Liz,

We developed a guideline in the last hospital I worked in encouraging
mothers who are admitted to have their babies room in.  It was cumbersome
and put the responsibility on the mother to bring a nursing assistant in
with her (usually a spouse or relative).  The hospital would put the mother
in a room with two beds (or one bed and a folding mattress) and a crib.
The nursing assistant would care for the baby's needs and administer stored
breastmilk when breastfeeding was not possible (eg while mom under GA).

My wife and I trialled the policy when she had surgery and we were very
pleased.  The only difficulty was finding someone at home to look after the
other 3 kids!

We appreciated that this puts the onus on the mom to provide and fund a
caregiver - I am therefore not sure how this policy developed once I left.
I firmly believe in the need to develop such a policy for both elective and
urgent admissions.

Khalid



Khalid Aziz
Memorial University of Newfoundland