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Hospital ban on cooing over newborn babies 'ga-ga'
Robert Sutcliffe A YORKSHIRE hospital has banned visitors from asking proud new mothers questions about their babies after deciding that they have a right to privacy.
Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, says its scheme will prevent callers from cooing over newborns in maternity wards as it infringes their human rights.
Staff at Calderdale Royal insist the drive is necessary to prevent visitors gawping at newborns or quizzing the mothers, but the plan has been met with fury.
The new regulations have been introduced right across the maternity unit and are said to follow Government guidelines. One ward has put up a display of a doll in a cot with a message which reads: "what makes you think I want to be looked at?"
Debbie Lawson, neo-natal manager at the special care baby unit, said the barrage of questions infringed on the child's human rights.
She said: "We know people have good intentions and most people 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... we say that includes tiny babies as well. I can't imagine why any mother would complain. Most would be against strangers poking and prodding."
New mum Lynsey Pearson, 26, from Halifax, whose daughter is called Hannah, said the idea was 'ludicrous'.
"If people did not ask me questions about my baby I would be offended. I am so proud of Hannah and I want to show her off and I would imagine all new mums feel that way.
"When I was in hospital even the cleaners asked me questions and touched her and cuddled her. Babies love attention," she said.
Halifax MP Linda Riordan said the Calderdale hospital was taking Government guidelines to the extreme.
"It is bureaucracy gone mad," she said. "All mothers want people to admire their babies. But in a case where a mother didn't want to answer questions it should be up to that individual to say."
Patient confidentiality is one of eight benchmarks for hospitals in the Government guidelines pamphlet Essence of Care. The booklet outlines ways in which hospitals can provide better care.
Later, a spokeswoman for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust said she believed the advice was given in relation to the special care baby unit and was as much to do with reducing infection as it was upholding "rights".
In a statement she said: "Staff held an advice session to highlight the need for respect and dignity for all patients and the potential risk of infection.
"Staff were wishing to highlight issues of potential confidentiality, especially for young babies and their parents in what can be emotional times. Infection control was also a key part of the message."
robert.sutcliffe@ypn.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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