Follow-up of newborns and their mothers after early hospital discharge.

As postpartum hospital stays have become increasingly shorter, more attention has been focused on the importance of routine postdischarge follow-up for newborns and mothers. Recent guidelines and legislation, however, include few specifics on how follow-up services should be provided. Based on the authors' review of the recent literature, it was concluded that the research to date provides little useful information to guide follow-up practices under current conditions. Additional studies that focus on postdischarge follow-up, rather than on length of hospital stay, are needed to provide the basis for more specific practice guidelines.