Nikki reports anecdotal evidence from what I am assuming is the US,
from women who enjoyed the ban on visitors to prevent H1N1 contagion
in maternity units.

We have no visitors allowed except partners and siblings, and I'm
unconvinced that it helps. We have also since 1990 had a naptime
during which there are no visitors at all, OR any other kinds of
interruptions to the mothers - no housekeeping, no rounds, no nothing
unless truly unavoidable. It is two hours, in the interval between
lunch and suppertime. Mothers praise this time unanimously, provided
they can actually rest during it. If they are sharing a room with
someone who snores, or has an unfamiliar smell, or if they are unable
to lift their own baby to position it for feeding so that they
actually need an assistant (but we have chased even their partner out
for the naptime and we are doing handover during part of that time so
are less available), it isn't such a respite after all. Open visiting
was tried for about two weeks in 1990. The mothers literally begged us
to stop it and we did, except for two hours in the afternoon. Then we
eliminated that a few years later, and just went for the current very
restrictive practice. We have never measured breastfeeding outcomes
with the different regimes but user opinion has been clear and stable
the whole time. Breastfeeding outcomes have not been improving as
intervention in labor increases, postpartum staff is reduced because
all the money in the budget is getting used up doing unnecessary
interventions in labor, and duration of stay is getting shorter all
the time so women are getting less and less attention or care, period.
We are showing them beyond any doubt that the time after the baby's
birth when breastfeeding is most vulnerable, is unimportant and
uninteresting to us so it should surprise no one that the women are
less dedicated to making it work. After all, if it really MATTERED,
there would be time set aside to help with it, right?

Two years ago we started caring for healthy mothers in a hotel wing.
They have a double bed to share with the baby and they can regulate
their own visitors. They have as many visitors as they want, they
don't have to worry about disturbing the mother in the neighboring
bed, and they are the most rested and the most satisfied when they
leave. Compared to being cared for on the ward where staff do duty as
police to keep people out, even the people the mothers would LOVE to
have near them as they get to know their babies - and police duty
takes time we should be spending being with the mothers - , the hotel
ward is paradise.

I guess it depends on how you define 'visitor'. It also depends on
what kind of a room (and what kind of ward!) the mother is staying in
while the visitors are excluded, or included. It is exhausting to have
to worry about whether your much-longed for visitor is disturbing
those around you, and exhausting to share a room with someone who
doesn't make adjustments for that.

At this point, visitors are less of a problem IMO than the lack of
staff time to spend with the women in the window of opportunity we
have created by banning visitors.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand

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