I did use them a little when we had to go back in for a couple of nights with one of the twins that had a touch of jaundice. I didn't use them on the baby that was hospitalized, just in case a nurse ended up changing her diaper and then did goodness knows what with it... But I did use them a bit on the non-hospitalized baby that was in the room with us anyway. The staff saw me with the cloth diapers and they didn't say a word so I wouldn't necessarily expect any huge objections. Hospitals do want a certain level of sanitization, but wether you use cloth dipes or not there will be 'dirty' laundry in your room anyway. There might be dirty baby blankets or clothing, soiled change pads and perhaps soiled sheets. Our hospital even uses cloth wipes and those are kept in a little plastic bag... Even the dirty disposable diapers would be in your room for about a day (until the cleaning service empties your garbage cans). So all in all, except for the heavy sanitizers they'll use when cleaning your room, it's hardly a sanitary environement...

For what it's worth, cloth wipes actually make poopy cleanup easier. They can 'scrub' away poop on skin much much easier than disposable wipes. This is something you'll appreciate especially with the meconium as it tends to be so sticky.

Oh, and if you're breastfeeding, he won't have to do anything with them when he gets home. He can just put them in the pail and then when it comes time to wash you just run a pre-rinse. Exclusively breastfed baby poop is water-soluble (so will all come out in the pre-rinse) and hardly smells (so won't stink up your room or the pail).

The only thing I'd be cautious with using cloth diapers at the hospital is that the hospital staff doesn't accidently throw them away or put them in the hospital laundry. Probably wouldn't happen but you never know... Oh and consider that if your baby spends time in the nursery that the nurses may not know what to do with your diapers when they change them... Other than that I see no problems with using cloth from the very beginning. If you're worried about meconium stains you can just use fleece or disposable liners. I used two disposable liners one on top of the other just to be sure and it worked fine. Any minimal stains just sunned out...

Karen.