Family Centered Maternity Care
An Innovative Way to Care for Mother, Baby and Family
Family Centered Maternity Care is an innovative care model that focuses on the priorities and needs of mothers, their infants and families. Mothers and infants are cared for as a "couplet" by the same nurse, in the mother's room, to facilitate teaching of parenting skills and to promote family bonding.
The birth of a baby represents the birth of a family as well. Family members are all forming a new relationship with new responsibilities to each other, to the baby and to society as a whole. Family-centered care is care that recognizes the importance of these new relationships and responsibilities. The goal of family-centered care is to obtain the best possible healthy outcome for all members of the family, both individually and as a group. (Definition: The International Childbirth Education Association Board of Directors, 1986.)
"Family Centered Maternity Care represents a wonderful enhancement of maternity care," says Carlton Pearse, MD, St. Luke's Hospital chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology. "This is all about options for the mother and family within a clinically safe and supportive atmosphere."
Family-centered care does not expect parents to care for their infant alone when the baby is with them in the hospital room. Instead, a mother-baby nurse cares for both the mother and her baby and nurtures the bonding and attachment in the new family. In fact, mother-baby nurses care for the whole family. The daily schedule is adjusted to meet the family's needs. Each morning the mother-baby nurse helps the family plan their day with care that is flexible for each family member.
What Is Mother-Baby Nursing?
Mother-baby nursing is part of family-centered care. It gives each family member the education and support the family needs to welcome the new baby into the family's life and routines.
Mother-baby care is not the same as rooming-in, where parents are expected to care for their baby by themselves. Instead, the same nurse cares for both mother and baby in the comfort and convenience of the mother's room.
By caring for the baby at the mother's bedside, mother-baby nurses promote bonding and attachment. As a result, babies are happy and the new parents leave the hospital more confident in their parenting skills.
"The first days in the hospital represent a tremendous learning opportunity, particularly for new parents," says Pearse. "By keeping the baby and parents together as much as possible, we can provide one-on-one education and hopefully allow the parents to go home feeling that much more confident."
What are the benefits of Family Centered Maternity Care?
- There is better communication between healthcare providers, including obstetricians and pediatricians who work with one nurse instead of two.
- Questions are answered more quickly because nurses care for both mother and baby.
- The mother and her nurse have a closer relationship because the mother spends more time with her nurse while she cares for both mother and baby.
- Parents receive better education as the mother-baby nurse demonstrates baby care at the mother's bedside. She will also teach the mother how to best care for herself.
- Parents don't miss special moments with their baby. Because the baby care takes place in the mother's room, parents share in the special moments and have more quiet time getting to know their baby.
- Babies cry less. Studies have shown that babies actually cry much less when they are close to their mothers.
- Feeding is easier. A mother can feed her baby whenever he or she is hungry, on the baby's schedule.
- Breastfeeding is likely to be more successful. If babies are fed on demand, breastfeeding is more likely to get off to a good start. Since breastfeeding works on supply and demand, the more a baby nurses, the more stimulated breasts are to produce milk.
- If a mother elects to bottlefeed, that decision is supported by our nursing staff.
- Family bonding is promoted, and babies begin to learn to sleep during the night. Babies will begin to learn routines right from the start, and parents will learn their baby's needs.