Part of the joys of being pregnant is looking through the library and bookstores at birth, breastfeeding and parenting books. I would say that the recommendation for rooming-in is in about 1/3-1/2 of the books out there. If you only read books on Natural Childbirth, Attachment Parenting or LLL publications, the recommendation for rooming in is about 100%. I agree that some parents do not know the benefits of rooming in, but even those who do often choose to send their baby to the nursery for a few hours a night (sometimes with the instruction to feed "just one bottle" or bring to Mom only after three hours, regardless of hunger cues). In addition to promoting the benefits of rooming in etc., we should also be highlighting the dangers of sending the baby to the nursery. My top four are (in chronological order): Missed feeding cues- due to client to staff overload leading to either a baby in a state of panic and is so upset s/he cannot latch well, or a lethargic baby who should have fed, but went back to sleep before the overworked nursery/floor nurse noticed the feeding cues and is now very difficult to wake. Missed feedings- due to being overfed "just one bottle" or a quiet "good" baby who sleeps 4+ hours. Delayed and/or reduced milk supply- due to lack of skin-to-skin and breast stimulation. Unhappy, "disorganized" babies- due to too much crying, not enough nursing and general suffering from "Mommy withdrawl." I am sure there are many more dangers of sending your baby to the nursery- additions anyone? At my most recent employer, most parents toured the nursery during the middle of the day. Often in the nurseries (we had a couple) at that time of day, there are only one or two babies present. Everything is very peaceful, calm, and the nursery attendant (sometimes an RN, sometimes a nursing assistant) has very little to do, so she is rocking a baby. They are unaware that at night the nursery is at capacity! Our big nursery regularly had 20 babies on the night shift (one night I counted 27 babies!). With that kind of staffing (one nursery nurse plus the floor nurses, who breeze through and look after "their" babies), and client load (5-7 mother-baby couples for each nurse), babies in the nursery get a minimum amount of attention. Crying is the only cue anyone has time to notice and even that might be ignored if the baby has been fed, changed and swaddled recently. Needless to say, that if you are a breastfeeding advocate, and you think babies need to be cuddled in addition to being fed and changed, the nursery quickly becomes your definition of hell. Charity Pitcher-Cooper BSN, RN, and thankfully unemployed mommy to be;-) (Who was very surprised to see that at Barnes and Noble that the number five reading purchase of people who had recently bought Jay Gordon's parenting book was "Babywise"). *********************************************** To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest) To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet All commands go to [log in to unmask] The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html