Organization of maternity wards and the structure of working time and mother satisfaction with care

The rooming-in system is the practice of placing the baby in the same hospital room as the mother, where care is provided by a single therapeutic team. In Poland, the organization of work in the rooming-in system is of twofold character. These are either separate wards taking care of the mother and her baby, functioning as one maternity ward, or it consists of two organizational units – obstetric and neonatal wards. These wards have separate obstetric-medical teams and own managing staff. An attempt was undertaken to investigate which of the organizational forms provides more effective care with relation to the structure of the working time of midwives and mother satisfaction. The study was conducted at the end of 2005 and the beginning of 2013 in obstetric and neonatal wards and in maternity wards working in the rooming-in system at 5 hospitals in the Lublin Region. Two groups may be distinguished in the population in the study. The first group were midwives working in the abovedr n. med. Monika Sadowska1,2, prof. nadzw. dr hab. n. med. Anna Ksykiewicz-Dorota2 dr n. med. Artur Wdowiak1