Presumably there is space for each mother already. Surely one could place
the baby's bed next to the mother's if the mother's bed is not suitable for
co-sleeping?  In our unit, half of what used to be the nursery is now the
room where babies are bathed and changed, and where blood tests are taken of
babies, either with or without mother present. The other half is a dining
room for the mothers.  We do hearing checks and transcutaneous pulse
oxymeter reading on all babies, wherever it's handy to do it. Mothers and
fathers do the infant care, including feeding.  Our ward is a refurbished
psychiatric ward, definitely not designed with its current use in mind, but
serves the purpose.  
Architecture will not make a unit Baby-Friendly, policies and procedures
will. The short version of becoming Baby-Friendly is simply getting rid of
all the obstacles to breastfeeding: mother-baby separation, routine
supplementation, and bad advice (feed three hourly, or two hourly, or
anything that does not place the baby's cues at the top of the list of
reasons to feed).
Formerly, at least, schools of architecture taught hospital and prison
architecture together, since they were basically the same.  According to Gay
Palmer (but I can't find chapter and verse, sorry) US hospitals 'enjoyed'
the benefit of free architectural advice when designing maternity wards,
given by (you guessed it!) manufacturers of breastmilk substitutes.  
Don't be hoodwinked into abandoning plans to go Baby-Friendly due to high
costs of rebuilding wards.  Change the function of existing rooms.  Put
babies and mothers together, get rid of promotion of breastmilk substitutes,
revise the procedure book, and see to it that all staff caring for them are
competent to give guidance for the successful establishment of breastfeeding
from birth. You'll have enough to do without worrying about the building.

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway

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