What to Expect During Your Postpartum Hospital Stay with Liesel Teen, BSN, RN

 Learn what to expect when you are done with your birth, and are in your postpartum hospital stay.

In this episode of the Baby Pro podcast, Liesel Teen, from the Mommy Labor Nurse, shares her expertise as a labor and delivery nurse, offering tips and insights for new mothers navigating the hospital environment. They also discuss the importance of education and empowerment for pregnant women and new parents, providing valuable information and resources to help them feel confident and in control during this exciting but often overwhelming time.

In this episode, you will learn the following:

1. Navigating the Hospital Environment: Tips for new moms to feel comfortable and in control in the hospital setting and advice for creating a birth plan and advocating for oneself during labor.

2. Preparing for Labor and Delivery: Importance of having a support system during labor and delivery and discussion of the importance of preparing for labor and delivery.

3. Postpartum Care: Discussion of the physical and emotional changes that occur postpartum and advice for creating a postpartum plan and seeking support.

Connect with Liesel Teen: 

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mommy.labornurse/
• Website: Mommy Labor Nurse – Online classes and resources to help you feel prepared and in control — no matter how you deliver.

Connect with Shelly: 

• Insta: https://www.instagram.com/shellytaftibclc/
• Website: Massachusetts IBCLC | Lactation Consultant – Shelly Taft

Resources Mentioned: 

Article: zookeeper teaches orangutan to breastfeed: Zookeeper with baby teaches new orangutan mom how to breastfeed

Episode Transcript:

Liesel  00:00

People just absorbed information a little bit better because they didn’t have visitors coming in and out. So that’s also okay for you to enforce, you know, not upon the hospital staff, but upon your own family members and your friends like, hey, it is okay. You don’t have to, like, I’ll see. I’ll see at the house, you know?

Shelly  00:20

Hi, I’m Shelly. And I’m Maria. And you’re listening to the baby pro podcast, where we talk about everything in anything related to pregnancy and through the first year of your child’s life. Every episode we will discuss an interview experts and all the answers to the questions expectant and new parents want to know such as creating the perfect birth plan infancy and tips and tricks for parenting a newborn

Shelly  00:48

This week we are speaking with Liesel Teen from the Mommy Labor Nurse.

maria  00:53

Have you looked at her account at all? I don’t think so. Yeah.

Shelly  00:58

So we had done an episode, where you are the guest talking about breastfeeding in the hospital. And she’s just going to be talking to us about like general postpartum, like what to expect in the postpartum period in the hospital. Because you know, it’s never what you really expect. Yeah. Like you expect all this help from lactation. And instead, they stopped by for like, five minutes.

maria  01:23

That story too. Yeah, even in our hospital. I mean, I know we do our best and we have more of a lactation team than most hospitals do. We still don’t get around to seeing everybody. And sometimes we don’t see them for more than a few minutes.

Shelly  01:39

I think we’re one of the few hospitals in the area that has lactation every day. Right? Like holidays, weekends, whereas other hospitals

01:49

not quite right.

Shelly  01:51

But first Did you see there was a really cute story about a zookeeper who had to teach the entering. How to breastfeed. Did you see that?

maria  02:01

I heard about that. Yeah. Yeah. So

Shelly  02:04

zoo in Virginia at the Metro Richmond zoo, had a baby and a zookeeper who was also breastfeeding their baby, kind of sat outside her pen, I guess, pen. breastfed her baby, to show the Reagan team

maria  02:20

what to do. And it worked. That’s awesome. There wasn’t another story like that. Some years ago. I don’t know if you remember it. It wasn’t an orangutan. It was a different kind of primate miss a gorilla. But this particular gorilla had been I think, raised in captivity. I’m gonna botch the story. But basically, they ended up doing the same thing. She had one pregnancy. She lost the baby because she didn’t know how to take care of it. I remember this. Yeah. And then

Shelly  02:50

it was a whole group of moms. Yeah, yes. It was a lychee li group.

maria  02:55

That’s right. And they did not only like after the baby was born, but I think they did it like prenatally. So yeah, like something like

Shelly  03:03

once a week, there’ll be like a woman sitting outside the.

maria  03:11

Yeah. And yes, so cool. And it works.

Shelly  03:15

Yes, first baby had passed, and she didn’t feed her first baby, but her second baby survived.

maria  03:21

Yes. And that the like, the whole moral of that story was basically like, as human beings we have separated ourselves from that community of like being around our aunties and our moms and our grand moms who all breastfed previously, and could show you that knowledge, the basic techniques and knowledge of breastfeeding and how to feed your baby. We’ve lost that because we’re so separated. Now. We don’t have extended family around us. There was like when, however, 50 years of time in the US in particular, where we weren’t really breastfeeding, we were mostly bottle feeding. Like now we’re trying to like come full circle and come back around to like,

Shelly  04:05

and even even now like you still even though more people are breastfeeding, it’s still not something that a lot of parents feel comfortable doing in front of family members and right so even if you do know someone in your life that breastfed you might not have ever seen them breastfed right? 

maria  04:22

I can only remember as a kid myself. I think my only experience seeing somebody breastfeed was watching my aunt breastfeed. It was like a weird experience because I remember she had like gone off to be like in a private room and like creeped in on I don’t remember how old I was. I think it was Morgan saved maybe 10 Like creeped down or to like watch because I was so fascinated like you’re feeding a baby with your boobs, that’s you Yeah, and I’m sure I did seem super creepy about my show. I was just fascinated by that. hoping but I think like that was my only experience observing breastfeeding as a kid.

Shelly  05:05

I had none. And see anyone ever breastfeed growing up? Yeah, I don’t even know if my because I remember my cousin’s being born. And I remember meeting them for the first time, I don’t even remember how they’re fed, I don’t even remember if they were breastfed or not. Same thing with birth to like birth used to be in the home. It used to be like a quote unquote, women’s thing, right, where the midwife and all the women and community the family members would come and help out the birth. And you would if you were a little girl growing up, you would see multiple births before you got pregnant and had your own baby. And now that just doesn’t happen.

maria  05:40

Yeah, it’s like, yeah, it’s become this mysterious behind closed doors kind of thing. Let’s thank the patriarchy for that one. That’s I’m thinking them very deeply. Daggers?

Shelly  05:53

Yeah, great. Let’s do our question of the week. This week’s question was submitted through Instagram. And the question is my breastfeeding my three week old baby and we are using a nipple shield? How do we wean from the nipple shield?

maria  06:12

It’s so tough. First of all, good on that person for sticking it out for three weeks. But the nipple shield depends on a lot of things. That depends on why they started using the nipple shield in the first place. And how early it was introduced. That’s key. Yeah, like if it was introduced really early on, like the first 24 hours, even like, even the first few days, anytime in the first few days, if they were introduced to a nipple shield, it can be incredibly difficult to wean off of it, and can take a lot of time and patience, because that’s what the imprints on. Yeah, and tricking your baby. You can certainly try to wean off of a shield on your own, the easiest thing is like the bait and switch to start with, right like this, usually what I tell my clients, you know, start with the nipple shield, and then maybe a few minutes into it or halfway to it, you can take the nipple shield off, and then try to relax them really quick.

Shelly  07:13

I find that works really well. Because if they’re hangry, and you’re trying to get them latch without the shield is just not going to work well. Right. So letting them feed for a few minutes and fill up their tummy a little bit. Get the pull the nipple out, get that second motion going. shaping your breast. Great. But the thing that really burns my butt is what is the number one reason why your mom’s given a shield because they’re told oh, you have flat nipples, right? And 90% of the time, they do not have flat nipples.

maria  07:46

Listen, and you know, there is a difference between a flat nipple and a nipple that has been flattened due to edema. Those are two very different things. Also, one of the things I love to tell my families is babies don’t nipple feed, they breastfeed. So just because you have a flat nipple or a nipple that doesn’t protrude or revert a lot, doesn’t mean your baby shouldn’t still be able to latch if everything is orally going normal the way it should with your infant. If they can stick their tongue out and they can lift it up and grasp the breast with their tongue, then they shouldn’t need to worry about the nipple being inverted because the nipples like way back and towards their soft palate when they’re breastfeeding. It’s really the breasts that’s in their mouth and a bowl is just the exit point. Yeah. And 100% Yeah, the other thing I often suggest parents to do is to try to latch the baby when they’re sleepy. Maybe they’re not super hungry. Maybe they’re just looking for comfort cycle. That’s usually a good time to try to latch them on maybe like middle of the night whenever we just kind of sleepy and slide them in close.

Shelly  09:02

Yep. I love that advice. And, you know if you’re working on practicing without the nipple shield, first of all, like you said, it depends on the reason why they’re using the shield, whether it’s like a parent issue or a baby issue. But anytime you’re weaning off the nipple shield, you want to get frequently checks because we want to make sure that the baby’s transferring just as well when they’re nursing without the shield. And then the other thing is when you’re practicing nursing without the shield, if your baby starts to get frustrated or you start to get frustrated, just put the shield back on and finish the feeding with the shield because we want the breast to be a happy place to be. We don’t want to start to fight with your baby and try to force them to latch without a shield and it takes it’s like two steps forward and one step back. It’s probably not going to happen overnight. I usually tell parents like pick 123 feedings a day. Where you know, feedings generally tend to be calm and happy and use those feedings practice and the rest of the time just nurse without the shields and just focus on those one. to three feedings a day and then if I’m doing a prenatal consult with client, I tell them like, don’t use a nipple shield, they will hand you a nipple shield in the first 24 hours. Do not use it the first 24 hours you can hear and express and spoon feed colostrum or syringe feed classroom if your baby’s not latching now of second no day to your baby’s still not watching then, yeah, try the shield because we want people to latch. But because do you find in your practice to Maria, that if a baby had a nipple shield in the first 24 hours, it is like 10 times harder to wean them off the shield than if there was like a few days of breastfeeding, and then they use the shield.

maria  10:38

Yeah, for sure, though, I will say it can also depend on the baby like, and again, the reasons why we do it. Was it a flat nipple? Was it a baby that was too sleepy? And they’re like, Well, let’s try nipple shield? Or is it that they didn’t want to open them? Like there’s so many reasons why nipple shields get thrown at parents in the hospital. And if again, if like orally things are going normal the way they should be and the baby’s orally functional, then that is usually a better indicator as to how well they would be able to transition off of the nipple shield. Because a lot of times those babies that are really struggling to to lash without a nipple shield, it’s because they can’t use their mouth very well.

11:23

Like a tongue tie. Hi, pal. Yeah, things like that.

maria  11:27

Or birth trauma that’s just got them really disorganized and dysfunctional. Yeah.

Shelly  11:32

Breech positioning vacuum extraction. Oh, I feel like now we’re just listening.

maria  11:39

To stop all the bad things I can hear. Let’s not do that. Let’s say let’s say this though, if you’re having a hospital birth, and they tell you in the first 24 hours that you have flat nipples, the first question I always ask my patients in the hospital is are your nipples normally flat? Because we know when you’re in the hospital, you are given tons of IV fluids. And that basically makes your body blow up with water. Yeah, yeah, yeah, my legs normally Evert with regular stimulation is now suddenly shy, and like stuck in all of this water and edema. So like breast massage and reverse pressure softening massage techniques can be really helpful under those circumstances.

Shelly  12:33

Right, and if you are using a nipple shield, I would recommend you know, taking an ibclc because I am shocked or not so much shocked and quarkus I feel like nothing surprises me anymore. That how many parents I see who are given an incorrect size for the nipple shield. Like these tiny babies and these tiny nipples and these massive nipple shield size 24 placed over the it’s like the baby’s mouth can barely fit around. So if you are not nipple shields are not evil, that can be a really useful tool. I use them in my practice for many situations. But if they’re not being used correctly, they can cause more problems than they help solve.

maria  13:14

For sure. And especially like sometimes nipple shields are given for protection of the nipple, like maybe somebody’s experienced some pretty good nipple trauma, and they’re having a really hard time tolerating the baby at the breast even with a better latch. A nipple shield can provide a reasonable barrier for a short period of time to allow the nipple to heal and give them a little bit of relief. But if the nipple shield is sized incorrectly, it can cause more damage, right, like severe pain, so let’s just not do that.

Shelly  13:49

Yeah, yep. And if you are using a nipple shield, and it’s working for you, that’s fine. You can keep using as long as you want but you know they’re just a pain in the butt.

maria  13:58

They really get lost we drop them especially with Yeah, those little hands going

Shelly  14:03

everywhere. Yeah, and the baby dirty floor that’s gone into the sheets at 2am and then you can’t find it because it’s and dogs love to eat them. They’re like retainers to dogs. And it’s like $5,000 surgery to get that nipple shield out of your dog’s so be careful with that. Really. So if you I do have actually a blog post on my website Shelley tat ibclc all about nipple shields. And if you have a question that you’d like Maria and I to answer on the podcast, you can submit it on Instagram and DM me actually tapped ibclc.com 

Shelly 14:40

And next up we are speaking with Liesel. This week we are speaking with Liesel Teen a Labor and Delivery Nurse and Founder of Mommy Labor Nurse; Mommy Labor nurse equips pregnant women with the tools knowledge and confidence they need to erase the unknown feel in control and even have a better birth no matter how they deliver. With eight years in counting as a bedside labor and delivery nurse Liesel knows that the knowledge is the key to an even better birth. Today over 40,000 Women have completed a Mommy Labor Nurse Birth Class eliminated fear and been empowered by Liesel’s comprehensive childbirth education. Liesel has been featured on ABC 11, Forbes, Healthline, Pure Wow, Motherly, Romper and Scary Mommy. She regularly shares pregnancy, birth and postpartum related content on Instagram to community of over 580,000. And in the Mommy Labor Nurse podcast, which receives over 100,000 monthly downloads.

Shelly  15:39

Hi, Liesel, how are you? 

Liesel  15:41

I’m good. How are you doing?

Shelly  15:42

Thanks so much for joining us today.

Liesel  15:44

Yeah, and happy to be here. I know, we’re gonna be talking about some good stuff. 

Shelly  15:49

I love your I know, I mentioned to you this too, before we started recording, but I love your Instagram account. It’s just so fun and informative at the same time. And I think that’s like the perfect combination. You want learning to be fun. You want education to be fun, especially when you’re dealing with pregnant moms, right? Who have the brain and overwhelmed and maybe a little bit nervous and scared about what they’re about to go through. So just making it upbeat. And fun is like really key and you do such a great job at that. 

Liesel  16:16

Well, thank you. I appreciate that. That’s kind of what my intention is behind my reels and my posts and everything is to kind of make it light hearted. But also not sugarcoat stuff, too, because I feel like it’s important to talk about what to actually expect and not say, it’s gonna, you know, everything’s sunshine and butterflies. It’s like, No, we have to talk about how birth is painful and like this might happen. And that might happen. But we do it in a way that’s not like you’re reading a textbook. So I appreciate that feedback, because that’s what I’m that’s what I’m going for.

Shelly  16:47

We you’re hitting it right on the mic. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Liesel  16:50

Yeah, so my name is Lisa. I am a labor and delivery nurse still practicing at the bedside, eight and a half years, I think nine years in August. I’m from Raleigh, North Carolina. And I started this page, I guess, a blog brand called mommy labor nurse about five years ago now, right after I had my first son, he was about a year old when I kind of got things going. And I, you know, basically went back to work at the bedside. And I love my job as a labor and delivery nurse. But I was like, How can I? How can I just like work a little bit less and stay home with my baby more. So I kind of got the idea to start a little blog. And I’m like, I love educating in general and just writing and just, you know, putting out content and stuff. So I’m like, How can I do this, you know, kind of all at home, you know, almost like nursing, doing nursing stuff, what I love at home, and make a little bit of money kind of on the side. So I don’t have to be away from my baby as much. So it’s kind of turned into this where I put out, you know, it kind of started as a blog. And then I got really into Instagram, when once Instagram got a little bit bigger for educators, I like to call myself like one of the pioneers of in terms of educating, like, as healthcare providers on social media, because I really eat there. There weren’t a lot of us back then when I started. So yeah, it’s really kind of turned into something cool. I’ve got, you know, my Instagram page at Mommy dot labor nurse, and then the podcast, the mommy labor nurse podcast, we’ve got the blog, mommy labor nurse.com. We’ve gotten all my birth courses, it’s just really grown into something really, really cool.

Shelly  18:36

That’s amazing. And I love that when I watch your content, there’s nothing because like you said, there’s a lot more like health care providers giving out advice on social media. And sometimes the advice that they’re giving is so cringy inaccurate and cringy cringy. And sometimes even like downright dangerous, but when I watch your content, like I’ve never had that like ooh, feeling that I get sometimes watching other. So I like that you make sure that the information that you’re presenting is up today and evidence base because I think that is so so important, especially if you are the type of parent who likes to get their information off of social media, which I totally don’t blame you. I do too. We don’t have to be careful that just because they have initials after their name, and doesn’t mean it’s accurate information. 100%. And so you’re one of those like trusted accounts that I often refer moms to say like no, this stuff is good. It’s accurate.

Liesel  19:31

Thank you. Yeah, no, we we pride ourselves also and very evidence based information we have. It’s not even just me, I have a team of people who, you know, we check all of our boxes and make sure stuff is accurate. Because yeah, we’re not we’re not trying to put out anything that is inaccurate. I know how dangerous that can be. So it’s very, very

Shelly  19:53

important to us. So when I’m working with clients prenatally one of the questions Is that I’m often asked and that we often end up focusing on during their prenatal console is what exactly to expect? Yeah. You know, you talk a lot about like birth and labor and delivery. But what happens after so what happens after you’ve had your baby? What can you expect in the hospital stay? And I know this is going to differ a little bit. Yeah, each facility has different policies. But I think it’s important for parents to be prepared for that, because so much emphasis is put on the birth and labor and delivery and not much is talked about. Okay, now what now what happens? So I’m so glad that you’re here to talk to us about that. One of the questions that I wanted to ask you is, what are some common misconceptions about postpartum hospital stay that you would like to dispel or correct?

Liesel  20:46

Yeah, sure. So this is a good topic, because you’re right. I mean, even in our birth courses, we talk about how, okay, this stuff is important. We want to teach you about birth, but we have a whole section on like, postpartum stuff, because that’s, you know, you’re in that for a lot longer too. Right? So, yeah, I would say one of the first things is, I always tell people that it is okay for you to say, don’t like, Don’t bother me, like, it’s okay. You don’t have to, like be coming in every few hours, and checking my blood pressure and doing all the things like if you want them to pretty much stay out, unless they absolutely have to come in to check, you know, check on baby, or do you know, some sort of procedure that is fine, you can have a sign on your door that says like, mandatory stuff kind of need it, you know, only because postpartum rooms can be very loud. And hospitals can be very loud. So I always like to encourage people to advocate for themselves and like, say, It’s okay, I’m being you know, you don’t want to outright refuse someone coming in if you’re like, really unstable, right? But there’s really, you know, there’s really no need for people to be coming in every hour, you know, during the middle of the night or even during the day. So I always tell people that to be sure to ask, like, if we’re going to be doing stuff, can we make sure we like stack it on top of each other, like lactation columns. And then right afterwards, you come and check my vital signs right afterwards, you know, you come in, assess, baby, it’s not like, lactation comes at 10am. And then pediatrician comes at 11am. And then 12, you know, you know, 12 o’clock, like the lunch people come in and give you it’s like, try to stack stuff. So I have like a few hours of just alone time. So I would say that’s a big misconception. I will also say, one thing that I tell people to do is say it is okay to not have visitors. I know it’s really fun to have people come and visit you right after you give birth. But it is okay for you to say, You know what, like, I’m going to take this time these couple few days just with me and my partner if you have a partner, and baby, because I do find, especially during the COVID people just absorbed information a little bit better, because they didn’t have visitors coming in and out. So that’s also okay for you to enforce, you know, not upon the hospital staff, but upon your own family members and your friends like Hey, it is okay. You don’t have to, like, I’ll see I’ll see at the house. You know. So, I would say that’s definitely one I’m trying to think of other misconceptions. I mean, we can talk about, you know, length of stay and stuff like that.

Shelly  23:42

I love what you said I and I totally agree about the visitor thing. Yeah, that’s something that I talk a lot about on this podcast as well. Like, even from a lactation perspective, Lady COVID. Kid, it was like an I don’t want to say there was a good thing about COVID. But the good thing about COVID was there were no visitors loud. Absolutely. I noticed as a lactation consultant is the amount of weight that babies were losing, drastically decreased, right? Because if you especially if you’re a breastfeeding parent, if you have 10 people in your room, you’re not going to really want to whip out your boob to feed your baby in front all those visitors so what tended to happen was they brought the baby up and baby burrito, pass the baby around, and not really feed the baby on a consistent every two to three hours. So the next day there would be like a bigger weight loss in the baby. And that was something nice to see at least when COVID happened. They weren’t any visitors parents are so much more relaxed to

Liesel  24:36

they were I know absolutely. I totally agree. It’s it was just a different vibe. Even. So I had a COVID baby my son is my younger one is two and a half. And I have my older one who’s six. And so I had my older one without COVID and I had more visitors and then my second one I didn’t have any visitors. And I mean personally I noticed a difference just in My temperament. I mean, I was also a second time mom. So I was probably a little bit more relaxed for that reason. But yeah, it’s just, it’s just different. You get to, like you said, you get to just relax. You know, you’re you’re not having to sit there and entertain visitors. You shouldn’t have to sit there and entertain your visitors. Like it’s you just had a baby. Come on, right?

Shelly  25:20

Yeah, yeah, I remember with my first baby, I think my there are certain family members that were in my room, like two hours after I had her. And that was, that was too much. That was so overwhelming. I hadn’t even like realized I had a baby yet. Yeah, but two people in the room. And I love also what you said about the sign in, that’s true at the facility I worked at, we had a sign that said, you know, please see nurse before entering correct. And of course, if you need meds or anything they’re gonna go in. But one thing I would talk to parents about is like if you put the sign on your door, and we encourage you to put the sign on your door, if you don’t want to be disturbed, just recognize that like the PCA is not going to come in and ask you if you need water, correct and stuff like that. If you have that Senator indoor, or even sometimes there’s a lactation consultant, if I saw that sign, I’d be like, maybe she’s sleeping and I won’t go in or I’ll look for the nurse and ask first, yeah.

Liesel  26:11

Yes, there needs to be almost like a disclaimer of like, this is good. We want you to put this on your door. But that means that you do have to let us know if you need something.

Shelly  26:20

Yeah. I mean, think if you have a good nurse that wants to advocate for you do you can make them the bad person when it comes to guests and visitors because now the hospitals are more opening up to visitors now that COVID has is hopefully going away. If ever Yes. But you know, like, I’d never mind it being the bad guy. I’d walk in and kick everybody out sometimes, like a secret word. Yeah, I’d be like, Okay, you gotta leave. Now this baby needs E, here’s where the waiting room is. Go get some food from the cafeteria. Come back in about an hour or so you guys go home. And there’s nothing because sometimes the parents don’t want to do that. They feel like, yeah, it’s

Liesel  26:57

awkward. Right? Yeah. awkward for them. Absolutely. No, I have done rails on this before. Like, my running joke is, when can I be the bad guy to like kick the mother a lot of the room that’s like, in, you know, in the birth room that mom doesn’t want to be in there? Because, yeah, it’s it’s sometimes as the patient you know, you’re experiencing this birth and postpartum and breastfeeding, and you know, all the things. So you’re not like, I mean, you’re aware maybe that you don’t want these people in here. But it’s not. There’s just so much else going on. So yeah, you almost need that other person there to help advocate for you. Whether it’s your partner saying, hey, like you guys gotta leave? Or yeah, it’s your nurse saying, hey, sorry, our visitor policy just changed. You gotta leave now. I’m sorry. Yeah, exactly. Ways to

Shelly  27:53

you touched on another common question I get is, How long should parents expect to stay at the hospital after they’ve had their baby?

Liesel  27:59

Yeah, so it obviously depends on a few different factors, your medical status, baby’s medical status, if everything is going okay, and we don’t need to keep your baby any longer. Usually, we have our moms who have vaginal deliveries stay for at least 24 hours. But up to two nights is usually here in the US at least what most insurance will pay for. And that’s usually what most doctors providers will recommend that you stay for. So to net, you know, one to two nights for vaginal delivery. And then C section. I’ve seen people leave after two days, usually it’s three days for our C section moms because they’re just sometimes it takes you a little bit longer to get to a point where you’re not going to feel like yourself, right? You know, after three days of having a C section, but it just takes a you know, you’re a little bit more high risk initially after having your C section. So there needs to be just a little bit more more things that we you know, that we do and just check up on you. So, yeah, our C section moms stay for just a little bit longer. But this is another I guess going back to the misconception question is, this is another thing I like to tell parents, especially parents of you know, second or third time parents who want to leave a little bit quicker that you can leave you don’t have to stay here for the two nights. You know, if you’ve had a vaginal delivery, for instance, you can stay there 24 hours and then go home as long as everything is okay. I did that with both of my babies because I don’t like sleeping in any other bed than my own bed. I you know, I was like I’m gonna leave after after 24 hours as long as everything’s okay. So I just tell people that I always say you can do that. Some people love to just see say see later. Some people are the opposite and they want to stay and get the benefit from being with a lactation consultant, you know, right there or, you know, the benefit of having the nursing staff right there for help. So I I would say it’s, you know, it’s kind of up to you. But a lot of people just don’t, don’t realize that you can leave or you can stay or it’s, you know, it’s kind of up to you as long as your medical status is okay.

Shelly  30:10

Yeah, yeah. As long as the pediatrician clears the baby and you’re clears you, I see that a lot with the facility I worked at, and especially like, second or third time moms not so much first time moms, sometimes, you know, as lactation consultant, I would try to convince the family just to stay like one more day if feedings were not going well, because we want to keep close, especially if they were, you know, wanting to go home on a Friday and they couldn’t get in to see the pediatrician until Monday. And Baby it’s kind of like looking like they’re not doing the press, then it might be worth staying. That’s another thing that families want to keep in mind. But yeah, for sure. Especially if, you know, I see a lot around the holidays, too. If they give birth, like the day before Christmas families want added there. They don’t want to be spending the holiday in the hospital. So yeah, that’s okay.

Liesel  30:56

That is okay. That is that is totally okay. Yeah, I was gonna say something to when you said about, I can’t remember what I was gonna say you can move on.

Shelly  31:06

When you’ll remember it for you. And then you’d be like, do you have it? It’s okay.

Shelly  31:13

So what kind of support and families expect while they’re staying in the hospital, specifically, I in terms of like providers, right, because I’m often told by families that they’re surprised how many people were in and added their room. And they’re like, some of the people that came in and worked with us several times, we don’t even know what they were, we don’t know if they were the nurse if there is, you know, from working in hospitals, some providers have better introducing themselves, and they come in than others. So talk a little bit about that.

Liesel  31:43

Sure, it’s kind of funny, it made me think of the hospital that I worked at before this one, they didn’t have maternity care, anything, it was a little small community hospital. But all of the nurses were a certain color. And all of the texts were another certain color of Scrubs. And all of the doctors tours, like everybody was in different colors. So it was like actually kind of cool that it was pretty clear. If you knew, you know, obviously, you had to kind of explain that to the patient. But it was just understood, you know, especially if you were there for a few days, you knew that the texts, you know, were blue when this or actually I think the nurses were blue, the texts were red, I think I can’t remember now it’s been, you know, over nine years. But But yeah, that was like an easy way to identify people. Because you’re right, there’s a lot of times you just have people come in and you have no idea and everybody’s wearing the same color, especially in labor delivery, we all usually wear the same color, because we’re in those our scrubs, because we get really messy sometimes. So we have to wear hospital scrubs. So everybody just wears the same thing. And we all you know, you can see our little initials and you know, our name badge, but it’s really small. So, yeah, so I guess we’ll kind of start from birth. Because initially, when you have a baby, there’s usually like a lot of people who come in the room. So there’s going to be your nurse, you know, and usually that’s the nurse that you’ve been kind of laboring with and who’s been kind of one on one with you during during labor. Usually a charge nurse comes in for delivery to to help with charting or just, you know, kind of be an extra hand, your doctor, your provider will be in there, obviously, usually attacks will be in there as well. And that’s like a nursing assistant or something like that. Usually that person is there to either hold a leg or give the provider an instrument or just kind of be an extra hand if you know, they need to go out and get something else from the room. And then usually, I don’t think else high risk is going on with you. There’s usually one additional nurse in there for babies. So we call them newborn specialists, but it’s like the baby nurse, you know, who kind of takes care of the baby once the baby comes out. Because once the baby comes out, you know, like me as the primary nurse, I’m responsible for mom, like in your medic medical status. And then once baby comes out, I’m also you know, I’m also laying eyes on the baby obviously, and doing half gars. But then we have that baby nurse there who is responsible for baby’s medical status. So we’ve got that, you know those people so that’s an extra however many people for you know, four or five people right on top of like what you’ve been used to just being with your nurse once you give birth, and then sometimes we will have extra staff from the NICU join us, you know, depending on kind of what’s been going on during labor, if you broke your water and you’ve had, you know, babies past meconium and your water is a little bit green, that we usually have NICU staff in there just in case you know, they need to suction baby a little bit or do you know similar solicitation, anything like that or if you’ve had a little bit of an unstable labor where the heart rate hasn’t looked as good. We’ll have NICU staff in there. And that’s usually a NICU nurse Sometimes respiratory tech, or always a respiratory tech comes with them and then sometimes even the non pediatrician but the neonatologist comes with them. So they’ll be over by the warmer and then during postpartum, usually, you know, once you deliver, people just kind of start, you know, leaving, right, it’s like all these people and then they just kind of start to you know, dispersing, but usually you’re left with your nurse for a couple of hours right after birth, and I’ll be coming in and doing, you know, vital signs and checking your bleeding and, and helping you with breastfeeding and stuff and the baby nurse will be in there as well, kind of in and out helping with baby, then once you get over to postpartum. Every hospital is different, sometimes you won’t change rooms, but you might, you know, you might change you know, to a whole different kind of floor or or unit. So you’ll have a postpartum nurse over there. And then a lactation consultant will be coming in to see you at some point. Usually, even if you plan to, at least at my hospital, even if you plan to bottle feed a lactation consultant will at least common like lay eyes on you if you’re a first time mom. So lactation will come and see you at some point, we’ve got the pediatrician who comes and sees baby at some point, we’ve got people come in who changed the trash can and like kind of clean up your room, they’ll be coming in at some point, you know, just kind of give you extra linens or stuff like that. The techs sometimes come into to check vital signs and just kind of give you extra water or you know, get you anything that you need. We also have people who come in and ask you if you want, like professional pictures being taken of you, you know, a lot of us do that. So they come in, they’re like, Hey, we’re from here, or blah, blah, blah, do you want us to take picture for you. And then I’m trying to think of other people who come in here like

Shelly  36:59

a pump person, because I’m our facility has like a pump person. We call them the pump person from the DME company. And they go into each room, say, Oh, do you want to pump from your insurance? And they run the insurance and bring a pump? And

Liesel  37:10

yeah, we don’t we? Yeah, like the people from downstairs? Yeah, you’re right. They’ll come and talk to you about your insurance and like how, yeah, how you want to build everything and talk to you about your information. I forgot about them, they kind of come at the very, very beginning. I’m trying to think of other people who come in, during postpartum because I feel like I’m, I’m forgetting someone, you’re,

Shelly  37:31

you’re a people,

Liesel  37:33

the people who are Yeah, thank you. Yeah, they’re kind of there, you know, I forgot about them is because they, they don’t work at my hospital. It’s not the same department. But oftentimes, the people who EBS, like environmental services, they will come and clean the rooms, they often like, it’s the same word. It’s not the same department, but a lot of times, they like will work in the cafeteria, and then the cafeteria, people work for abs. So it’s like you’re seeing the same people and they usually were the same thing. So that’s why I forgot about this people. The people who come in and bring you your food will come in at some point too. And then once you get over postpartum, your provider, usually kind of leaves you alone, unless you really need something or something really is going on with you. Usually at my hospital, they come kind of at the end of their shift in the early morning or, you know, kind of mid morning just to kind of check check up on you and say hey, how you doing? You don’t need anything. Okay. See you later. That’s kind of, you know, the extent of them after after you deliver. But yeah, I’m trying

Shelly  38:38

geologists to they’ll check usually be like, Oh, hey, I’m the one who gave you your epidural. How you feeling any headache? Yeah, seems like that. Yeah,

Liesel  38:45

you’re right. You’re right. They come in. Yeah, they’re they’re more you know, during labor, obviously, they will be there. If you have a C section, you’ll have a nurse nurse anesthetists be taken care of you. But you’re right, they usually do kind of do around afterwards. And just just checking up on you if you had any sort of anesthesia. If you

Shelly  39:03

need labs rather than that. So basically, you know, your room can kind of feel like it has a revolving door with 12 people. Yeah, yes. Especially I find on discharge day where everyone’s trying to get in and see the family all at the same time. And they all have to do discharge education, and it can be so overwhelming, and the families just being bombarded with information. And they’re like, we just want to go home. That’s all we wanted to. Yeah. And

Liesel  39:29

then we talk about you might have visitors come in, and then it’s like more body searches coming ahead, you know, so a lot of people, the whirlwind. Yes. Yeah.

Shelly  39:41

Do you feel like in your facility, were they good at like clustering care or prioritizing care? Because I know one of the things that I did not like about the facility that I worked at is if I was in the middle of helping a mom feed her baby. Yeah. Another provider would walk in and just say Start talking over me like I was taught even there. And just like act like I wasn’t there. And then other providers would come in and say, Oh, I came to him in the bat, but it’s really important that the baby eat. So let me come back and lactation is done. How do you feel it went at your facility,

Liesel  40:14

I feel like we’re pretty good. We’re like a Baby Friendly Hospital. So that means we usually have babies stay in the room with bomb as much as possible. And we have, you know, we prioritize like skin to skin and we prioritize, if baby is nursing, like, we don’t really do anything else, unless there’s a real medical need. So I would say my facilities pretty good. I mean, I will give, you know, give them kind of a round of applause. Like say, we’re pretty good at letting if someone else is working with the patient, not to interrupt what’s going on, unless it’s like, Absolutely 100% needed, because we all know how important some of these things are. And I would say it’s, obviously there’s always some bad apples, right? You have people who just, it’s them. It’s not really the hospital that, you know, per se, it’s right. It’s just the provider that is a little bit more. Okay, I’m gonna be talking to you, you know, now, yeah, but, you know, I’ll say most of the time where I work, it’s, we’re pretty good about that. And stalking care, because, like I said, I tell my patients this in labor, like, hey, once you get over to postpartum, there’s gonna be a lot more people, it’s okay to you know, they’re pretty good about stalking care. And they’re pretty good about, like, not bothering you. But if you feel like they’re Bob, you know, they’re bothering you too much. Like, it’s okay to have a conversation and say, Hey, like, can we kind of do some things at the same time? So you’re not coming in, you know, after one after the other? But yeah, I would say generally, they’re pretty good.

Shelly  41:51

Yeah. Yep. And I agree, like, it’s just depends on the provider. I love what you said, like, parents, I think it’s important for parents to understand that they can ask for a provider come back later. Unless it’s like really emergent, and it needs something needs to be done right now. You know, you can always say, Oh, you’re here to save the baby, I’m trying to feed the baby, do you think can come back in an hour when we’re done? Because he hasn’t lashed yet, or whatnot, or are you just need to be and that can be like quite a long process. A baby, it’s not like a quick pop in and out of the bathroom. Nope. So you need time to do that. Or you just really want to shower because you feel like you’re not human at the moment, unless you take a shower, or you just need to eat, like you haven’t eaten all day, and you’re ready to eat finally, and then the providers coming in wanting to check you, you know, it’s always okay to say, could we do this a little bit later, they have plenty of other patients to go see. And

Liesel  42:43

we got plenty else to do. It’s fine. Yeah. I have to be in here right now. Yeah, I was gonna say that to that too. It’s okay to do the opposite to and say, I am nursing right now. And I’m feeling like baby isn’t getting a good latch, it’s okay to pick up your hospital phone. And usually, what we do is we put the numbers of, you know, who you can contact this is, you know, if you bought food, this is, you know, call the cafeteria, if you want food, this is lactation, this is their number, this is your nurses number, you can pick up the phone and say, hey, you know, lactation, I’m nursing right now, do you think you could if you’re available, can you come in and stop by and help me, you know, get this flash? It’s okay to also ask for more help, I guess.

Shelly  43:26

Yes. Yes. Say louder for those. Yeah. Yeah. Because we carry it. When I worked on the floor, we carried our own phones. And I’d write my phone number on the board. Because you know, if I have to see 26 People in six hours, I can’t hang out in your room with you. So I’d be like, Okay, how are you? How are feedings going and maybe baby wasn’t feeding that time. So I’d put my number on the board and say, Call me if you want help for feeding. And then I found that a lot of times, especially first time parents would not call because they felt they were bothering me. It’s like, this is my job. This is what I want to do. I want you to go home feeling confident feeding your baby. So please call don’t ever feel like you’re bothering a provider. You’re bothering someone by asking for help. And if you are working with a provider who is making you feel like you’re bothering them by asking for help ask for a different provider.

Liesel  44:13

A great yeah, you’re probably not seeing the right provider. Agreed? Yeah, I think we’re starting to go away almost from bother. I want to say bother culture but like, the sense that if you’re getting a service, right, you’re getting that service and it’s okay to try and get that service in the best way possible. Right? Like that’s it goes for if you get your hair done or any or your nails or anything, it’s like you are the patient or you are the customer right? So it is okay to say hey, like I need more help here like hey, my hair doesn’t doesn’t look great. Like can you do this example but it’s like yeah, you’re not you’re not BOD like this is my job. I’m here to help. You and yeah, you’re not you’re not bothering me as, ask me for help if you need help.

Shelly  45:07

And nurses are totally okay with helping up like, yes, that’s fine. That’s what we do. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Yeah, I think that’s just important for parents to know. What do you think parents can do to prepare for the postpartum stay portion of the hospital? So is there like specific things that you recommend parents bring with them specific things that you recommend they don’t bring with them? What are your thoughts on that?

Liesel  45:32

Yeah, this is a good one. So I’ll first start off and say, I know we talked about this in the beginning, but the importance of postpartum education is almost, if not more important than birth education. So make sure you’re either taking Yeah. Yes, yes. Postpartum education, what to expect breastfeeding education. Because, I mean, think about how long you’re in labor, right? And labor is hard, right? Birth is hard. Having a C section is hard. There’s a lot to learn and a lot to absorb right and learn, but postpartum. And breastfeeding is such a longer process, and just comes with so many other ups and downs. So I’m all about some postpartum breastfeeding education on the front end. With that said, I will also say, do your education on the front end, but also know that a lot of this stuff, especially with breastfeeding, especially with pumping, I’ll say, is there’s a learning curve when you actually get into it. So it’s like, you can learn as much as you possibly can beforehand. But also know that there is this degree of once you’re doing it, there’s going to be questions that come up, and things that just come up that you may have kind of read about it, but you didn’t totally absorb it until you’re actually doing it right. Like how do you really teach somebody exactly how to latch a baby until you’re actually doing it? You know, you can watch videos, and you can know, you know how to do it. But I mean, correct me if I’m wrong, but usually, at least in my birth courses, I’m not saying hey, pregnant mom, like, bring your boob out. And like, let’s look at the shape of your boob and, you know, have this pretend that you don’t have a baby to practice on, right and again, until you’re breastfeeding. So there’s a big learning curve, I would, I will say, with all of that. So that’s the first thing education, just a few tips I’ll say is rest as much as humanly possible, whether it be at the hospital or once you get home. This is advice that I got from my midwife who I worked with during my second pregnancy, she told me treat rest, treat sleep like it is gold, like and you can stack up on it, okay? Know that you are probably not going to get, you’re not going to get you know, six hours of sleep, you know, a night like a six hour stretch, or eight hours, you know, total at night, but she was like, try to go for it. Because even if you don’t want to sleep, I’m not saying like sleep for eight hours straight, right if you’re breastfeeding, but try to think about a 24 hour time period and go for at least eight hours of sleep right? Whether it be free you know for hours at night and take a two hour nap during the day because you’re probably not going to hit it right but you’re going to get closer to it than if you think you don’t even think about it right so breast as much as possible sleep as much as possible sleep is gold limit visitors we already talked about that right. And obviously utilize the lactation consultants you guys as much as humanly possible as well because they are also worth their weight in gold as long as they’re good ones obviously we have bad usually the lactation consultants are so knowledgeable and they just I mean I know that nurses want to help you as much as possible but lactation, I mean, you guys are like hands on, you guys want to get in there and just make sure that these moms are having the best breastfeeding experience as possible. So utilize these lactation consultants. Another tip to is going back to the rest part is bring your own pillow. That’s just what I I like I said I like to sleep in my own bed and I like my own stuff. But I always tell people to try and bring their own pillow or maybe something that kind of reminds you at home that helps you get a little bit more sleep there’s like your blanket or I think your pillow is a pretty good one. But anything to make your bed a little bit more comfortable because that beds probably not going to be super crazy comfortable. So bring your own pillow. And then I will also say the hospitals at least in the United States, we have a lot of things to give you and take advantage of the things that are available to you like mesh panties, right? And all these extra pads and you know all these extra things that that you’re getting. A lot of times they’ll even give them you Do you really need a nipple shield or you need? Are those things called the collect the milk collectors? Yes, yeah, we have this at the hospital. You know, there’s a lot of these things that you can ask for extra pas to take home, you can ask for extra diapers, right baby supplies these kinds of things. So it’s okay to you know, to ask for that kind

Shelly  50:23

of stuff. Try to think of everything when I first in the hospital if it wasn’t nailed down, I brought it home.

Liesel  50:30

Yeah, yeah, why not? Right?

Shelly  50:33

Yep. The Perry bottles, the parent bottles, right?

Liesel  50:35

Take it out. Just put it in a big old we have this, you know, patient, plastic patient visitor belonging bag, just chuck it all in there. And, yeah, then you’re good for a week or so you have your pads for a week or you have your mesh panties. I’m a big fan of depends too. I don’t know about you. But I like a mesh panty with a pad but depends are great. So if you do some hospitals, I think even just do those instead of mesh panties and pads. But if your hospital gives out two pens, get some extra depends and don’t be ashamed about it. Because depends if you just take them off. You just throw them away. It’s

Shelly  51:11

by Yeah. Or I used to use them to infant diapers too. Yeah,

Liesel  51:15

yeah. Take ice, like put it and take it and use it as an ice pack. Right?

Shelly  51:22

But the mash panties so comfortable. Victoria’s Secret, that’s for sure. But I know comfortable.

Liesel  51:29

And then if you get blood on them, it’s not your underwear that you’re missing or having to wash. Yeah, you just go away. Right? Yeah,

Shelly  51:37

yep. But it will be like the most comfortable pair of underwear you will ever.

Liesel  51:41

I still I have. Like, I mean, I get them. Sometimes people will send me postpartum stuff. And I’ve gotten boxes before they sent me like this whole thing of mesh panties. And I’m like, yes, sometimes I just want to kind of put on some mesh panties instead of regular underwear because I remember how comfy they offer.

Shelly  51:59

Just I wanted to add like a like a caveat to your when you were talking about lactation like take advantage of lactation consultant. Yes, definitely take advantage. Be aware that in some facilities lactation is short staffed, yes. Or not there on weekends or holidays or evenings. And so yes, take advantage to have lactation while you’re there. But don’t rely on that. Yes, yes, thank you be there for every all your breastfeeding struggles, which I think is why it’s so important to connect with lactation consultant before you have your baby so that when you do go home, you have someone to call. Same thing with pelvic floor specialists meant oh my gosh, specialists.

Liesel  52:38

I know, I wish it was

Shelly  52:40

to be standard stripy sand. That’s what I was gonna say. I

Liesel  52:42

wish it was just standard here. But it’s not quite yet. But hopefully, hopefully it will get there one of those days. I have one more tip too, that I tell people is it is okay to either like voice record or take a video if someone is giving your baby a bath or explaining something to you. Like, I often will tell dads this or you know, partners say, hey, like it’s okay to videotape or like, Turn on your sound recorder. If the lactation consultant is in there and explaining, you know how you latch baby or like, you know, put the baby on with, you know, in the football position like this. It’s just nice to kind of see it back sometimes I think for people. So that’s a really, I think critical tip that people under utilize is like you in those few days, right after you have a baby. Your brain is like super mind fog. And you might get maybe 5% of what these people are trying to teach you. So as much as you can kind of absorb and take home with you, the better. So whether that’s videotaping or just having your partner like write down, you know, tips or you know what she just said, so you remember, document as much as you can see you have it at home to take advantage of.

Shelly  54:01

Yes, love that great tip. And I do that all the time when I’m working with families. And like, for example, if I have to show them a sec training exercises, yep. I’ll always say you know, do you want to make a video let us show you how to do these to have something reference after and they just say, you know, just don’t post it on social media or anything like respect my privacy, too. But it can be so helpful, especially if you are a visual learner. Because we’re not all auditory or, you know, don’t hesitate to ask if the nurse is going over, like signs to look for if you’re having too much bleeding, right and you get home and you’re listening, but you do better reading, you know, ask for here. Now, do you have a handout about this too, that I can take home as well? Or do you have a link to a website that discusses this that I could take home? Or you know, do you have a link to a latching video so that I could watch that when I get home too. So don’t be afraid to ask for other modalities of of the material? Yeah, yeah, totally. You best Yeah. Would you also recommend partner you mentioned the pillow which I think is a great idea. Yeah. Sometimes I recommend partners bring their own pillow too, because let’s face it those little, like fold out chairs that turned into a bed.

Liesel  55:07

Yeah, not. Not so yeah.

Shelly  55:11

So I think it’s always good if they bring in. What are some postpartum complications, like the more common ones? And how are they? How do they typically impact a parent’s postpartum stay?

Liesel  55:24

Yeah, so I’ll talk about bleeding first. So I would say that’s probably the most common is that we’ll have a mom who’s just bleeding a little bit too much after delivery. And usually, the big thing we have to do with that is just kind of keep you over on labor and delivery a little bit longer, and check up on your bleeding a little bit closer, or do some extra fundal rubs, which aren’t so fun. But, you know, sometimes we have to give you some medications to help with that bleeding. Sometimes, you know, there are some more drastic things we have to do, like do you know a manual exam to to get some of that, get some clots out or take you back for like a DNC or something like that, and not trying to normalize this because that’s very abnormal. But I would say extra bleeding, bleeding a little bit too much is probably the most common complication that we see after delivery. And most often, it does happen right after birth. So within those first couple of hours, but it’s sometimes it does happen over on postpartum as well. So that might make your stay a little bit longer, just in terms of on the labor and delivery side. Or for some reason, if you do have a hemorrhage over on postpartum, they’ll probably want to keep you for a little bit longer just to make sure everything’s okay with you. So I’ll say another one is blood pressures. So we have moms come in for preeclampsia to be induced, and then their blood pressures are just kind of staying high. And we might have to give them some extra medication, make sure they’re on the right medication at the right dose before they leave, and their vital signs are stable. Sometimes we even have moms come back to the hospital because they’re having preeclampsia postpartum preeclampsia symptoms, and they have to be readmitted. Again, that’s not I don’t want to normalize that, because that’s rare as well. But I would say that’s a big one that we have people come and stay extra for. And also stuff with the baby to like, if baby’s not losing a little bit too much weight or baby just you know, has to either go to NICU or jaundice, right, something like that. They usually have to stay a little bit longer. And unfortunately, sometimes what we do is we have to have babies stay longer than mom. And we try, at least at our I don’t know how it is where you’re at, but at least at our hospital, we try if we know it’s like, okay, this baby’s not gonna stay for a long time, but it might stay an extra day. We try to discharge mom a little bit later than she probably would. So it’s not like we’re discharging Mom, we’re saying you have to leave your room. Now. Maybe we’re having you signed it to church paperwork, but this room is open. Like you can stay here until tomorrow or

Shelly  58:14

you know, whenever when, when your baby leaves. You’re not just you’re not a patient, though. Right? Right. So oftentimes we’ll have moms do that. But yeah, I would say that like border rooms in our facility. For Yes, moms. Yeah. So the the board, they would be moved the border rooms were super tiny. So I’d always tell parents, like, whatever you don’t need at this point. Take home. Yeah. But you know, they’re, they’re discharged. So they’re not getting their meds from the nurses, they have to go and take their meds on their own. They’re not getting food from the hospital. They have to, you know, some sometimes we’d have food vouchers for them. But you’re, you’re basically staying in in the room, but you’re not a patient. And some of these rooms that like they don’t even have a shower. They’re not really full patient rooms. Yeah. But you know, sometimes even our facility, we probably had like four or five border rooms. And sometimes they would, we would get so busy that we’d have to put patients in the border room. So if a mom wanted to be there, they they couldn’t stay, they’d have to go home, which is really sad, but it is, it is yes, they should be very clear about what to expect, like as soon as most providers are, you know, your baby was born at 36 weeks and is not in the NICU and is doing well. But just because there are 36 weaker policies to keep him an extra day or two to monitor the weight gain or anything like that. Right. Right. Exactly. What are some what are the best ways that to communicate to the hospital staff your needs and preferences

Liesel  59:37

Oh, yeah, that’s a good one. So obviously, you know, once you get into the hospital and you’re being admitted, I always like to say, hey, we’d like birth plans. We’re not anti birth plan. I know sometimes birth plans kind of get a bad rap, but that’s a good kind of first place to put some of your preferences on. So it’s just a written thing that you can Give your nurse and say, Hey, this is what I want, this is what I don’t want, this is what I prefer. And then it gives me a good, you know, visual guide as well. And I can pass that along to, you know, the next nurse who takes care of you or the lactation consultant, or, you know, whoever. So your birth plan is a good one. But that’s definitely not the only one, use your voice as well. Right? If something’s not right, or if you want something a certain way, don’t rely on just putting it on your birth plan, I would say, especially if something’s extra important to you, make sure you’re having a conversation with your nurse, if she doesn’t bring it up specifically, usually what we do is if a, if a patient brings in a birth plan, specifically, I’ll kind of go over it with her, I’m not just taking this and reading it and you know, not doing anything with it with you. I’ll kind of read over it with her and go over it with her. But we also just have our own database, you know, admission database that we kind of asked questions of mom, like, Okay, how do you plan to feed your baby? And what do you plan on doing for pain control? And, you know, what are your dietary preferences, that sort of thing. So, don’t think that it’s like, you have to have a birth plan and have all of these things on there. Because there are certain questions that we ask you to make sure that your your preferences are there, right. But I’ll say, yeah, so birth plan, I’ll say, you know, obviously, use your voice rely, don’t rely on your partner, I’ll say, but your partner is another person to who this is also a conversation you want to have with them before you come in. But your partner in you, you know, ideally should be kind of filling out the birth plan together and talking about what you want and what you don’t want. So your partner is a good one. Because sometimes they’re just a little bit more clear minded than you are. So your partner is a good one to send out of the room and say, Hey, can you go tell the nurse that I need this or go get me some water or I don’t know, you know, go get me something else. And then you got your call bell, obviously, take your call bell and have a nurse come in there. And then like you mentioned before, usually what we’ll have all the providers do is write their phone numbers on the board. So you can use just your little hospital phone right there and just call them and have a conversation and say, Hey, can you come in and, and help me with latching or sometimes it’s just you can call them and ask them a question. They don’t even have to come in and they can, you know, just you can just ask them

Shelly  1:02:26

over the phone. Yeah, yeah. And if you’re feeling especially hectic and overwhelmed, you can ask the nurse you know, like, oh, paging lactation for me. And birth plans. Great idea. That could be like a whole topic. And it is. Right? Yeah, I do usually advise parents, like if your birth plan is 10 pages long, right? That’s too long. You like you said you don’t need to put every you don’t need to put how you want the lighting. It’s your room, when you’re in there, right? Change the lighting to what you want it to be. You don’t have to put that you don’t want to wear a hospital gown. Just don’t wear the hospital. Like there’s certain things you don’t have to put. Usually when I’m working with a family, I say you know if you can put fit your entire birth plan on an index card. That’s best. Yeah. quick, simple read gets to the point. And you can put it up on the wall above your head.

Liesel  1:03:14

Yeah, exactly. I know, that’s a great, that’s a great way to put it. I know, we have a nice little template that has lines and questions, you know, pain control, like check this box, I think it’s just mommy labor nurse.com/birth plan. But either finding a template like that, or writing it on an index card or writing it on, you know, whatever. So it’s really short, is definitely good advice. And I will also say to that, too, is whenever I talk about birth plans, I always say fill out your birth plan. But it’s also a good idea to have a conversation with your provider maybe during one prenatal visits. Because a lot of times stuff like you said that might be you think might go on your birth plan doesn’t really have to go on your birth plan. Because it’s standard practice that the hospital, you’d have to put that you really want skin to skin on your birth plan. Because we do that with all patients. It’s just standard practice, you know, so it’s a good idea to have this conversation with your provider as well, you know, kind of before you even enter the hospital

Shelly  1:04:14

100% agree with you. Yeah, we could probably go on forever and ever about this topic. I do want to be respectful of your time. So the final question last is what is like, when you’re working with a family? What is the one thing that you think that they need to know about their stay in the hospital and some that you may have been something you’ve already brought up that you want to reiterate, but

Liesel  1:04:35

I know Yeah, so I’ll say education, obviously big fan of education and making sure you you get that on the front end, but also knowing that there might be a learning curve, rest and I already talked about that rest as much as possible, and be flexible and know that, you know, you might be the kind of person that you know, you filled out your birth plan and you took your birth course and you You know, did all the things that we’re telling you to do in this podcast, in this podcast episode, but just know that sometimes things come up, whether it be with you or be with baby that are unexpected. And that’s just life. And this is just kind of a good practice for motherhood that sometimes things happen unexpectedly, and you just kind of have to go with the flow and, you know, not right, like, not have something happen and you’re uncomfortable with it right. And you’re in, you’re traumatized by it. But yeah, be flexible. Something might happen with babies, and they might have to go to NICU. Unfortunately, your you know, I don’t know, there’s just a lot of unfortunate events that might happen that you might not have on your birth plan. But you know, it’s not even something that you thought of. So definitely be flexible, get lots of rest, do utilize lactation. I mean, we already talked about that. It’s everything that I just talked about for the last hour, reiterate.

Shelly  1:06:03

Yeah. And I think that’s a really good point. Because you know, you can have your goals for your birth and your feeding method for your baby. But sometimes you have to take detours, and that’s okay. And usually I say, you know, these are speed bumps, if your baby’s separated from you and has to go the NICU, it doesn’t mean the end of your breastfeeding relationship, it doesn’t mean that you won’t be like to feed your baby. Sometimes there’s detours. Sometimes there’s speed bumps, but there’s very rarely like brick walls that are going to stop you from Yeah, they’re feeding and birthing the way you want it. Because like you said, like, birth boobs and babies can be really unpredictable. Yeah, so you can have an idea of what it’s gonna look like in your brain. Yeah, and it might not go quite that way. And it’s good to be okay with that. Just say, you know, this is my goal. And we’ll do what it takes to get the goal, but we need to be flexible sometimes and how we get to it.

Liesel  1:06:53

Yeah, I know, I always wish they would almost change the term birth plan to like birth wishes or preferences or birth something because sometimes that word plan I think, gets in your head of this is the plan. This is what’s going to happen and then when it doesn’t go to plan. It’s like

Shelly  1:07:11

wow, what Yeah, yeah. So where can families find you who want to connect with you and get to know you a little bit more?

Liesel  1:07:18

Yeah, so I would say I’m most active on Instagram at Mommy dot labor nurse on there. And I’ve also got tick tock at the same handle at Mommy dot labor nurse on tick tock. We’ve got our own podcast at it’s just the mommy labor nurse podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts, and then the blog, mommy labor nurse.com. That’s where we’ve got a bunch of blog articles and good resources and our online birth courses are there as well.

Shelly  1:07:46

Right, and I will link to all those in the show notes. Sounds good. Thank you so much for joining me today. It was such an important topic. I’m so glad that you were available to chat with me about this. Yeah. Thanks so much for having me. Thank you for joining us this week on the baby pro podcast. Make sure

Shelly  1:08:04

to visit our website Shelley chaff ibclc.com where you can check out more options for support for pregnancy and beyond, including the baby probe age group, our parenting community. You can also follow us on social media at Shelley tap ibclc on Instagram. If you love the show, please leave us a rating or review on iTunes to help our episodes reach more parents like you. Thanks for listening