making a change to couplet care

[rncjknicu]

I'm the Clinical Coordinator for the Maternal Child Dept of a 110 bed hospital. We have a 24 bed postpartum unit, a nursery and a 5 bed Special Care Nursery. Persently we do not use couplet care. We have 2 NICU nurses, a nursery nurse and 2 postpartum nurses. Today is typical with 12 moms in postpartum, 8 babies in the nursery and 4 SCN babies. Numbers do vary. I'm trying to make a move toward couplet care. How do other similiar sized hospitals use couplet care? Any help would be extreamly appreciated!

[TazziRN, RN]

Our hospital does nothing but. If a baby stays in the nursery rather than with mom for more than a short period, there's something wrong with Baby. A woman in labor is assigned to a nurse, and during delivery there is at least one other staff member (RN/LVN) in the room, if not two. Postpartum the one primary nurse takes care of both Baby and Mom. Baby is kept in the room at all times except for short breaks when Mom needs a shower and there's no visitor to watch Baby. I was shocked when I had my baby. I thought babies were kept in the nursery at night, and she was born in the evening. I had a section and it was after 8 by the time I went back to my room. I couldn't put her down, and I told the nurse I wanted to hold her as much as possible before she took Demon away. She said "Oh, she's staying in here with you, unless you don't want her to." I even got to have her in the bed with me all night long.......my nurse set up pillows as a barrier.