NJ court ruling blocking newborn's dad from delivery room is first in nation

[Butterbean]

133. This strikes me as odd.

Been an L&D nurse for 16 years. It has always, always, ALWAYS been the policy at every hospital where I work that the mother controls who comes into the delivery room, period. It doesn't matter if it's the father, it doesn't matter if it's Jesus Christ himself, if the mother says no they can't come in, then they can't come in. All of the L&D units I've worked on, including the current one I work on, are locked and you have to be buzzed in by the nurses. Only 2 visitors are allowed at the bedside at a time, again, this was the policy at every other hospital where I worked. It is the up to the discretion of the mother as to who those two visitors are, and they can trade out visitors and rotate if they want to.

I have personally been involved in several situations with patients who did not wish to have the father at the bedside due to personal conflicts and/or estrangement, and it was never a court issue. They simply said no, and we enacted our special patient protection policy involving a password and a few other protective measures, and that was that.

I guess I just don't understand how this even became an issue. I've never been at a hospital where the mother wasn't solely in charge of who was present for her delivery and who was not.

As for the infant staying with the mother for 1 hour after birth, that is also standard policy at all the hospitals where I've worked, including the one where I currently work. After an uncomplicated vaginal delivery where both mother and infant are medically stable, it is actually recommended that skin to skin contact be established immediately. Skin to skin contact with the newborn and mother helps to keep the infant warm much better than an artificial heater, and it also helps to normalize/regulate breathing and heart rate. Establishing breast feeding within one hour after birth, if possible, is also recommended, as that is when mother and child are most alert and ready to take the breast. So no, it isn't completely nuts that the mother didn't want her child whisked away right after birth, and it actually IS detrimental to the infant to do something like that. Here are some studies to read if you would like further information:

http://www.unicef.org.uk/BabyFriendly/News-and-Research/Research/Skin-to-skin-contact/Review-finds-significant-benefits-of-skin-to-skin-contact/

http://evidencebasedbirth.com/the-evidence-for-skin-to-skin-care-after-a-cesarean/ (this is for after a c-section, but if you scroll down, you'll see the skin to skin benefits listed that apply to any birth).

http://apps.who.int/rhl/archives/gpcom/en/index.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12804473

Anyhoo, it's their business, it's their fight to work out. I just hope whatever their relationship evolves into in the future that it becomes something that is beneficial and healthy for their child and that the child is not used as a pawn in adult battles.