What is “Room-in “?

The “Room-in” nursing, is family-centered nursing method; It is the care of mothers and newborns in the same unit. It can provide persistent contact between family and new members, and establish close relationship as soon as possible. Also, it can teach new parents how to take care of their babies, making them feel more confident after going home.

The advantages of “Room-in”

• The mother may have adequate rest:

The mother may feed her baby depend on the baby’s need post-natally. If she feels tired, she could lie down and feed. If she feels exhausted, she could send the baby back to baby room and take sufficient rest.

• Early establishment of parenthood:

The experts pointed out that the newborn period is the most important period for establishing parentage. Thus, early contact is helpful for establishing relationship.

• Enhances opportunity of a successful nurturing breast milk:

In the “Room-in” process, the mother may adjust nurturing time depending on baby's physiological need and the breast engorgement.  This not only helps the baby receive more nature and warmer feeding, but also satisfies the baby’s physiological drive and sense of security. It has positive effect for future personality development. Meanwhile, frequent nurturing prevents breast engorgement sensation and mastitis.

• Learning baby-feeding skills

In the “Room-in” situation, the nursing staff may teach and demonstrate, and assist the parents in nurturing the baby like how to change the diaper, check the body temperature, and observe a newborn’s unusual conditions.

Novice parents can study how to deal with the baby’s emergent situation and abnormal change at the same time.

Then, we could strengthen parents’ confidence when taking care of the baby and reducing unnecessary anxiety.