Exclusive Breastfeeding, 24-Hour Rooming-In, and the Importance of Women's Informed Choices

To measure the relationship between exclusive breastfeeding and 24-hour rooming-in for low-risk primiparous women with uncomplicated vaginal births at term.

Descriptive correlational design with a qualitative component.

The Labor & Delivery and Mother/Baby units of a community hospital with more than 2,300 births annually.

A convenience sample of 89 women.

Participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale, which measures attitudes toward breastfeeding, and a four-item questionnaire at 2, 6, and 12 weeks postpartum to assess breastfeeding status.

Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale scores suggest that most of the sample had positive attitudes toward breastfeeding. The average separation time for women and newborns was 3 hours 40 minutes. No statistically significant differences were found regarding maternal attitudes toward breastfeeding or mother-newborn separation during the postpartum period between newborns who were exclusively breastfeeding or formula-feeding at 12 weeks.

Success with exclusive breastfeeding in the immediate postpartum period is not necessarily dependent on 24-hour rooming in, and it is important for women to have the ability to make informed choices regarding newborn separation in the hospital.