Comments on: Hospital & Birth Etiquette

By: Waketha Jolley

Waketha Jolley — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:56:36 +0000

This is a wonderful post! I dealt with all of your don’ts during the birth of my son. My stepmother intruded on my delivery and brought her young kids even after I expressed not wanting to have them there. She left her kids in the waiting room and invited herself in the delivery room for hours. She only left because I had been in labor for 21 hours, but had him 3 hours after she left.

She got really upset with me because I didn’t live up to her expectations for my delivery and I didn’t allow her kids in to come until 3 weeks later when all my house guests left.

I seriously had to explain that I only had a 2 bedroom apartment and was sleeping on the couch after my c-section…so, the thought of having her, her 2 kids, my 2 aunts staying there to help me, my husband, my baby, and me all crammed up in my living room wasn’t ideal for me. She didn’t seem to understand. I spent the conversation apologizing to her for not meeting HER expectations, but I also told her that’s how we wanted it. She’ll just have to be mad. smh

By: Dianna

Dianna — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:08:14 +0000

I just stumbled across this and have to add! (smile)
I am a labor and delivery nurse and I tell all my patients that it is their decision to include someone in the delivery or not as the case may be. I also happily step in as “the bad guy” on behalf of my patients if they need me to. I always whisper this to the mom when I meet them at the beginning of my shift, so the pressure is off them. If they need me I’m there with more than just the antheseiolgist’s phone number!

By: Kaley

Kaley — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 15:52:56 +0000

I love this great advice! I’m due with my first baby, a girl, at the end of August.

Love your blog, too :)

By: Montanna

Montanna — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 03:20:55 +0000

Awesome! Also, please leave the room when the mother has her babies source of food out learning from the nurse how to use the pump…no matter if you’re her friend from 4th grade or not. It will be appreciated. <3

By: Larissa

Larissa — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:30:16 +0000

Good advice, Morgan!

My husband and I did a pretty thorough job of discussing and deciding our needs and preferences before the delivery. And thankfully, we had family and friends who did a fantastic job of honoring our requests and needs.

By: Margarita

Margarita — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:01:03 +0000

What a great post. I’m so happy that you did this, seriously, I had a bit of trouble with guests as well, and I wish I could have given this to each person entering the room ;)

By: jimaiemarie

jimaiemarie — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:58:17 +0000

This post is awesome! I wish I could think of more key points to add but I swear it feels like such a long time ago…dude, i need to have another baby! :-P

By: Claudia

Claudia — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 03:29:47 +0000

Luckily I had a pretty good labour/delivery/afterward with my family because everyone had been through it before and we’re all pretty sensitive about one another’s needs (for the most part!). I wanted to see my family right away, though, so it was nice that they came.

Any advice for new mothers? You need to be of the soundest mind you can be, so take help if you need it, because you aren’t just dealing with yourself anymore – you have someone who is completely dependent on you for everything and the best mommy is a mommy who feels good.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 02:42:36 +0000

I liked the post, it is really important to get rest after your baby is born, but if you’re like me and your son has to spend 2-3 weeks in the NICU before going home, you’ll probably have all kinds of visitors, phone calls, and family wanting to see the baby. And you definitely will not feel up to talking to them all, or updating everyone on your child’s status, so I found it extremely important to have my mom be the person who could relay information to other family members and return phone calls for me, and politely inform family that during that time Justin and I were focusing on our son, and since only 2 visitors were allowed at a time, that we were going to be the ones sitting by our sons bedside, and would appreciate if visitors would wait to come until we were finally home.

By: Lauryn

Lauryn — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:55:17 +0000

Such important tips! I can’t imagine trying to be a hostess after pushing out an 8 lb meatloaf. No one should expect you to! And it definitely makes sense to get that communication out of the way well in advance!

Great post :)