My story: breastfeeding support at TMC after birth

[uddermummy]

i heard that there are some changes in thomsom's management, maybe that's why the service has slipped?

It really sucks for 1st time mums when we are so keen on bfing but our attempts are foiled by bad experiences in the hospital. My exp at my hospital also v chia luck.

 

[blubberish]

perhaps ba... This management really sucks. What happened at the hospital you gave birth at, uddermummy?

 

[babylover]

I delivered my dear daughter 2 months ago at Thomson Medical Center as well, my BF experience is quite similar to yours, the nurse seemed very busy to advice me BF my baby patiently, so during 2 days stay at hospital I had to give in and let baby on fomular cos nurse keep saying "I'll give her fomular ok?" whenever I falsed to latch her on. BUt currently I'm BF baby exclusively, I can say that for resulting in my sucessful BF my baby doesnot go into the nurse's effort but my family's effort and support. One more point, I didnt receive any followed-up call from nurse regarding the BF method aafter discharge as mentioned in your post at all... Sigh... thinking of changing to other hospital next time

 

[snowbear]

I delivered in Thomson Medical Center in Jan 07 and had good experience with the LC (Mrs. Wong Boh Boi) but bad experience with the ward nurses and one of the lactation nurses. After my long and nasty email to them, they waived off consultation fee for seeing the lactation consultant (1-to-1 appt for 3 seperate occasions).

Some of the nurses in Thomson Medical Center have very terrible attitude (just like the one I had at labour ward, that's why i refused to let her check my cervix). Some are extremely nice. If they gave you a hard time, request to speak to the staff nurse IMMEDIATELY. dont wait

btw, it should have been conveyed to your gynae that you wanna breastfeed way before your delivery. tell nurses no use. my gynae noes i wanna breastfeed so the moment baby was ok, he placed baby on my chest to try latching while he stitched me up. baby was all bloody and yucky (have not even wipe yet) when i tried to latch. not successful at all cos he was too busy looking around and i was too busy looking at him too.

anyway, my baby belongs to the category of dont know how to latch on. it was onli when he was 3weeks old that i managed to successfully latch him on

Sounds like you had a great experience at tmc. My friend who had c-sect had her baby thrown on to her belly by the nurse who was trying to 'help' her bf!!! My friend of coz screamed in pain!! I witnessed the whole thing and i really wanted to scold the nurse... I think that was extremely unprofessional of the nurse and after visiting my friends at tmc, i really think the nurses there got some problems...

Apparently my friends weren't even taught the basics of bfding by the lactation consultant coz they didn't even manage to get hold of her... So they didn't know things like how to pump efficiently to stimulate milk flow, how long expressed milk can be kept etc...

 

[mich_liu82]

:O I'm really surprised by the negative comments n feedback of what you all have for TMC. My 2 deliveries there both I really give thumbs up. Nurses, midwife, everyone was basically very caring over there.

During my 2nd gal, I said I was struggling for my BFing right, but they are very encouraging towards me, keep telling me not to give up.

Even for my 3rd gal which I just delivered not long ago, now I still doing my confinement, the lactation staff, the nurses very pro-active in BFing, especially when at night i actually tot of sleeping, but they encouraged me to BF...

Even after my delivery, the nurse did not throw the baby onto me, she actually gently put the baby beside me.

Everything really totally different from what you all prescribe to be...

 

[snowbear]

:O I'm really surprised by the negative comments and feedback of what you all have for Thomson Medical Center. My 2 deliveries there both I really give thumbs up. Nurses, midwife, everyone was basically very caring over there.

During my 2nd gal, I said I was struggling for my BFing right, but they are very encouraging towards me, keep telling me not to give up.

Even for my 3rd gal which I just delivered not long ago, now I still doing my confinement, the lactation staff, the nurses very pro-active in BFing, especially when at night i actually thought of sleeping, but they encouraged me to BF...

Even after my delivery, the nurse did not throw the baby onto me, she actually gently put the baby beside me.

Everything really totally different from what you all prescribe to be...

maybe it comes down to luck? I had a great experience at KK while u didn't. ancing_tongue:

 

[blubberish]

Hmmm.... dunno leh... mayb really really changed management, or that you were just really lucky....
many of us had really horrible experiences, i see...

 

[stonston]

If you have horrible experience there, don't hesitate to voice out immediately. Ask for staff nurse or their Customer Experience Manager. Make a huge fuss before you leave (insist that you are not paying the bill until you get a good explanation).

 

[blubberish]

Stonston & babylover:

Just wondering la... Coz my fren is involved in the Breastfeeding Mothers Support Group (BMSG) and Association for Breastfeeding Advocacy (ABAS) so she went with representatives from both organisation to talk to them. As you can see, that talk did nothing to change their stand as i surmise from their letter.

If you can, write a letter detailing what happened to you and send it to TMC. I think they really need to review their practices or even to better train their staff to help those who really want to breastfeed instead of hindering them. It would be even better to cc BMSG and ABAS so that they are aware of how many mothers who faced this problem so that they have more chips to talk to the management.

I really hope these practices don't continue! ancing_angry:

 

[blubberish]

Stonston:

That time, i was so tired and stoned lor... it didn't even occur to me that i was shortchanged until i spoke with my fren and she told me what hospitals who are breastfeeding friendly are supposed to do!

 

[missblue18]

hi blubberish...

i gave birth at gleneagles 1st march...my experience there was fab. the nurses gave baby to me immediately after weighing n cleaning her asking me to try bf her...after abt 5mins coz baby wasnt that hungry they took her to nursery i was brought to my ward....

my husband brought baby out from nursery immediately after i was in ward they didnt insist on putting her on warmer or watever....once baby was with me ward nurse came and gently helped me with bf....

in the night they brought her to me everytime she cried for milk n didnt insist in bringing her back to nursery though i was in a two bedded rm with another lady next bed...nothing even mentioned abt change shift or watever....

lactation consultant checked my baby's progress chart saying my bb doing well judging by no of poo n urine...assured me tat my bb has enuf to drink even if initial few days all tat comes out is colostrum....she also explained abt use of breast pump which i brought to ask her...

i really enjoyed my stay at gleneagles....nurses were very helpful n supportive....do consider giving birth there next time!

 

[Amulet]

hmm.. now i read, seems like maybe KKH is better than TMC in terms of breastfeeding wor.. why i siam KKH was that i heard horror stories of how the nurses scold the mommies there.. makes me scare..

for me, my stay with TMC was quite ok, the nurses quite polite guess i was being very polite with them as well ba.. only abit lag on their effort in breastfeeding.. i also heard that Mrs Wong BB is abit arrogant like that wor..

 

[esthergal]

Mrs Wong baby? is this typo or what? hahaaa... are you referring to Mrs Wong Boh Boi? really she's arrogant? She's so famous now may be that's why... what's more I'm planning to attend her pre-natal education programme next week...

 

[Daddy D]

Mrs Wong baby? is this typo or what? hahaaa... are you referring to Mrs Wong Boh Boi? really she's arrogant? She's so famous now may be that's why... what's more I'm planning to attend her pre-natal education programme next week...

haha! "B.B"... if u type short... will auto-correct to baby... haha!

 

[Phoebii Cheng]

I had emergency c-sec at KKH and the nurses there were really helpful & informative.....as I was not able to BF my son cos he is in the neonatal ICU for a week, they suggest to me to express BM and they will give my son for his feed, cos they stress the importance of colostrum.....

Also, as it's 1st time I am using the breast pump, cos did not bring, so they suggest using KKH and when I did not manage to pump out any BM, they say slowly and told me to b patient. They oso told me to drink warm water so tht the BM will flow and oso to use warm towel and massage my breast.......and when they ask if I wanted a LC to come over and take a look, cos' I keep on worrying my BM did not seem to flow and my breast like very heavy by then, the LC was very helpful too, teach me how to massage my breast and she even told me, that all women have BM flowing so told me not to worry

After discharged, when I had problems with my son latching on and stuff, I called KKH lactation nurse immediately and they were v helpful....

Ya I guess all of us might experience diff treatment I think it depends on how u look at it.............:tlaugh:

 

[blubberish]

Wow... Well, it's Mt A and KKH to consider for me then... ancing_wub:

 

[snowbear]

Wow... Well, it's Mt A and Kandang Kerbau Hospital to consider for me then... ancing_wub:

oh ya, then every time i got prob with bf i'd call the LC at Kandang Kerbau Hospital. Free advice!!! I feel that the after-delivery service by KK is good also. Some of my friends who gave birth at other hospitals dont even know who to call or ask when they got bfding probs.

 

[Amulet]

Mrs Wong baby? is this typo or what? hahaaa... are you referring to Mrs Wong Boh Boi? really she's arrogant? She's so famous now may be that's why... what's more I'm planning to attend her pre-natal education programme next week...

lol.. i typed B B.. come out as baby..

anyway, thats wat i heard la.. never meet her be4..:tlaugh:

 

[isabelandrew]

maybe all these comments you should made known to Mrs Wong? She is the lactation consultant in TMC. Her books are pro-BF leh. It is sad to learn that nurses are too busy to push our babies to us. I thought TMC is the 'best' place to deliver bb.

maybe u wan to try mt A, hee. i feel that they are very pro-bf one. One thing is BF, nurses are less busy mah. Ha ha!

 

[blubberish]

isabelandrew:

The letter that i typed from TMC? That was the result of my friend going there as a BMSG and ABAS member. I wrote a letter stating what happened to me and she helped me to take it to them. Mrs Wong was present at the meeting as well... So, it seems like they can't even be bothered to give me a call to talk about it and sent me such an impersonal letter about their success rate, which got me even angrier...

haiz... :shyxxx: