I am going to talk about my experience as a post-partum nurse prior to becoming an IBCLC. 

Just imagine:

A mother delivers at 8:00am. Labor started early in the morning around 3:00am so mother has been up since then. We will pretend it was a normal delivery. Mother feels well and happy. Baby is alert for a couple of hours after delivery nurses all is well and then falls asleep. Mother on the other hand doesn't get to sleep. The news of the baby has spread to the family which come to visit her all day long in the hospital or call on the phone. Besides family and friends seeing her she has the medical team as well. I am going to list the people who will visit her in the hospital (this will vary from hospital to hospital and protocols per hospital will vary as well so this is not exact for every mother but here it goes:

Mother will receive an assessment every 6-8 hours. So her nurse will come in at least 3-4x. 
The baby's assessment will be done between 4-8 hours. 
Food trays will be delivered 3x and food trays will be picked up 3x.
A another person besides the nurse may do mothers vital signs so another 3-4trips inside the room
The person who does pictures will come in
A nutritionist will come in
The respective 'religion' representative will come in
The baby will need some labs draw (maybe 2 different times, or more if BS needs to be checked)
The midwife/OB will come in
The pediatrician will come in. 
If you work at a teaching hospital then the family will not only be seen by the Attending midwife/ob/pediatrician but also the resident.
The lactation consultant will enter
Mother will likely have blood drawn at least once
If mother has decided to do umbilical cord donation then they will come in to draw blood
Depending on hospitals protocol the mother may experiencing hourly rounds (so 24 times of the door opening)
A change of shift will happen at least once so another trip by nurse to introduce next shift nurse.

If we sit back and look at all these times the mothers room door opens - it is unthinkable. 
So now it is 10:00 pm and baby who no longer is being held constantly from family and friends decides to finally wake up. Remember that mother has been awake since at least 3:00am (that is assuming mother only has a 5 hour labor - how unlikely is that) the previous day and now the high of having a baby is gone and mother is now starting to reach a sinking point in her ability to stay awake. Mother feeds baby thinking that the baby will fall asleep afterwards but the baby has other thoughts. Mother feeds baby again and again and again. And at some point she may fall asleep with the baby in her arms because baby will not sleep in the bassinet and of course the nurse comes in and sees this and 'talks' with mother about how dangerous this is. Nurse attempts to put baby back in bassinet and baby screams and mother nurses baby again. At some point mother says "I CAN"T DO THIS ANYMORE". 
Her body is shutting down, she needs sleep. At this point she is willing to do anything she can to get 'just a little bit of sleep'. Her options as she sees it:
1) Falling asleep with baby in bed. Baby will only sleep if i hold him or he is nursing (I am not against co-sleeping although Co-sleeping in the hospital bed is not safe). 
2) Giving a pacifier - baby just wants to suckle
3) Giving formula - baby keeps wanting to suckle so he has to be hungry.  

So with looking at all that. I tell my nurses that if this is the situation you run into. Stay in the room and help mother feed to make sure baby does have a full belly. Check latch and do breast compressions as baby is nursing and then other second breast and do the same. Then take baby from the room for 1-2 hours. Mother receives 1-2 hours of non-interuppted sleep and she feels amazing re-energized. 

Instead of educating the staff on how important it is to keep mother and baby together. Ask them why they feel the need to take baby out of the room and i bet the above it what you will find. Ask the nurses how 'we' as a team can work to encourage rooming-in and breastfeeding. Maybe your hospital can start  quiet time hours. Pick 1-2 times a day where the mother and baby will be left alone to 'nap'. For instance every day from 5:00-7:00 there will be no one entering the room. Explain this to parents upon admission so they can tell them family and friends as well, encourage mother to sleep during that time, turning off cell phones, explain to mother what will likely happen come night time. The nurses and doctors can make sure to get all their stuff done so they wont need to enter rooms. This is a great chance for the nurses to get charting done as well. 

Wow - that made me tired just thinking of it.
Jessica Callahan RN, IBCLC
NC, USA

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