mother and baby placements

I did a few weeks of a mum and baby type placement a few years back but mum didn't live in as this one would if it goes ahead.  I have raised my own (uncomplicated) teenagers and have fostered loads of babies but haven't put teenagers and babies together in the same house as a single placement!  and this teen is complicated!

not at all jmk.  if this does come off as a solution for the BM then little man will probably have moved on anyway by then, or will be due to very soon and squishy bubs is BM's bubs.  we have one fc who offers this kind of placement locally and she is full but could give me a lot of advice, and am only considering it at the moment as I believe it is not right to remove a baby simply becoz BM is young and doesn't have a supportive family without at least trying other options first.  but it may come to nothing anyway if she doesn't do well in her initial assessment. and may even then if they prefer a unit rather than a fc, or they might look at agency fc's etc.  i'm just thinking about it at the moment, lots of variables to consider yet still and you're right, the current dynamics in my household might be too difficult to manage. 
just wondering if anyone has actually done it.  I do know there is a fairly high failure rate, but also have seen the result of failure from an assessment unit and it was a very damaged little boy.  would hope in a placement where the BM was herself being parented and could see positive parenting in practice that even if she couldn't manage that, that the baby would have a more positive experience.
one thing I learnt from the earlier experience is that I cannot just stand by and let a BM just 'get on' with things and not intervene when I can see she is struggling.  we have a day in our household called 'black wednesday' when I was instructed to not intervene in any way unless bubs was at serious risk of physical harm.  and by the end of it bubs and my own children were very distressed.  BM thought she'd done 'well' becoz she got the ironing done, and bottles done etc, but she'd ignored all cues from bubs, left him hungry for over 2 hours becoz she missed his cues and couldn't work out how to feed him when out of the house.  I couldn't stand back and allow that to happen again, even if instructed by sw's to do it, so not sure if my resistance to letting a BM just 'get on with it' would be acceptable either! 
so need a long and frank discussion with my fsw, the childs sw and this fc to see what IS expected in this kind of placement and if it was to happen and was successful it would also be the most cost effective way of preventing this and any subsequent children, of going into care.  but do feel quite strongly that this BM needs parenting herself before she'll have any chance of doing it successfully for this or any other baby.

that's pretty much what happened with a mum and bubs I cared for 4 1/2 years ago imp.  mum visited 6 hours a day 5 days a week as part of a parenting training and assessment programme.  it was very structured, we had daily goals, weekly reviews and I had loads of paperwork! but it was pretty obvious within the first week or two that mum wasn't able to manage both the nurture of her baby and the jobs associated with caring for a baby, she could do the jobs or the nurture but not together, which is what led to 'black wednesday'! I can remember about half way through the day she got the ironing board out, planted it across the only gap between the lounge and diner part of the main room so that my AS (learning disabled) had to move the board (with hot iron on) when he wanted to loo or to leave the room, also was placed too near the bubs (I did intervene as I considered that this put two children at significant risk of harm), bubs then started to cry but she carried on ironing, bubs cried some more and eventually she picked him up (iron still on) he stopped crying and she said oh, you just needed a cuddle, then plonked him back into his rocking chair and said , cant cuddle you now i'm doing the ironing.  and that was the tone of the rest of the day really! my daughter and son were both in tears by the end of the day and the poor bubs was beside himself.  I swore i'd never do it again!  but with that mum we all really knew she was going to fail, there was never really any doubt but the courts ordered this intensive parenting and assessment which really only set her up to fail and gave her false hope.  but this new mum now is showing a lot of promise even before the assessment so I think she stands a chance of success given the right placement for her and bubs.
I recently met the first mum in the village I live in, didn't recognise her.  well turned out, clean (a big breakthrough!), working.  but she said she was still making poor choices and had had to move to escape some violent neighbours and also said she'd never have another child becoz she couldn't put herself through what she'd been through with her first baby again.  the only birth parent I have worked with who has got to point in her life where she recognises her failings and has realised she may never escape them completely.  sad, but also kind of gratifying that she has learnt something through this, despite the pain she will have been through.