Ravenfire
27-09-2005, 08:37 AM
A West Yorkshire hospital has banned visitors from cooing at new-born babies over fears their human rights are being breached and to reduce infection.
A statement from Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax said staff had held an advice session to highlight the need for respect and dignity for patients.
On one ward there is a doll featuring the message: "What makes you think I want to be looked at?"
But Labour MP Linda Riordan said the measures were "bureaucracy gone mad".
She said: "All mothers want people to admire their babies because all babies are beautiful.
"But in a case where a mother did not want to answer questions it should be up to that individual to say so."
Some new mothers have already said they are astonished by the rules which stop people asking questions about their babies or looking at them in maternity wards.
Debbie Lawson, neo-natal manager at the hospital's special care baby unit, said: "Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me.
'Infection control'
"We often get visitors wandering over to peer into cots but people sometimes touch or talk about the baby like they would if they were examining tins in a supermarket and that should not happen."
A spokeswoman for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust said the advice was as much to do with reducing infection as it was upholding "rights".
In a statement she said: "Staff were wishing to highlight issues of potential confidentiality, especially for young babies and their parents in what can be emotional times.
"Infection control was also a key part of the message as the unit deals with very small babies with very vulnerable immune systems."
A statement from Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax said staff had held an advice session to highlight the need for respect and dignity for patients.
On one ward there is a doll featuring the message: "What makes you think I want to be looked at?"
But Labour MP Linda Riordan said the measures were "bureaucracy gone mad".
She said: "All mothers want people to admire their babies because all babies are beautiful.
"But in a case where a mother did not want to answer questions it should be up to that individual to say so."
Some new mothers have already said they are astonished by the rules which stop people asking questions about their babies or looking at them in maternity wards.
Debbie Lawson, neo-natal manager at the hospital's special care baby unit, said: "Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me.
'Infection control'
"We often get visitors wandering over to peer into cots but people sometimes touch or talk about the baby like they would if they were examining tins in a supermarket and that should not happen."
A spokeswoman for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust said the advice was as much to do with reducing infection as it was upholding "rights".
In a statement she said: "Staff were wishing to highlight issues of potential confidentiality, especially for young babies and their parents in what can be emotional times.
"Infection control was also a key part of the message as the unit deals with very small babies with very vulnerable immune systems."