Maternity Ward Beds Get An Upgrade: Newborns Can Now Stay Beside Their Mother Right After Childbirth

Every mother knows how painful it is to give birth. This is especially when they cannot pick up their own child or when they have to wait for the nurses to bring their child to them.

But now, a new version of the maternity bed has come out with sections for both the mother and the child. This means that the newborn is easily within arm's reach of the mother at any time. BellyBelly posted an image of the maternity bed on their official Facebook page where it has already garnered over 220,000 likes. It has also been shared over 100,000 times on the popular social networking site.

This type of bed would be especially useful for new mothers who are recovering from a C-section. Immediately after childbirth, mothers who opt for this delivery method often find themselves too weak to pick their newborn baby out of a hospital bassinet. With this bed, mothers who had recently undergone a C-section now only need to reach over to the bed's built-in bassinet to feel closer to their child.

Pop culture website Pop Sugar hailed this version of the maternity bed as a "game changer." Not only does this type of maternity bed increase the closeness between mother and child, but it also makes breastfeeding easier and more convenient for the mother.

Unfortunately, there is no information from the manufacturers of the maternity bed about where it could be found. However, because of the widespread attention that this maternity bed has gathered, it could only be a matter of time before it becomes the standard in most hospitals. "The baby is right next to the mother, so it's easier with breastfeeding and she can reach over to comfort the baby,"  Dr. Iffath Hoskins, MD, an OB-GYN said about the appeal of this type of bed saying 

Despite understanding its appeal, she was also quick to point out some of its design flaws. "If the mother rolls over from exhaustion, there would be the risk of smothering the baby," the doctor said in her interview with Yahoo! Parenting. "The mother's arm could go into that space in her sleep and cover the baby or she could knock a pillow to the side and it's on the baby." In her interview, she also says, "That's why we don't let the baby sleep in the bed with the mother. That's why we don't give blankets other than swaddling."