The reality of the hospital environment is that everything is all about customer 
satisfaction. Sure, visiting hours are limited in ICU because PEOPLE ARE SICK! 
Visiting hours are usually limited on other floors as well.

But maternity is a totally different kettle of fish. It's all about family and what 
the mother wants......................and in general, the mother wants the 
visitors and with this huge push on "customer satisfaction," there isn't a whole 
lot you can do about it but take every opportunity that you can to find your 
patient and S.O. alone and do the teaching then.

I always ask my families what their wishes are as far as visitors goes, and I 
am happy to be the one to kick the onlookers out of then room is need be.

In this day and age, no one wants pain and everyone wants immediate 
gratification. No one wants to be bothered. Look at Gonneke's most recent 
post about the mother of the 5 day old breastfeeding infant whom she decides 
to wean because "it is just too much work." Our society has given everyone 
the idea that we should all take the easy way out and it is my personal 
opinion that a large number of new parents do just that.

Granted, there are interruptions in a hospital: some avoidable and some not. 
But until the general birthing public (aka: the "consumer") gets a clue and 
begans to demand differently, open visitation policies will remain.

On a very quiet night several years ago, I called every hospital with a birthing 
unit here in the state of Connecticut and posed the question to each 
regarding their visitation policies. With only 2 or 3 exceptions (big inner city 
facilities with great security problems), all of them had the "open visitation" 
policy. They may have been locked units as far as a locked front door, but the 
visiting hours were open.

I am on another listserve (much like Lactnet) that is made up of maternity 
nurses (labor/delivery, post-partum, nursery) from all over the country. The 
issues and frustrations that I am presenting to you all here are the same ones 
voiced by pretty much everyone everywhere. The trends will only change 
when the consumers change and personally, I don't see that happening 
anytime soon. Most nurses don't like things the way they are, either. 

That's why I am always talking here about taking each mother/baby where 
they are and going from there.

Betsy Riedel RNC, IBCLC

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