Just to expand on how nurseries disappeared here.....about 20-25
years ago, nurseries started to be used only for the first night or
so, though mothers were 'allowed'  to have their babies at their
bedside then, and they were also 'allowed' to ask if the babies could
be placed in the nursery at other times, mainly if the babies
'needed' treatment for jaundice or if the mother was stressed.
Rooming-in was normal apart from that first night, and in fact
rooming-in was already well-established.

(I should say I am not speaking for every unit - the above was common
practice, but prob not universal at the same time)

However, as long as nurseries exist, they have tended to be used at
some point, mostly to the detriment of bf and of mother and baby
closeness.

In most units, as I said, nurseries don't exist any more. If a mother
is stressed and asks for someone to care for her crying baby (for
example), midwives can take the baby for her. In enlightened units,
midwives can actually wear slings with the baby, though this is very
unusual.  More often, the baby will be cuddled, or else swaddled and
put in the crib and placed in the office. Jaundiced babies can have a
biliblanket - they don't need to go anywhere special.

I suspect the motivating factor behind the lack of nurseries was
economic - if mother's bedside is the prime place to care for a
newborn, and mother is the prime carer, fewer staff are needed, and
no one is needed to care for the babies in the nursery. Please don't
think we are all wonderfully progressive about
breastfeeding.......though I am more optimistic than I used to be ; )

But once the nurseries are gone, they are swiftly forgotten!

HWN, UK

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