Family-centered care activities by size of maternity service

Fifty-four of the 55 New York City maternity services in operation as of January 1, 1978 responded to a questionnaire eliciting information as to the availability of certain family-centered care practices. The larger maternity units, especially those in which more than 2,000 live births occur annually, were noted to have a higher prevalence and greater extent of family-centered care activities than the smaller units. Although size alone cannot be isolated as the critical factor in this analysis, its association with other factors helps explain the differences observed.