"Jackie Hawks finally got to be home with her baby boy, Austin, after he had spent 26 days in the neonatal intensive care unit. Hawks, a neonatal nurse at Renown Regional Medical Center, had woken up around 8 a.m. on May 15 to change Austin’s diaper. The Reno woman was physically exhausted, and crawled into bed with her baby to breast feed him. The 28-year-old fell asleep. While Hawks and her husband are awaiting the results of an autopsy, they believe Austin was accidentally smothered during his feeding. He had been home from the hospital for two days. Hawks is hoping that other mothers will learn from her experience, and that her story will help prevent other infant deaths. Austin was the fifth baby in Washoe County who died this year related to being accidentally suffocated while sleeping with their parents, or who were smothered during breast feedings, according to the county’s division of social services. “It’s devastating,” Hawks said. “You just get physically exhausted. There are so many things I could have done differently, and I have to live the rest of my life knowing that.” Hawks encouraged new mothers to breast feed in places or in positions where it’s not as comfortable and hard to fall asleep, such as going into the infant’s room or sitting on a chair. “Don’t crawl back in bed,” she warned. For those mothers who know they are exhausted, she suggested waking up the baby’s father who could then bottle feed the infant."
No comments:
Post a Comment