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Tuesday, 27 September 2005 10:52 | BNN: British Nursing News Online · www.bnn-online.co.uk
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Hospital bosses in Halifax have asked visitors to the maternity wing to respect the privacy of patients by not staring into cots or questioning mothers about their newborn babies.
Staff at Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax put up a display of a doll in a cot with a sign saying: “What makes you think I want to be looked at?”
Debbie Lawson, a ward sister at the special care baby unit, said in the Daily Mail: "We know people have good intentions and most cannot resist cooing over new babies but we need to respect the child.
"Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me.
"We often get visitors wandering over to peer into cots but people sometimes touch or talk about the baby like they would if they were examining tins in a supermarket and that should not happen.
"Hopefully our message comes across loud and clear. The Government has set a benchmark that every patient has a right to privacy and dignity and we say that includes tiny babies as well."
The hospital promoted the initiative through an “advice day” last week, when cards reading “respect my baby” were handed out to visitors. The cards also read: “I am small and precious so treat me with privacy and respect. May parents ask you to treat my personal space with consideration. I deserve to be left undisturbed and unprotected against unwanted public view.”
A spokesman for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust said the measure was just “common sense” in the fight against hospital acquired infections and visitors were not banned from talking to mothers.
"Staff were wishing to highlight issues of patient confidentiality and dignity, especially for young babies and their parents in what can be very emotional times," he said.
"Infection control was also a key part of the message as the unit deals with very small babies with very vulnerable immune systems."
But Belinda Phipps, chief executive of the National Childbirth Trust, said: "Babies like to interact and like to look at a human face. We need to treat the mother and baby as one unit. The mother should be able to say what she wants to happen with her baby.
"Some mothers think people cooing over their baby is fantastic and a lot of women do want to talk about their labour because it is a big experience.
"Some women take a very different approach and don't want anybody near their baby. It's wrong to dictate this approach to all women."
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