A few months ago, Australian motherhood site BellyBelly posted a photo on Facebook that showed a new mother in a hospital bed with a baby bassinet attached to it.
It has more than quarter-million likes and has been shared over 129,000 times.
But, the design may still need some refining. From a Dec. 21 post at Yahoo! Parenting:
But [OB-GYN Dr. Iffath] Hoskins points out that there are risks to this sleeping arrangement, because there isn’t a partition separating the mother and baby while they’re asleep. “If the mother rolls over from exhaustion, there would be the risk of smothering the baby,” she says. “The mother’s arm could go into that space in her sleep and cover the baby, or she could knock a pillow to the side and it’s on the baby.”
She adds: “That’s why we don’t let the baby sleep in the bed with the mother. That’s why we don’t give blankets other than swaddling.”
Hoskins also points out that, even though getting out of bed can be painful for new moms, there’s a health benefit to it: “There are many mothers who have trouble getting out of bed, but postpartum, especially post-C-section, there is a very high risk for blood clots in the leg,” she explains. “An advantage of being forced to get up for the baby is that it forces the mother to move her legs — it’s a big plus. However painful it can be, it’s important for new moms to move rather than remaining in their hospital beds.”
What do you moms think?
Speaking of lifting babies after a C-section, here’s an idea from the UK:
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