Adolescents and rooming-in.

This study was designed to investigate the relationship of two different types of postpartum care (one with rooming-in and one without) in terms of: the infant care instruction received by adolescent mothers, the adolescent mother's perception of her infant, the adolescent mother's comfort in infant caretaking skills, and the adolescent mother's satisfaction with nursing care. Sixty-four postpartum adolescents were interviewed at 2 days and 4 weeks postpartum using six measurement instruments. When compared to adolescents who did not experience rooming-in, adolescent mothers who had rooming-in received more teaching related to cord care (p less than .01). Mothers with rooming-in perceived the average infant as crying less at both 2 days and 4 weeks postpartum (p less than .05). In addition, rooming-in mothers were significantly more satisfied with nursing care (p less than .001). Findings suggest that there may be advantages to rooming-in for adolescents and indicate directions for future study.