Thank you all for your comments.
Suspicions confirmed: it's a USA-thing.

The reasoning: no postpartum mom is capable of taking care of her baby 24
hrs. She must have help. Staff just can't be "running in there every 5
minutes" to make sure baby is still breathing or hasn't fallen on the
floor. Therefore, if mom wants rooming in, she must have someone stay with
her and that requires a private room.

Another: baby security: 4 moms, 4 babies, many visitors = chaos. The
hospital is responsible for infant security & safety.

Another: all those babies in a 2- or 4-person room keep moms awake all
night. She goes home exhausted, with a crying baby, and those are risk
factors for abuse. It's like the hospital staff consider it their
responsibility to prevent this potential abuse situation, at least in the
first couple of days after discharge. 

Anyone have creative come-backs for me when these arguments come up in
meeting?
I have my own ideas, but when they throw around words like Liability,
License (the RN's), Responsibility, Obligation, HIPAA, JCAHO, Child Abuse,
etc, I'd like to be sure what I say is really effective.

Thanks.
Phyllis



--- Phyllis Adamson, IBCLC, RLC
--- Glendale, AZ, USA
--- [log in to unmask]
--- Scanned by Norton AntiVirus with auto-updates

             ***********************************************

To temporarily stop your subscription: set lactnet nomail
To start it again: set lactnet mail (or digest)
To unsubscribe: unsubscribe lactnet
All commands go to [log in to unmask]

The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(R)
mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html