Dear Becky,
     At our small (300+/yr) community hospital  we do have a policy of not allowing moms to sleep in beds with their babies.
We tell them that it's a policy and that it's their responsibility to put the baby back in it's bassinette before nodding off.  Most moms have no problem with this.  If they balk, I tell them that we did once have a baby fall out of one of our narrow birthing beds when mom had fallen asleep with her baby. As far as I know the baby had no lasting  effects from this trip, but it certainly made me more likely than before to try to uphold our policy.   Most people have wider beds at home and are not used to how little space there really is in the narrow hospital variety.  We are  not gestapo-like in our approach.  And there is certainly a lot of individuality in how the nurses deal with this issue.  We do encourage rooming in but, do offer to soothe fussy babies out at the nurses station when it suits a mom who is unable to catch any sleep and when our unit status allows for it.  We used to have a policy that was more rigid, but this is certainly a huge improvement.  Basically we try to do whatever mom thinks will work for her.  I do think that decreasing rigidity in hospitals and allowing as much choice as possible is the way to be.  The patients certainly appreciate it.


                                                      Priscilla Tansley RN,BSN,IBCLC
                                                       Westmister West, Vermont                                       

                                                                  

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