>but I don't see a lot of benefits to isolating mothers from each
>other. It sends a message of self-sufficiency, and models an isolationist
>mode of life. I don't want new moms to feel isolated; and they can't be
>self-sufficient without great cost to themselves.

I agree that new moms should not be isolated - from the people they love and
who love them. They can however be isolated from strangers and the
stranger's loved ones without any harm. It is sad that some women will be
alone in their private room; but most will have a partner and/or other
support person. Hospital birth should work to be as much like normal (home)
birth as possible, and normal physiological birth in which a woman and her
family are often in "seclusion" both from outside distractions, and from
uneccessary work. While it may be easier to teach material fewer times to
groups of moms versus individual moms, this can be remedied by having
classes X times a day where moms can meet in a pleasant environment (on
comfy chairs) then go back to their private rooms (nesting). One hospital I
encountered remodeled their entire birthing unit with private rooms and
simulataneously built a beautiful sun room with rocking chairs and couches
where moms could gather together with their babies (and expose any
subclinically jaundiced babies to the sun) or meet guests there. It was a
very nice change from the more drab PP room. The women were in control of
their "social time", not forced by policy to be with people at this
momentous occasion in their lives.  While I agree that women sometimes do
learn well together (as described in Women's Ways of Knowing), I think they
also need privacy surrounding birth, both in labor, delivery and postpartum.

Michelle DePesa

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