Mother & Child

Laura was only 2 1/2, but so well adjusted for her age--she rarely cried and never had tantrums--that her doctors and parents had no qualms when she was admitted to London's Tavistock Clinic to have an umbilical hernia repaired. Her mother could visit Laura every day, and she would be home in a week. She seemed to understand all this when mummy and daddy explained it. She was even allowed to take her favorite soft toy, unsanitary though it was. Surgery went well, and to doctors and nurses Laura seemed fine. Even her anxious mother thought her occasional crying and distress were normal and unavoidable.

Must She Leave? But there was a keener observer: a hidden camera rigged by Psychoanalyst James Robertson. The camera's eye saw that the emotional damage to Laura had been far worse than doctors or parents suspected. Even at 2 1/2 she could put on a brave-front part of the time, to hide deep distress. But in 24 hours she was beginning to withdraw from solicitous nurses. Soon she withdrew from her mother, resenting her visits because she could not understand why they had to end. Back home, Laura was markedly anxious and irritable for weeks; six months later, mention of the hospital still revived resentment of mummy's "desertion." (In children who have stayed longer than Laura in the hospital, Analyst Robertson has noted more severe, probably permanent emotional damage.)

Last week doctors and hospital administrators on both sides of the Atlantic were debating whether mother had to desert Laura. Stimulus in the U.S. was publication of Robertson's book, Young Children in Hospitals (Basic Books; $3), arguing that hospital restrictions on visits to child patients are needlessly damaging, and that with a child under five, mother should be allowed to go into the hospital and stay--even if it means sleeping on a cot beside the child's crib. Britain's Ministry of Health accepted the idea and declared in a special report: "This is of great benefit to the child, and if the mother is allowed to play a full part in his care, she can be a help rather than a hindrance to the hospital staff."

Fear of Mom. In both Britain and the U.S., hospitals that allow rooming-in by mothers can be counted on the fingers. (In practice, because of work or being tied down by other children, only about half the mothers can take advantage of the chance to room in.) But despite the obvious success of pioneer British programs, many hospital staffs strongly oppose extending the plan. Main reason is fear of mom. Complained one nurse: "You just can't do things that have to be done, when mothers are around." Another: "Mothers can be very difficult, in some cases because the hospital atmosphere heightens their worries, and in others because they're just made that way." Against such objections, the ministry insisted that the child's emotional security comes first.

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