Postpartum/newborn patients: who are they and do they all need the same amount of nursing care?

Aim: To obtain a quantitative description of mother-newborn presentations and to identify their nursing care requirements while in hospital.

Background: Recommendations on minimum staffing levels are broad based with implications that all new mothers and newborns are normal without complications. However, in a large tertiary centre, mother-newborn dyads do present with complications, suggesting variation in nursing care requirements.