Presumably there is space for each mother already. Surely one could place the baby's bed next to the mother's if the mother's bed is not suitable for co-sleeping? In our unit, half of what used to be the nursery is now the room where babies are bathed and changed, and where blood tests are taken of babies, either with or without mother present. The other half is a dining room for the mothers. We do hearing checks and transcutaneous pulse oxymeter reading on all babies, wherever it's handy to do it. Mothers and fathers do the infant care, including feeding. Our ward is a refurbished psychiatric ward, definitely not designed with its current use in mind, but serves the purpose. Architecture will not make a unit Baby-Friendly, policies and procedures will. The short version of becoming Baby-Friendly is simply getting rid of all the obstacles to breastfeeding: mother-baby separation, routine supplementation, and bad advice (feed three hourly, or two hourly, or anything that does not place the baby's cues at the top of the list of reasons to feed). Formerly, at least, schools of architecture taught hospital and prison architecture together, since they were basically the same. According to Gay Palmer (but I can't find chapter and verse, sorry) US hospitals 'enjoyed' the benefit of free architectural advice when designing maternity wards, given by (you guessed it!) manufacturers of breastmilk substitutes. Don't be hoodwinked into abandoning plans to go Baby-Friendly due to high costs of rebuilding wards. Change the function of existing rooms. Put babies and mothers together, get rid of promotion of breastmilk substitutes, revise the procedure book, and see to it that all staff caring for them are competent to give guidance for the successful establishment of breastfeeding from birth. You'll have enough to do without worrying about the building. Rachel Myr Kristiansand, Norway *********************************************** Archives: http://community.lsoft.com/archives/LACTNET.html To reach list owners: [log in to unmask] Mail all list management commands to: [log in to unmask] COMMANDS: 1. To temporarily stop your subscription write in the body of an email: set lactnet nomail 2. To start it again: set lactnet mail 3. To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet 4. To get a comprehensive list of rules and directions: get lactnet welcome