[Simultaneous maternal and infant care or rooming-in care in the General Hospital of Mexico of the S.S.A].

This paper presents the preliminary results of a prospective study undertaken at the Neonatal Unit of the Hospital General de México, S.S.A. (Méx.) conducted to evaluate the possibilities offered by the rooming-in system in this hospital. In both groups, having 250 patients, most of them eutrophic, it was noticed that none of the babies assisted by their mothers showed severe infections, as compared to four babies that showed clinical data compatible with septicemia; these babies were assisted in the nursery in a traditional way, but three of them died. Many of the aspects about the rooming-in system are reviewed, concerning the mothers as well as the babies, and it is finally determined that it is a practical, accessible system that optimizes resources and seems to offer immediate benefits to the mothers as well as to the babies.