Theoretically, LDRPs should help get bf off to a good start - mom and baby can stay together, mom can learn to watch for subtle waking cues, lots of skin-to-skin, all that good stuff.

However, in many hospitals, LDRPs seem to be nothing more than a marketing ploy - look at how luxurious our birthing rooms are - private baths, VCRs, CD players, cherry wood veneer on everything.  But the moms get epidurals and all other manner of drugs during the birth, baby is taken away for the usual post-birth rituals and then maybe to the nursery so mom can sleep.  Everyone comes to visit mom in her big, beautiful room so there is little private time to snuggle with baby.

In other words, if the whole birth and breastfeeding culture does not change, then LDRPs aren't going to accomplish much of anything.  The best way to do it, IMHO, is to do away completely with a central nursery and let mom know that baby will be staying with her and she can look forward to having lots of time getting to know him and getting breastfeeding going with nurses/lcs available for help as needed. Visitors should be kept to a minimum.  The nursing staff should be promoting and supporting an atmosphere which projects the normalcy of mom/dad/baby bonding, not just as a cliche but as a real and important phenomenom.

That said, I have absolutely no statistics to back this up.  But the twisting of the concept of the "birthing room" and then the LDRP is something which has burned me up for many, many years now.  Nothing really changed at all.  This is something that I do talk about in my bf classes, encouraging my couples to take advantage of the very powerful opportunity that is available to them.

Warmly,
Sharon Knorr, BSMT, ASCP, IBCLC
Newark, NY (near Rochester on Lake Ontario)
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