Through observations during my first clinical day I have realized that nurses play many roles while caring for mother, and baby during the post-partum period. What set these nurses apart from other nurses was how large of an educator role they played during this time. As nurses, and student nurses health teaching should be a fundamental part of the care we provide. However, the teaching may differ unit to unit; on this particular unit the theme of breastfeeding is central. By providing teaching on breastfeeding the nurse can educate, reassure, support, and assist the mother in being successful with their latch and baby’s nutritional intake while developing her breastfeeding confidence. This reflection will explore my health teaching experience, as well as the importance of the role the nurse plays as a breast feeding educator for new moms or moms with multiple children.
On my second clinical day I was able to embody the educator role, and be an active participant in health teaching with my first mother and baby assignment. The mother I was caring for gave birth in the early hours of the morning, and had a successful feed following shortly after. Unfortunately after this during later feeds baby did not seem interested with the breast. As she voiced her frustration after several attempts I found myself empathizing for her because I could tell she was wondering why? I reassured her and listened to her concerns. Although she remained calm I could see the day was beginning to wear on her after another unsuccessful attempt at breastfeeding. For the following evening feed I decided to be present and provide assistance as needed. My co-assigned nurse assisted her while I watched the beginning of the feed, and a successful latch with visua...
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Grassley, J. S. (2004). Understanding maternal breastfeeding confidence: A hermeneutic analysis of women's breastfeeding stories. (Order No. 3145847, Texas Woman's University). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 286-286 p. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/305052302?accountid=14694. (305052302).
Perry, S., Hockenberry, M., Lowdermilk, D., & Wilson, D. (2013). Maternal Child Nursing Care in Canada. Toronto: Elsevier.
Phillips, K. (2011). First-time breastfeeding mothers: Perceptions and lived experiences with breastfeeding. International Journal of Childbirth Education, 26, 17-20. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.uproxy.library.dc-uoit.ca/docview/895978498?accountid=14694
Ryan, A. S., Wenjun, Z., & Acosta, A. (2002). Breastfeeding continues to increase into the new millennium. Pediatrics, 110(6), 1103-1109.
For any mother the birth of a newborn child can be a challenging experience. As nurses it is part of our job to ensure their experience is positive. We can help do this by providing the information they will need to affective care for their newborn. This information includes topics such as, breastfeeding, jaundice, when to call your doctor and even how to put your baby to sleep. When the parents have an understanding of these topics before discharge it can largely reduce their natural anxiety accompanied with the transition to parenthood. Health teaching for new parents is seen as such an important aspect of care on post-partum floors it is actually a necessary component that needs to be covered before the hospital can discharge the patients. At the moment the strategies most hospitals use in Durham Region are Video’s and Parenting Booklets that are primarily based in the English Language. In such a culturally diverse region this becomes a barrier to providing the health teaching to patients who do not speak English as a first language (ESL). This reflection will explore the challenges I faced when providing health teaching to an ESL patient as well as the importance of health teaching in the post-partum area.
This will be tailored to the mother’s feelings about breastfeeding (Watson, 2008). If she plans on breastfeeding this is a situation in which the nurse may offer guidance with skin-to-skin occurring first for a successful first-time breastfeeding. Research shows that if skin-to-skin occurs first, the infant will feed more properly in the short-term and long-term (Pigeon Turenne, 2016; Hugill, 2015). Routing reflexes naturally occur in the baby and there is minimal effort for the first time breastfeeding in the first hour after delivery (Crenshaw,
Newman, Jack and Teresa Pitman. The Ultimate Breastfeeding Book of Answers. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2006. Print.
Nutrition and breastfeeding are subjects that can relate greatly to each other. New mothers are in a need of information regarding breastfeeding. Mothers receive the information and instructions on how to breastfeed at the hospital where they bear their children. That information is essential in the decision making process of whether to breastfeed or not. Still the clear choice for mothers everywhere is breastfeeding for several important life affecting reasons. Breast milk is highly nutritional, protects from various diseases, ideal in growth, promotes bonding, and is beneficial for the mother in a recovery process after labor.
The cover of TIME magazine uses pathos to invoke acceptance as a child stands clinging on to his mother’s breast, along with the words, “Are you mom enough?” This assertion can empower some women to do the accepted thing; yet, offend other women, who don’t agree, at the same time. A mother’s primary role is to nurture and guide the growth of her family. The woman, in particular, displays this role in which, “her charge [is] to oversee her child’s physical, intellectual, and spiritual development” (Plant 2010). However, there are many ways to manage a child’s well-being, aside from breastfeeding up to the age of six. Therefore, the cover can imply that mothers. who don’t practice attachment parenting, are not woman enough. Moreover, it doesn’t necessarily make a mother a bad parent if she doesn’t attend to her child’s every cry, sleep beside him at night, or breastfeed him throughout his entire adolescence. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life. Afterwards, their studies suggest that the child “should receive complementary foods that are nutritionally adequate (providing sufficient calories, protein as well as micronutrients needed for proper growth) and safe while continuing to breastfeed for up to 2 years or more” (Children’s Health). Based on their study, there is a positive correlation between weaning a child completely off of his mom by two and his level of independence into toddlerhood.
Mulder, P. J. (2006,). A concept analysis of effective breastfeeding. JOGNN: Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, & Neonatal Nursing, 35, 332-339. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1552-6909.2006.00050.x
Women do not breastfeed long enough. Although healthcare workers try to promote the breast method, many women do not continue with it. Breastfeeding does come with challenges; however, the phrase “breast is best” is the role of the nurse in conjunction with education. A mother a...
Although many people have a strong views on breastfeeding, usually based on some personal, family or friend experience and moreover, there is historic lack of sufficient breastfeeding training for many UK professionals, this can surely lead to general misinterpretations about what can effectively improve breastfeeding rates. It can be suggested that the purpose of community is to clear aims and priorities for the BF strategy and give an evident roles to all staff members (UNICEF, 2009).
This particular class was conducted on a Saturday and covered the labor process, options for labor support, comfort measures, and breastfeeding. The class began with the discussion of the anatomy and physiology of an expecting mother. Then progressed to the stages of labor. Furthermore, the complications of delivery and pregnancy were discussed, this took approximately four hours. Lunch was at noon and piloted for thirty minutes. After lunch, comfort measures were reviewed, for about two hour. A forty-five minutes natural childbirth video was played that incorporated the Lamaze techniques. Then the instructor had the mother sit on the floor on yoga mats to practice the recommended breathing techniques for approximately thirty minutes. The final hour was dedicated to breastfeeding and questions the students
Similarly to the previous article, the authors found a men 's opinion toward breastfeeding hosted a significant association between a mother 's choice to breast, or bottle feed her infant. Like mothers, a strong correlation between social conditions, including ethnicity, country of origin, education, and socioeconomic status, was found to have a sizeable impact on the father 's opinion of feeding method. This study, like many others, confirmed that breastfeeding ideals are often formed long before conception. Increasing the focus of breastfeeding to men and women alike through the use of the media, high school curriculums, and programs such as WIC could help make breastfeeding acceptance more widely spread across multi cultures, and also promote it as a socially acceptable
Ward, S. L., & Hisley, S. M. (2009). Maternal Child Nursing Care. Washington: FA Davis.
During one of my shifts on postpartum I was helping a nurse look after a mom with her first baby. She really wanted to be able to breastfeed but she was having a lot of troubles getting her baby to latch on. It was a Saturday and there was no lactation consultant working who could come in to help her. Her baby was also small for gestational age, so she did have risk for hypoglycemia, making it really important for her baby to be feeding to ensure her blood sugars would not drop. After each attempt at breastfeeding and being unsuccessful, the mom would look very upset. The nurse tried to help her by showing her different breastfeeding positions and techniques and teaching her to express her milk and put it in the baby’s mouth. The
After eighteen years of failed in vitro fertilization trials1 and ineffective fertility drugs, my aunt had built up a wall against the taunts of a society that measures individual success based on one’s ability to reproduce. When my aunt did give birth to a healthy baby boy, she was forced to battle a new wave of criticism. She had difficulty producing an adequate amount of breast milk and soon after her delivery, she came down with the flu. Worried that she might get the baby sick, my aunt decided not to breast feed until she was better. Unfortunately, taking a break meant she lost her ability to breast feed completely. During this period, she was troubled by all of the elderly women in our extended family who demanded to know why she would not breastfeed, criticized her for her inability to produce milk, and failed to understand her reasoning.
However, nurses in the maternity ward have expressed their deepest concerns about meeting the needs of first time mother on discharge education during their stay in the hospital. Some of the nurses’ concerns include the lack of time and the amount of information they are required to equip the first time mothers to care for their newborn. Mothers have also reported dissatisfaction with the discharge education provided by the hospital. One of which that causes their frustration was the inconsistent breast feeding information and the need for more information about newborn care which was not covered by the hospital. (Barbara L. Buchko C. H., National Center for Biotechnology Info...
This week’s clinical experience has been unlike any other. I went onto the unit knowing that I needed to be more independent and found myself to be both scared and intimidated. However, having the patients I did made my first mother baby clinical an exciting experience. I was able to create connections between what I saw on the unit and the theory we learned in lectures. In addition, I was able to see tricks other nurses on the unit have when providing care, and where others went wrong. Being aware of this enabled me to see the areas of mother baby nursing I understood and areas I need to further research to become a better nurse.