Medicines at the bedside.

ISITING physicians and nurses often express skepticism about our program of bedside selfmedication for postpartum patients, Some new patients who have not attended antepartum classes are skeptical too, at first. But patients and physicians and nurses who are in the midst of the program are happy with it. Bedside self-medication was designed to keep pace with the modern philosophy of obstetric care. The majority of obstetric patients are healthy young women undergoing a normal physilogic process. Permissive care in our maternity department aims to make the patient's stay a natural experience, simulating as much as possible her home environment.