What is “rooming in?”
Rooming in means your baby stays with you in your room throughout your hospital stay.
What are the advantages of rooming in?
- Your baby sleeps better and cries less. It is less stressful for your baby.
- Your milk comes in sooner.
- Your baby feeds more often.
- Your baby gains weight more quickly.
- Your baby develops less jaundice.
- Women exclusively breastfeed longer and continue to breastfeed longer.
- You can get to know your baby better.
- You are better prepared to take care of your baby when you return home.
- You can recognize your baby’s feeding cues.
What about sleep?
- You will have the same amount and quality of sleep when rooming in as when your baby is out of the room.
- Get your sleep in chunks of time. Sleep when your baby sleeps.
- The daytime is for sleeping, too. Limit distractions and visitors.
- Find comfortable feeding positions (laid-back or side lying) so you can rest while your baby feeds.
Keeping your baby with you throughout your hospital stay has many benefits for you and your baby, including:
Better sleep
- Babies who room in with their mothers sleep more deeply.
Less crying
- Your baby may cry less when they are with you. Levels of stress hormones of infants separated from
their mothers are twice as high as those of infants who room in. You are “home” for your baby.
Better breastfeeding
- Milk comes in sooner for mothers who room in than mothers who don’t room in.
- Women who room in with their babies continue to nurse their babies longer.
- Babies who room in are fed more often.
- Women who room in with their babies have higher rates of exclusive breastfeeding. Exclusive breastfeeding, meaning babies are not fed other foods or fluids besides breast milk, is recommended for babies’ first six months of life by the American Academy of Pediatrics and many other health organizations. Better weight gain Your baby may gain weight more efficiently.
Less jaundice
- Your baby may have decreased jaundice.
Better opportunity to get to know one another
- You have more opportunity to learn about your new baby! You will learn to recognize feeding cues when your baby stays in the same room. This doesn’t happen as easily when you are separated.
- You will be better prepared to care for your baby at home.
- You will have more frequent interactions with your baby while rooming in. You will have more opportunity to touch, look at, and get to know one another better.