Post natal ward hell

[SilverLake]

Anyone else experiencing the joys of the postnatal ward?

I'm shattered and want to sleep and amazingly my baby agrees. Meanwhile the woman in the next door cubicle has visitors and one kid (not the baby) has just spent 10 mins screaming his lungs out whilst the adults did nothing.

Please cheer me up with your stories. I'm here for a few days.

[DifferentNow]

Congratulations SilverLake! PN wards are grim. It's the lack of privacy I struggle with. With DD2, I had a fairly traumatic delivery and was in for a few days after. I kept re-living it and just wanted to cry all day so kept my curtains drawn. Every single time one of the nursing staff came into the ward they would throw back my curtains and every single time, once the nurse had left, one if the other mums in the ward would quietly come over and close my curtains again for me, while I lay sobbing. It was all unspoken and very touching.

[addictedismoving]

anyway you can afford a private room?

after dd2's birth the most traumatic part was the night on the post natal ward. we got to the ward at around 2am after being up since 5am the previous morning with dd1. I was shattered after a long day then giving birth! and proplr just kept arriving, aparantly one woman was scared of being on the ward so had to have her mum and partner there till 4am when the nurse finall kicked them out (she arrived about 10 minutes after me) the woman next to me felt the need to call the midwife and try and feed her sleeping baby very loudly every 10 minutes untill 6 am and the baby opposite just wasnt happy. I finally fell asleep at 7am (after dealing with dd2) only to be woken up by partner visiting hours at 8am and some physio who wanted to go through pelvic floor exercises.

at one point I was rocking on the bed in tears praying someone would come and take this thing (my dd2) off me so I could go home and be with my family I was delerious with tiredness. The thoughts and feelings I had still haunt me now.

I was relieved when dh turned up at 8.30 and when he offered to take dd2 for a walk so I could sleep I told him where to shove it and that we were going home!

Next time round I plan on having a home birth or paying for a private room, np way I could go through that, or anything like it again

I dont think this will cheer you up much tho sorry

[SilverLake]

DifferentNow, so sorry to hear you had a traumatic delivery but it's heart warming to hear that one of the other mums was so observant and acted on it.
That's what I must focus on, the good things and not the bad. Staff here are very attentive and I overheard womean in next cubicle is leaving tomorrow. Hurrah.

[Pancakeflipper]

With my first the woman opposite me had 11 people gathered round her bed until 10pm singing and praying. Loudly. Even though only partners were to visit in evenings and leave at 8pm.

The staff wouldn't ask them to leave even though the other 3 of us in the ward asked them to repeatedly.

My bed was near a sink and I keep my curtains closed as Ibwas struggling breast feeding and didn't want all 11 of them staring, so they'd come over run the tap and open my curtains. And stand there and stare Grrrrrrr. Due to my hormones and lack of sleep one of them got my slipper chucked at his head.

[AliceWChild]

Congratulations silverlake!

I too was found sobbing and rocking. They are hell.

Really racking my brain for a better story...

One MW decided we should all be more sociable and threw back our curtains one meal time so we all ate our little meals perched on our beds looking confused with our partners looking even more confused. Then we gradually closed the curtains again.

[MissHairspray]

It's hell - i spent one night on the post natal ward with dd2, and got no sleep at all due to constant feeding and the noise of the others on the ward. Then the next day it was the constant stream of people that kept coming in when all i wanted was rest and privacy -consultant, paediatrician, counsellor, midwife, cleaner, consultant, cleaner ad infinitum. When the bounty lady turned up to ask if I wanted a photo to capture those precious moments she took one look at my face and wisely didn't wait to hear my reply

congratulations on your new baby though!

[AliceWChild]

Just remembered when I first arrived the couple in the bed next door had named their baby shakira. The father had changed his ring tone to that bit from that song that goes 'shakira, shakira, shakira' and then has that fanfare bit. I was glad when they left.

[Pancakeflipper]

My second visit with DS2 was quieter and we had a lovely new mum on our ward who told the Bounty photographer to keep trying until she got one of her baby smiling.

[ImKateandsoismywife]

I know its wrong but some of these stories have made me giggle! I'm so glad I was discharged straight from labour ward first time round and had a homebirth with dc2 so have never been subjected to the joys of the postnatal ward.

Congratulations silverlake

[AliceWChild]

Pancake that is just brilliant! I wish I had used that. If I end up in one ever again I shall delight in using that. Rather than just 'go away'. What did the bounty woman do?

[Wheresmycaffeinedrip]

Sounds like I was pretty lucky. Got taken up and there were a couple of other people there but once they left there was just two of us opposite eachother. Made for a lovely quiet night aside from people insisting on heel pricking dd2 every three hours :(

[Pancakeflipper]

AliceWChild - The Bounty woman spent a very very long time trying to explain to the new mum ( who was utterly lovely) and new father that babies less than a day old don't smile. We had the bed sheets crammed in our mouths to stop the giggles when the new mum said to the photographer "so why do you come round to take photos then?"


I had no intentions of staying in with DS2 but he had low body temperature so we were captured and whisked off to a ward. But made good friends with one mum who had been there 10 days ( iron issues with her baby).

[addictedismoving]

pancake was she being serious?

[eagleray]

Congratulations SilverLake but also v sorry you are suffering on the postnatal ward. I am shuddering at the very thought - due in a few days and really hoping for a homebirth so that I don't have to go through this!

I'm sure that most women on a PN ward are lovely (as shown by DifferentNow's experience) but then you have the visitors, crying, snoring - and I can't think of anything worse than being in a relatively public space at the most vulnerable time of your life.

I have asked about paying for a private room if I have to go in and they said it shouldn't be a problem.

Pankcakeflipper - your stories have brought on laughter-induced BHs! Surely you would need to have the hide of a rhino to be a Bounty photographer...

[SilverLake]

I'm just too mean to spend £900 per night to go over to the private wing. (I got the £900 figure from some other thread on mumsnet so it might not be correct but it's probably not be far off.)

There was a Bounty lady doing photos this afternoon. I said I was feeling far too shattered, she took one look at me and didn't push it. What is so special about Bounty photos anyway? I'm sure DH could take just as good a photo...he sure is busy trying.

I have mumsnet to keep me occupied so it's not all that bad.

[Pancakeflipper]

Addicted - she was. She was lovely, sweet and lived in a bemused bubble at life. She sat in her bed surrounded by helium balloons asking the nurses if it was ok for her mum to take the baby home at night so she could get sleep.

[girlsyearapart]

Congratulations!

After a very very quick delivery with dc4 a year ago my sister persuaded me to go onto the postnatal ward for a few hours to rest before my other 3 wanted my attention at home..

In a room with two beds but to get to the toilet you had to walk past the other persons bed.

And climb over her suitcases (plural)

And her two small children. Loud.

And her husband.

Not fun when you've just given birth

[Dogsmom]

Could you ask your husband to pop and get you some earplugs and an eye mask?
I've literally just sat down after packing my hospital bag and have both of them in there.

[Needingthework]

Congrats.
I hated the pn ward so much when I had DS1, I had DSs 2 & 3 at home. And that was the only reason.
Luckily the births went smoothly.

[COCKadoodledooo]

Congratulations

The day after ds2 was born (we were still in hospital post-section), a lady came on to the ward with her newly delivered baby. Into the bed opposite mine. Once her dp had left after an hour or so, she gave baby a quick cuddle and put it in the fish tank at the end of her bed. Shortly afterwards the babe whimpered a bit, which was ignored. It got more vocal but aside from an "oh do be quiet" it continued to be ignored. Full scale yelling ensued (baby was no more than 5 hours old at this point). Midwife comes to check all is well and utterly fucking delightful mother says yes. Mw says that baby is unhappy, mother says there's no way she's giving in to it - "I'm not starting that caper, he needs to know who's in charge and it's not him!". Mw and most of the ward were and too for the poor chap. Hideous.

Or maybe I'm just too soft. I hadn't put ds2 down at all by that point!

[lucidlady]

I had a private room at Lewisham and it cost me £30 - ask howrah it is, you might be surprised!

[lucidlady]

Howrah = how much

[CheckpointCharlie]

Oh god. My first dd was born in Whitechapel and I was on a ward with a baby who was born addicted to heroin his sister who was about 13 had a Winnie the pooh toy which played a certain tune, I have never forgotten it. Poor baby.

Then six years later DD2 born in a nicer hospital but I had a hideous woman next to me who key calling her new baby dd a little bitch and a shithead, I reported her and told them to call social services.

I feel for you OP. xxx

[JarethTheGoblinKing]

SilverLake - when I was in the same situation a private room cost £70! That was 5 years ago, so it's probably gone up a bit, but if you can afford £100 or so, it'll be the best £100 you ever spend.

Worth asking (next time I'm pre-booking mine!!)

[Jollyb]

pancake I think I can beat your 11 - the woman across from me had 16 visitors at one point. I was mid induction on all fours on my bed and they all kept pulling back my curtain grrr.

There must have been about 4 generations of mothers there and then they had the nerve to complain that the midwife hadn't shown the woman how to bath her baby.

Fortunately this baby is going to be born at a hospital that only has single rooms.