Heather asked about rooming in outside of the US and UK. In Zimbabwe we have
24 hour rooming in for all healthy babies.  Most of the govt hospitals go
one step further and have bedding in, because there are simply no resources
to buy cribs. During a clinical session for a BFHI workshop I once asked if
any of the babies ever fell out. The answer was "Hardly ever".  In some of
the govt hospitals mothers who delivered in the previous 24 hours have the
beds, mothers who delivered the previous day are moved on to the floor, then
discharged on Day 3.

Private hospitals have cribs.  Babies are sometimes taken by the nurses at
night if the baby seems very unhappy and sometimes the first night after a
Caesar, and I suspect that a little glucose water is also given, but this is
the exception.  Mothers are expected to breastfeed, there is simply no
choice. When staff suspect a mother is ambivalent about breastfeeding they
apply various levels of pressure, ranging from encouragement to suggesting a
consult with an LC (muggins!) to outright verbal disapproval, but formula is
not offered. I have worked with four moms in 8 years who brought their own
formula into the hospital, I suspect two of those were HIV+, one had severe
post-partum haemmorhage and delayed lactogenesis although she did put the
baby to breast, and the other was discharged home as soon as the
Sister-in-Charge found out!   Blood sugar tests are rare.  Breastfeeding is
not interrupted for jaundice (highest I have worked with is TSB of 28).  We
have a way to go of course and there are still times when moms receive poor
advice or no practical assistance at all to breastfeed, but the underlying
philosophy is there.  Our paediatricians are superb about breastfeeding and
it's really nice to feel that everyone works together as part of a team to
ensure that all babies start off breastfeeding, at least in the hospital.

Pamela Morrison IBCLC, Zimbabwe