babies

Happy Mother’s Day to all mums and midwives

May 14, 2023 by Madeline Lucre Leave a Comment

Today we celebrate Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day, like every day, is a day to cherish the women who have shaped our lives in countless ways.

We honour and appreciate every mother who has dedicated her life to nurturing, caring for, and raising the next generation.

We also cannot overlook the invaluable role midwives play in helping mothers and babies.

The role of midwives extends beyond medical care. Midwives provide invaluable emotional support, education, and guidance, helping mums-to-be navigate the physical and emotional changes of pregnancy and childbirth.

Their expertise, empathy, and unwavering dedication deserve our gratitude.

As you celebrate Mother’s Day with your loved ones, please take a moment to reflect on the tremendous efforts of midwives and the huge impact they have on the lives of mothers and children around the world.

Kangaroo care with dads helps with critically-ill babies: study

July 22, 2022 by Rayan Calimlim Leave a Comment

New research out of the University of South Australia (UniSA) examining how fathers’ bond with their premature babies in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) has confirmed the benefits of skin-to-skin contact for critically-ill term babies.

Researchers documented the experiences of fathers holding their premature babies against their bare chest in a pouch-like position, which is known as kangaroo care. The method mimics how a joey finds warmth, comfort and sense of security inside it’s mother pouch and close to the mother’s heartbeat.

Practiced in neo-natal wards globally, the kangaroo care method, sees mothers holding their newborn babies against their bare skin, aiding in the neurodevelopment of the infant and helping build a bond between mother and child.

Previous research has shown that skin-to-skin contact activates nerve receptors in mammals, sparking certain hormones which reduce pain and stress for both baby and parent.

While the benefits of kangaroo care practiced between mothers and infants has been recognised, there has been little research to date into whether the same benefits can be found when kangaroo care is practiced by fathers.

Registered nurse and UniSA Masters candidate, Sophia Dong, says that while mothers are considered the dominant kangaroo care providers, traditional family structures have changed in recent decades and fathers have long been overlooked.

“We know that kangaroo care provides a variety of benefits for pre-term, low birth weight infants, including lowering mortality rates, reduced infections, higher rates of breast feeding, calmer babies and enhancing bonding,” Dong said.

Father’s who took part in the study reported having a ‘silent language of love and connection’ with their infant when they adopted the kangaroo care model.

“The fathers described the NICU environment as ‘overwhelming’ initially causing them to feel anxious and powerless, but the close contact with their baby through kangaroo care fostered strong bonds with their infants. This in turn relaxed them and built their confidence,” Dong said.

Berejiklian’s baby hamper is no help

January 1, 2019 by Nurse Uncut Editor 4 Comments

With the new baby bundles being rolled out this year, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association President and Midwife O’Bray Smith tells the Liberals and Nationals where they can shove it.

What is the price of a vote? Hopefully not $160 worth of baby goods to new parents.

Do not fear new mothers, help is coming! Thanks to the ever so supportive Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, all new mothers will receive a baby hamper on the birth of their child.

New parents across this state have been given understaffed maternity wards, a lack of maternity and neonatal beds and Child and Family Health Centre closures. We have only four publicly funded beds in NSW for new mums with mental illness, an absolute disgrace! And please, please don’t get me started on the defunding of shelters for new mothers trying to leave a violent partner. For eight years new parents in NSW have been let down but that is all about to be corrected with a basket from Gladys.

Support for new families (real ones, not books in a basket) are limited, with inpatient placement for sleep correction difficult to get in a timely manner and non-existent outside of metro areas. Perhaps the basket could contain the number for a help line that doesn’t stop at 7pm or one that will stay funded past the next election.

I have read The Lamp and heard the stories of neonatal morbidity and mortality in NSW as a direct result of staffing issues. I have heard stories of staff in tears shift after shift due to a lack of safe staffing levels. No staff member wants to go home having delivered sub optimal care. This Liberal government has done nothing to address these issues but thinks handouts are the answer to a better state. This is outrageous! After the birth of my son nine weeks ago I found out how bad funding of Child and Family Health has become under this Liberal government when I discovered my closest Child and Family Health centre had been closed a few years ago due to funding cuts.

The government has also promised 100 more midwives across the entire state. I know of one hospital that could take 30 and another that needs 20 of these, the rest of you will have to fight it out for the 50 left. Where will these midwives come from and are they actual bodies or just positions? Is this sheer trickery of figures as we’ve seen before? In the last ten years in my area I have seen a substantial increase in housing development, more pregnancies, more children and no increase in hospital beds, a decrease in Mothercraft nurses and centres and now  a withdrawal of the universal home visit to all new mothers.

This NSW government has not invested in maternity and neonatal health over the past eight years but now with an election looming… well, as a nurse, midwife and a sleep-deprived new mother, I know where Liberals and Nationals can shove their hamper.

This article was originally posted as a letter to the editor in the NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association publication, the Lamp.