birth attendants are among the most important persons who  can provide appropriate mother-infant relationship,immediately after birth followed by nurses who continue the task in the postpartum ward.on june 1995,using a data collection from prepared by the research group,staff behaviour toward childbearing mothers and their newborn infants(n=215) was observed in the delivery room and postpartum ward to evaluate staff practice regarding the establishment of mother-infant relationship and rooming in programe in niknafs maternity ward of Kerman.the results were as follow:mean age of mothers was 26+_6.7 and mean of education years was 7.5+_4.5.average parity number was 2.47+_2 with a median of 2.delivery was normal in 51.2% and episiotomy in 48.8%.the most and the least frequent actions taken to establish mother infant relationship were"declaring sex of infant to mother"(88.8%) followed by"encouraging mother for visual and verbal contact"(4.7%).in postpartum ward they were "permission of group meeting of family with the newborn"(98.6%) and"laying the newborn in mother,s embrace"(52.6%).most measures taken to establish mother-infant relationship were significantly related to the personnel of the shift.though the whole practice in the postpartum ward was much better compared with the labor room,it is still far from desirable and both groups especially those in the labor room are in need of more training.there is also a need for more supervision especially during the night shift.