[Salu]

Originally Posted by me283

I don't know much about babies or baby wards. But I would have thought that if they were ill or at risk, they would be in an incubator (if very young) or in some kind of isolation? Not in a public ward where all and sundry can come and peer and prod?

The SCBU isn't a public ward but the hospital have obviously felt the need to address the disturbances that are happening. The hospital has said it has no problem in people cooing at full term babies providing the ward rules are followed and the parents don't mind.

Originally Posted by sir_drinks_alot

This is political correctness gone ****ing mad there's nothing wrong with cooing.

Apart from the pre-term/SCBU babies the hospital isnt' saying that there is....

Originally Posted by david.ewles

Watching City hospital this morning they asked a doctor about this.

She said that it only applies to babies that are born pre term (premature)as this can startle them and can cause them to stop breathing.

Once the baby reaches term it will be OK.

There are many reasons why bans like this are put in place. The above although true would be unlikely but they are better resting than being stimulated, pre-term babies also lack in surfactant which can lead to respiratory distress etc etc..

Originally Posted by Chris T

Having complete strangers drawn to your kids to talk to them (and to complement you on their behaviour, hopefully) is one of the great things about being a parent ... swelled with pride and all that.

Here in Scotland things are still a little less paranoid than they seem to have gone down south. Random grannies in cafes still press 50 pence pieces into my son's grateful palm around here (and once, a king-size mars bar, which mum had to swiftly intercept 'to give to him later'). It never once happened when we lived in Hemel Hempstead.

I agree it does make you proud....

I've noticed a general introspection with in public. We mostly tend to conduct our business as if there was noone else there. You see it in supermarkets and on the pavement. I've often found someone stop dead as you approach them and wait for you to circle round them before carrying on. You don't notice it much as we are used to it. When you go to the States or Canada it becomes very apparent as people talk to each other everywhere. At first you want to shout at them to leave you alone an mind their own business but you then realise what a grump you are....