Has the world gone stark staring MAD?

[Hiney]

Hospital bans 'cooing' over baby
By Paul Stokes


A hospital has banned visitors from "cooing" over newborn babies to protect their dignity and parents' right to confidentiality.

People have been told they should resist the temptation to touch or be too familiar with the new arrivals. They are also being warned to respect patient confidentiality by not talking to staff or parents about babies.

Cards have been issued to visitors at Calderdale Royal Hospital, Halifax, West Yorks, bearing the words "Respect My Baby" on the front. On the back are the lines written as though from the baby: "I am small and precious so treat me with privacy and respect. My parents ask you to treat my personal space with consideration. I deserve to be left undisturbed and protected against unwanted public view."

The measures were introduced as a result of a Government booklet, Essence of Care, that explains extra protection for patients

But the hospital's interpretation has prompted criticism from mothers.

Lynsey Pearson, 26, from Halifax, who gave birth to her first child, Hannah, four weeks ago, said: "This ludicrous idea is taking confidentiality to the extreme. If people did not ask me about my baby I would be offended. I am so proud of Hannah and I want to show her off. I imagine all new mums feel that way."

Debbie Lawson, the neo-natal manager at the special care baby unit, said: "We know people have good intentions but we need to respect the child.

"Cooing should be a thing of the past because these are little people with the same rights as you or me."

What next?

Fixed penalty fines for FARTING on public transport?

Jail for people with BO?

Unbelievable

 

[Yorkie]

Why doesn't it surprise me that it is Halifax??
My grandson was born in that hospital.

 

[Pigsy]

What next?

Fixed penalty fines for FARTING on public transport?

[/B]

Yes

 

[Marshy]

Visitors other than direct family should be banned from visiting anyone at hospital. FACT

 

[Yorkie]

Visitors other than direct family should be banned from visiting anyone at hospital. FACT

I know you work at the hospital but I presume you mean avoding infection?

But as Mums and babies are usually 4 beds to a ward (my daughter had bers at Princess Royal) then how do you avoid families looking at the other 3 babies?

 

[fatboy]

This was also in the paper today.

September 27, 2005

The Times

How Chester the labrador was caught on hop by a wily bunny
By Alan Hamilton
Once upon a time a rabbit thrashed a dog in a 20-metre swim before hitching a lift to safety



BRER RABBIT came pacing down the road, lippity-clippity, clippity-lippity, just as sassy as a jaybird. And then he saw Chester the dog, who might just as well have been Brer Fox.
Like any two-year-old yellow labrador bitch, Chester loves chasing rabbits, regarding them as entirely brainless and therefore not at all like labradors. Chester gave chase.



Inspired by the fable of the hare, his fleeter cousin, Brer Rabbit made a run for it. His only escape route was a pond. Rabbits do not, as a rule, swim, Brer Rabbit thought. But there are times when a rabbit has no choice.

We labradors are excellent swimmers, Chester thought, and dived in after Brer Rabbit. To Chester’s undoubted surprise and chagrin, the rabbit proved the faster swimmer. At least for a time.

There then came a moment in that pond when it dawned on Brer Rabbit that he was not a hare, and that Chester, although not a tortoise, might yet be the victor of the chase. The rabbit was tiring, and very bedraggled.

But he was resourceful, and quickly spotted a liferaft that would save him: the dog. Brer Rabbit scrambled on to Chester’s back, possibly shouting, panic-stricken, into those floppy labrador ears: “Drown me just as deep as you please, Brer Fox, but please do not fling me in that briar patch.”

Chester was bewildered. Her quarry was sitting right on her back, just where she could not get at him. There was nothing for it but to swim back. Brer Rabbit clung on, and got himself a free ride to safety.

When Chester reached the shallower water she stood up. Brer Rabbit jumped down and made off in the direction of a briar patch. Chester gave chase, but once again the resourceful rabbit outwitted her by disappearing under a thick hedge.

Chester’s failed rabbit hunt was caught on camera by Paul Marshall, 38, her owner, during a walk around the pond at Ravensworth Nurseries near Richmond, North Yorkshire.

“I’d never seen a rabbit swim before. It was really flying along,” Mr Marshall said, explaining how he shouted desperately at his dog to come back as she gained on the rabbit near the middle of the large pond.

“Just as I started to really get a bit worried, the rabbit doubled back and changed direction. They do the same thing on land when they’re chased, and it seeemed to do the same thing in the water.”

But Mr Marshall could barely believe what happened next. “Chester went to turn as well, but because she’s bigger she wasn’t as quick. I think the rabbit must have been tired, and frightened that it was going to drown, because it saw the chance to get on Chester’s back. It scrambled on her back and just sat there as Chester swam ashore.”

This was the second time that a rabbit had got the better of Chester. When she was only a year old she became entangled in barbed wire while chasing a rabbit into a hedge, and required 18 stitches to her leg.

“She’s always chasing them. She’s soft-mouthed, so she doesn’t kill them but treats them as game,” Mr Marshall said.

Chester could do worse than take a lesson from Brer Fox: just lie low.

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

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