Hi everyone, I have a question. Is this the norm?
My step-granddaughter, 21 yrs. had a baby a few weeks ago. Single mom. Everything went well, baby is healthy and she lives with her parents now that the baby is born.
At the hospital a social worker came in and told her she would need to take the baby to the dr. for a check up in three days. The mother said she'd rather wait a week or two and then do it. The social worker told her if she did, she would write her up for neglect and the authorities would step in. Well, of course she took the baby in for a check up when she was three days old. Was this said because she is a single mom, was it because of hospital policy, state law, what? I've never heard of such a thing.
Thanks for your imput!
I don't know why a social worker was involved other than she said she routinely spoke with all the mothers. I don't know if she meant single mothers or All mothers. I think she meant single but she said all mothers. We all found it very strange. Maybe it's a new state law or hospital policy or maybe it had to do with the doctor. She is not on aide and had insurance. She didn't know she was pregnant until just a month before the baby was born. Which is strange, I know. She only gained 15 pounds but the baby was 6 lbs. 6 oz. She said she didn't stop having periods and the doctor said the baby was hidden behind the placenta and it was the thickest placenta he'd ever seen. The mom has never had any problems, never been in trouble of any kind. Anyway, don't know why this happened this way. But we all thought it off and a bit much. Although I can see the point of checking for things early as some of you stated, still the social worker was a bit much. She has family support and lots of it. Makes me wonder if people are just being roped into one big catagory instead of taking one person at a time as an individual.
All testing was done before leaving the hospital on the baby - they were there for two days.
To those that say it's not the whole story -This is the whole story.
If that's the whole story, then look at it this way: A new baby can never have enough people looking out for his/her welfare right?
Congrats!
This happened with my sister, but it was because she had been in some trouble. There was already an open complaint about my sister. It seems to me, there is more to this story. Social workers don't just randomly show up to harass single mothers, there must have been a case or complaint already opened against her. You are likely not getting the entire story, here.
The point is, social workers aren't involved unless they have a reason.
IMHO hospitals have WAY too much power today which is one reason you are seeing an increase in home birthing.
Sounds ridiculous to me.
Egregious stories: http://www.hslda.org/hs/state/pa/201203270.asp . There was another case like this in California (if I remember correctly), and the dad was a physician! I just can't find the link off-hand.
You might be overthinking things a bit.
I worked in the OB ward at a hospital and a check up after 3 days of being released is quite standard. Some babies actually lose weight after being born and that needs to be charted and followed up on. Any questions the mom has should be addressed. The umbilical cord needs to be checked. Heart and lungs need to be checked.
Social workers pop in on a regular basis with new moms. It's not being singled out. I think that perhaps the social worker just wanted to express the importance of the check up once being told that the mother would rather wait a couple of weeks. Did she have a reason for wanting to wait?
I don't think it was because she was a single mother. A three day check up is due to the fact that they are sending a newborn life home and within 3 days of doing so is a good time to check in on how things are going. Then, if there are no reported problems after that, it's usually a 6 week check up.
Again, pretty standard.
She didn't need to be harsh about it, but you'd be surprised how many people have never even had prenatal care, let alone deal with follow up care for their kids. Sad but true.
It might just be the same speach she gives to everyone.
Congratulations on the new baby!!!!
I vote normal. I'm married. My DD was born 4 years ago. Her first visit was 3 days after release. Another family had a newborn born the same day as ours, also there on a weekend for the same reason. They just want to check the kid out, make sure s/he's eating and hasn't lost too much weight. My DD was also being watched for jaundice and needed a blood test. The social worker may have been overbearing, but the recommendation is pretty standard.
It's normal. When I had my two (13 and 9 years ago) I had a social worker come in and talk to me, tell me to take the baby to the doctor to check the bloodwork and to make sure they were growing properly.
With the last two, I gave birth at a birth center and at home, so it was the midwife telling the mothers to take their new little ones to the doctor on day 3.
From my knowledge, it would have been standard for the doctor to request a social worker interview her based on the fact that she had limited prenatal care and to see if she had proper support being a single mom. That is routine to check on. And it is also routine to do the three day checkup. They do PKU and check baby's growth and feeding habits. Early intervention is key if there are issues gaining weight after three days!
I'm not a single mom, I had 3 children, we all had insurance, all 3 were at the doctors office within days of being born. Around here that is standard practice.
I took all of my kids in at three days old (1993, 95 and 99) and I had a husband, doctor and insurance. No one "made" me do it, it was just routine procedure.
Why WOULDN'T she go in, what's the big deal? My mom popped all her babies out with no prenatal care (just showed up at the ER to deliver) I just don't get why a mom wouldn't take advantage of all the preventable health care possible (?)
I don't know about "neglect" but like I said, why WOULDN'T she want her baby examined and looked after???
I took my babies in to get checked after 3 days and then again at two weeks, and then again at 1 month and so on. I was so relieved when my kids were old enough that the doc appointments tapered to once a year. Anyways, that is normal procedure, but the way she was forced to do it doesn't sound normal. It wasn't my experience (but maybe since I complied they didn't feel the need to force it). I do remember the hospital asking me who the doctor was that I was going to take my kids to and encouraging me to set the appointment up.
Was it for a PKU test? That is needed soon. Or if the baby had some jaundice.
I would say it is pretty normal, but she was a bit harsh about it all. I have delivered at and worked in several different places (as an OB nurse) and everyone/place does things differently. In my first job it was routine for the social worker to see single moms or anyone that requested a visit. I believe it was thought that single moms were at greater risk for economic and social hardship. Yes, I know some single moms are doing just fine and some married moms are in dire straits, it was just more common for single moms to need assistance and be made aware of what was available to them. I would not be concerned that your step-granddaughter has "problems" or any kind of "case" against her. Her single status is part of her hospital record. You could call the OB unit and ask what the policy is for social workers visiting new moms. You might also want to let them know that you thought she was a bit rude. She may have needed to enforce this policy but she could have been more polite and explained things better rather than just threatening her. Best of luck to you and your step-granddaughter.
My "baby" is 6 so I don't recall how old she was for her first check up, be she was pretty new from what I remember. I did have someone come by the house, I guess a social worker, who gave me some info about WIC and a few other things. Never saw her again, she said is was a curtisy visit for all first time mothers. She was polite and kind, so I didn't mind too much.
That was the norm when I had my son, check up 2-3 days after being home. The main reason I think was to make sure they are maintaining or.gaining weight. Also to check for jaundice and to answer questions.
We had a baby nurse come to our house a couple of days after we came home. She checked weight, and how we were all getting on. Helped out with breast feeding concerns etc.
I took my kids the second day home from the hospital. I think that's just standard procedure. Your grandaughter probably fits a profile of people who may need some extra help in parenting and thats why the social worker came.
Totally normal and nothing to do with being a single mother. The expectation is that a newborn will have a well visit with the pediatrician within a few days of being discharged from the hospital. The social workers choice of words was rather heavy-handed and there probably is no law about it, but that is the norm especially in cases where the pediatrician doesn't do rounds at the hospital. For a mom to want to put this off a week or two, especially a new mom, isn't a good idea - that first visit can catch things like vaccine reactions, jaundice, and feeding problems that a few generations ago would have been noticed in the hospital because of longer stays. I actually checked out early with my last two so I had a visiting nurse come to the house the day after I got home and then brought the kids into the pedi a few days later. With my 2nd child, this visit caught a case of thrush before it got out of control and with my 3rd, they picked up on RSV. Both cases were able to be treated easily because they were caught early.
ETA: Social workers routinely visit single mothers in the hospital. It doesn't mean that she did anything wrong or was "flagged" or that there is more to the story. It's standard support offered in the hospital to women who are parenting alone. I was single with my first - I was 22, employed, had my parents helping out, had my own health insurance, wasn't using social service or state aid in any way, shape or form but yes I was visited by a social worker and psychologist (in addition to the usual doctors, nurses and lactation consultants) just to make sure that I was OK and had the support I needed. And a baby that stays in longer due to c-section or NICU is different from one discharged in 48 hours - there are certain tests and things done in that short window that either need to be followed up on or sometimes they don't do them in the hospital so they need to be done at the pedi in a certain window of time.
Myself, and my sister had to bring the baby in with in three days of leaving the hospital. We both had our children in Tx. She was married, I was not but in a stable relationship with the father (still am). The pedi saw us the day we left (c-section) and we saw him that Monday (left on a Friday). Then a week later - two weeks - a month etc.
How in the world would a social worker know to visit your step-grand daughter post birth, in the hospital? There has to be a reason. Just having a social worker visit a new mom in the hospital is NOT normal.
If you are going to ask questions like this, it's really helpful to give the whole story.
I'd interviewed several pediatricians before our son's birth and chose one practice that did rounds at the hospital where he was born.
The pediatrician stopped by our room in the hospital before we left (who was also a breast feeding consultant) and checked him out.
We went to the doctors the day after hospital release, and then we had to keep gong back for billirubin tests for about 5 days.
We never had a social worker visit, but then I was married, 36 and had doctors all over the place.
I would think social services has better things to do.
I would think that it's because she really didn't have any prenatal care. Perhaps social services feels that she was somehow neglectful of the baby before the birth. (Maybe they don't believe that she didn't know she was pregnant. How did she miss that she was pregnant all the way to 8 months?) So they are trying to make sure that the baby is healthy at the beginning...
Dawn
I don't know if it's the norm; I do know that our midwife came a day or so after we delivered to do a home visit, so there may be some state mandate for the PKU test. (We birthed at home, which is why she came to us.)
I'm not sure why the social worker would have been involved, however, having a check up a couple of days after being released from the hospital is completely normal.
I know it's normal to have a checkup very soon after delivery. When my DD was born, they checked that we had our appointment set up for a few days after our discharge. It turned out to be a moot point, since we were in the hospital for about a week because of my complications... But even then, we had to do a checkup a couple days after we got out.
It might depend upon the hospital she delivered at. Where my kids were born, they do the Hep B (I think that is the one anyway?) heel stick before they leave the hospital. It is supposed to be done within the first 2-3 days after birth. So, if that particular hospital doesn't perform it before the babies are discharged, perhaps that is the reason for it.
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Maybe it was the PKU I'm thinking of ?
while at the hospital when i had my daughter i was told i needed to call the dr that would be caring for my daughter and make an appointment as soon as possible, normally within the first week to make sure the baby didnt lose a bunch of weight
well it sounds like the social worker was a little harsh, but the baby does need to get test done and I think even some shots done very quickly (like within the first few days) of life. I have c-sections so i'm always in the hospital for a few days but I know on that 3rd or 4th day, before I leave they have to make sure my baby has had all that medical stuff done or they don't let us go.
Not knowing the whole story.
With my first child we had a hospital birth. I did not want to stay and wanted to go home before the 24 hours were up. I was allowed to go home (I think about 6 hours after birth) but they had to do some of the routine blood tests etc before we left and I had to have an apt set up for the next day with the pediatrition to have him seen since we were not going to be in the hospital for the normal checkup they give them before discharge. I had to bring him in more often then my other 2, but he got slight jaundice which was part of it and also I was a first time mother. Even with help from lots of family and a husband that was taking time off work.
My other 2 were born in a birth center. They routinely discharge you after 6 hours unless there is an issue. You have a midwife come out to your house the following day to do the routine blood tests and newborn check. You have to have an apt made with the ped within the first 3 days.
Some of the 3 days is insurance. You have to have them seen by the pediatrition within a small time frame in order to have them put on the insurance policy.
The social worker may have just gone into automatic attack mode since, for the most part, a lot of the people she sees have issues. This is wrong and doesn't reflect well on the social worker but it might be what happened.
Dr visits have changed tour primary care ped. did not see our last baby due to they are nolonger affiliated with the hospitl I gave birth to.So I took our daughter in for her 3 day then again at 2 weeks then from there as scheduled,it is important or the primary care doc to see baby soon after birth to make sure all is good.If things aren't explained to the new mom she may of been confused and needs to ask for better explanantions.But yes the refusal to do anything for your child in regards to neglect can be turned over,the social worker is just doing her job and point blank told herhow it is.But why was there a social worker?In most hospitals the breastfeeding nurse makes rounds and schedules foolow up for nursing moms this time no just set me up with an appt to see our ped.Things can happen in a blink of an eye to newbies such as jaundice,fevers,infection to the umblical cord stump,lossing to much weight,
Actually, a social worker did check up on me, and I'm married and was in my late twenties, not risky. It was just a service provided to mothers. I said we didn't need help and she moved on, though.
And taking your baby in for a three-day checkup is pretty standard. Since your step-granddaughter planned to wait two weeks to take the baby in to the pediatrician's office, the social work was probably concerned that she was pretty ignorant about what is currently recommended...
It is for the PKU test - don't know why a social worker came in about it hto! Did the mom leave the hospital less than 3 days after birth? (I was there the days I could be and still had to take my youngest back for this - it's a timing thing)
I would call the hospital admin office on Monday and file a complaint. If there is something that all mom's need to do then we would all know about it and the pediatrician would have already told their patients they had to come in on the 3rd day from some follow up testing after birth.
This was not handled properly. Maybe she was having a bad day but still, she could have answered the questions more openly instead of so oddly.
It seems weird that a social worker came and brought up possible neglect. My son was discharged on Friday and had a doctor's appointment that next Monday. The hospital set it up and gave me the info with the discharge papers. It could have been because he had to go to a pediatric cardiologist the Friday he was discharged since the hospital's machine wasn't working, but the waiting room was full of newborns, so it seemed routine.
That sounds weird that a social worker was involved at all. I was told that my babies needed to be seen by the pediatrician at about that time too by my OB and the on-call pediatrician at the hospital. I didn't have a problem with it at all and can't understand why your step GD did.
Was the baby early at all? My daughter was early and we had to take her in the day after we brought her home for a weight check. Maybe there was a good reason like that?
No, C. - I've not heard of that. When my babies were born (with the exception of my daughter) they were in the NICU for 10 days. And we didn't see the doctor for 7 days once they were released from there...
I'm sorry. Why would a social worker even be involved? She's 21, not 15.
