MNHQ here: have you got strong feelings and personal experience about partners staying overnight on postnatal wards?

I don't know what I'd have done if dh wasn't allowed to stay. I was very unwell after having my baby 4 weeks ago. I lost a lot of blood during a traumatic forceps delivery. I was not in a good condition afterwards, in a lot of pain, hooked up to various drips, blood transfusions, blood pressure machines etc so could hardly hold the baby let alone change nappies or do anything else.

I don't think birth partners should stay. The bays are already noisy and cramped and some people do not have the sense to be respectful to others. I have had 2 c sections and needed help at night for both but was able to press the buzzer and they came to help. If someone is in a ward and no one comes at night when they buzz they need to complain as that is not acceptable (as needing support to care for the baby at night is often a reason given for needing their partner there at night).

Tbh I was very unwell after my c section due to loosing a lot of blood and the midwives were rubbish! I could barely move and they just left me to deal with it by myself and as a first time mum that is scary! If my partner wasn't there to help my daughter would have been in trouble

After the birth of my 2nd, I would have done anything to have my husband stay with me. He was made to leave quite literally less than an hour after her birth because that was the deadline. I asked if any single rooms were available and was told it was far too late to be asking and I should have booked one. What frustrated me was how quick they were to tell my husband to leave so fast after our babies birth but didn't care about the other partners on the ward who stayed hours later. If you want them to leave, thads one thing. But don't leave me alone after a traumatic birth and let other people stay with their partners.

I was on a ward after an emergency section with one other woman. There were two other beds. I desperately wanted DH on the first night with me but they wouldn't allow him to stay. However, they did allow the other woman to have her partner overnight and she told me it was because she worked at the hospital. It didn't bother me at all that he was with her other than it making me feel very alone and my wishes ignored.

I'm not sure how I'd feel now though.

Before I had babies, I couldn't see the issue. Of course new dads want to stay with their babies. Now I've experienced sleeping on a ward after a section, I would much rather it was women only. I felt very vulnerable and exposed as it was without having to worry about other people's partners being there 24/7. The wards are cramped enough as it is without doubling the number of people.

It's nothing personal to the men as I'd love my own DH to be able to stay but it's not so easy to relax to establish feeding or trips to the bathroom when you're bleeding heavily. I'd just rather as few people as possible saw me in my least dignified state.

No basically

In special circumstances women should
Be moved to a side room and of course their partner can stay

But in a normal mixed ward it's an invasion of privacy and the same rules should apply as for other wards

This happened to me and it was awful, as hairymuffet says it's just wrong. I asked to be moved. In fact, I made a bit of a fuss, until I was moved (c section birth).

It's just wrong.
Invasion of privacy at a vulnerable time
OK in a single room, not a shared ward.

On a shared ward, no.
I was on a shared ward with 1 other woman and her husband just didn't leave when the midwife asked him to at 10pm, he kept having loud conversations on his mobile keeping me awake until 2am when I had to go and find a midwife to ask him to leave and even then she had to ask him twice to go. I felt very vulnerable with my new baby and didn't want a strange man near where I was (trying) to sleep.