Family suite: An innovative method to provide inexpensive postpartum care

The postpartum hospital stay has been decreasing in the United States in re cent decades. Early discharge to achieve cost savings has been criticized b y many inside and outside the health care community as sometimes being detr imental to the mother and infant. This article describes the efforts of the administration, nursing staff, and medical staff of a large public urban h ospital to develop an alternative to the forced early discharge of mothers and infants.