Newborns: moving out of the nursery.

If you want to peek at the babies at the nursery while visiting Women's Hospital at the University of Michigan Medical Center, you're going to be disappointed. That's because nearly all of the newborns are instead staying with their moms around the clock in the Mother/Baby Unit.

"Babies and moms do better when they're together day and night," explains Elizabeth Bole, assistant director of perinatal nursing. With shorter hospital stays, the practice not only enhances the new mother's opportunity to feel comfortable with her child before she goes home, but also leads to earlier positive breastfeeding experiences. "It gets moms and babies off to a good start."

According to studies, babies who stay their moms cry 10 times less often than those who sleep in nurseries and get more than twice the amount of personal contact. If mother and baby are doing fine, they are transferred to the most intense, notes head nurse Barbara Dubler. At women's Hospital:

* Newborns are carried from labor and delivery into the postpartum area in the arms...