[Prepartum expectations, behavior in labor and the puerperium and postpartum satisfaction with the birth experience. II. Rooming-in and breast feeding].

Quite a number of young parents want to consciously experience and take active part in the very first days after childbirth. We interviewed prospectively 95 women as to their attitude towards rooming-in, breast-feeding and child care and how they had been able to carry out their intentions. Special consideration was given to those personal and institutional factors that might promote or reduce their feeling of satisfaction with the rooming-in experience. 89 couples made use of the rooming-in offer. 78 of them found the offered times "just right". Women wanting to go back to work used rooming-in significantly more often than housewives. 92% of the persons interviewed regretted not being allowed to change diapers or to bathe the baby. Those women who even before parturition had been wanting to bathe their infants and change diapers, returned their baby to the nurses significantly less often. Thus, both institutional and interactional problems contribute towards the successful management of the postnatal period. Women whose partners attended rooming-in, and those who retrospectively agreed with their decision of how to give birth, were significantly more satisfied with their overall experience.