I cannot believe it is in the best
interests of a surgical patient, or
indeed any new mother, to be
denied the rest she needs to regain
her strength for the hard work of
caring for her child(ren) once she
goes home. This should in fact be
the main goal of a maternity hos-
pital stay, but Lions Gate fails
miserably in this regard.

Shelagh Kuse
North Vancouver

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