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Giving flowers to young parents is not always possible
For hygiene reasons,flowers and plants are prohibited in some hospital wards. Ask the nursing staff for more information. The formula is written in black and white, plastered on the door of the maternity hospital where your baby was born. Sometimes, the ban is just ingrained in the minds of loved ones already on the starting blocks to visit your sister-in-law, on the verge of asking for an epidural. So let’s face it: the risk is high that she will find herself without flowers the day after the birth of her pitchoun. It’s sad !
Flowers in the maternity ward: a bacterial risk
“Health reasons”, does that mean risk of allergy to pollen? Carbon dioxide release problem? Migraine due to heady scents? These disadvantages are not disputed, but the most important risk advanced by the health authorities is bacterial: the water in cut flower vases is a reservoir of pathogenic microorganisms, some of which have high levels of antibiotic resistance.
To limit any risk of infection linked to the presence of flowers near Mom and Baby, it is imperative to wash your hands well before taking care of your little angel …
There is a solution, valid at the maternity ward or at home: half a teaspoon of bleach per liter of water. Without that, it is true, there remains a risk of infection of the mother or the child, contracted by this means during the stay in maternity.
How? ‘Or’ What ? For example, by taking care of the umbilical cord after having changed the place of the bunch of petunias and having, as a result, soiled their hands, or by bathing Baby in the sink where the water was previously emptied. a vase … This is why it is necessary always wash your hands thoroughly before looking after Baby.
Beware of nosocomial infections
This type of infection is one of the so-called nosocomial infections : the name given to illnesses contracted in hospital, whatever their origin. The fight against nosocomial infections in public and private establishments has been closely supervised since the implementing decrees of 1988 and 1999. But this legislative arsenal leaves, in certain cases, room for maneuver.
This is why some maternities allow themselves to prohibit bouquets – or limit their presence in the room to a few hours – to avoid having to manage the regular renewal of the water in the vases and their bleaching.
result: some maternity hospitals have the right to slam the door in the face of a flower delivery man. The armful of freesias or lilac, very useful to prevent a baby blues, to overcome post-partum fatigue or simply to celebrate a birth, your sister-in-law or your best friend will contemplate it withered, at home, on their return. Unless…
We want flowers!
Verdict: with some precautions (hand washing, bleach), the ban could very well have been definitively lifted. Psychological benefit: the senior official would not have been offended, his daughter-in-law would not have been deprived. And with them many other grandfathers, many other parents. Because giving or receiving flowers is still a good custom!
Faced with frustration and unequal access to flowers from one maternity hospital to another, some establishments give in and the spirit of “resistance” is organized.
All that remains for the relatives of a young childbirth to offer the bottle of bleach that goes with the bouquet!