As a staff nurse/lactation consultant on a mother-baby unit, I am one of
those who encourages families to use gentle methods (unwrapping, holding
upright, talking, etc.) to try to wake babies every three to four hours
during the day. If the baby won't wake up and open his mouth within five to
ten minutes, most nurses will tell the moms to try again later.

We tend to be dealing with families who believe in medicated (usually
epidural, often Nubain) births. Vacuum extraction is fairly common. Their
idea of "Family Centered" is to have everyone except the mother having
contact with the baby. Although the policy is to encourage breastfeeding in
the LDR, there are plenty of excuses why this is not done.

Breast-feeding jaundice and poor weight gain (because the baby doesn't eat
enough) is extremely common. The families have so many visitors
(Family-Centered ?) that there is no time to spend feeding the baby,
especially the "good" baby that sleeps so quietly. Formula-fed babies are
often not fed, either. If the baby cries too much, "Just send it to the
nursery. Mom needs her rest."

Anyway, my standard advise is "Try to wake your baby to eat every three hours
during the daytime. If he won't eat, try again later. When babies eat a lot
the first couple of weeks, the mom has less problem with engorgement, the
baby has less chance of getting really jaundiced, he's happier, and things
just generally go better."

While I don't believe in being abusive to babies, there are good reasons why
nurses encourage waking babies in the hospital. Many babies will happily
starve. When rooming-in is the norm, not an option and when minimal labor
medication and intervention is the norm, maybe then the nurses won't have to
be so "pushy".