I don't know what is standard in hospital or hospital outpatient settings. I do know what is possible in the home setting. Many normal newborns need about 50 minutes to feed. Not all newborns are going to be ready to feed the second you walk in the door. Most parents who call for a home visit have feeding problems - so their newborns often take longer to feed -- or may require supplementation which then also requires expressing milk.
In order to watch a full feeding from start to finish, you need at least one hour. In order to assess milk expression (by hand and/or with a pump) you need at least 15 minutes if not longer. In order to address many other factors and take a full health history, I do not believe you can consistently do a full assessment, evaluation, and develop a plan in under two hours - barring those exceptional cases where the problems are minimal to nonexistent.
Even Beatrice Beebe who has worked on attachment theory in the field of psychology - has stated that she cannot do a full assessment in the typical 45 minutes to 1 hour allocated by pscyhotherapists. When she works with infants and mothers she needs a full two hours.
The mere notion that someone can do a full assessment and create a workable plan that a mother is actually able to follow in 30 minutes just makes me very sad to contemplate and it makes me realize why I get see so many mothers who have been in the hospital who needed more help than was possible in that setting.
I'm not the only one who believes this - recently I was forwarded a link to this article in Lactation Matters where she also states the period of "two hours".
http://lactationmatters.org/2014/04/17/q-a-with-sherry-payne-msn-rn-cne-ibclc-an-innovator-in-lactation-equity/
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