A woman on the antenatal ward has been snoring for 12 hours

[Winterfellismyhome]

Currently in for reduced movements (again) and drs talking about a section tomorrow. A woman in the opposite bed is the loudest snorer in the world. Each time shes been woken up for monitoring, shes fallen back to sleep very quickly. I have no idea how she does it. Tell me your ward horror stories to make me not lose my mind

And yes i have earplugs but stupidly didnt bring enough so trying to ration them

The fear I have of being in hospital overnight as I'm a really loud snorer! I was in for 2 nights in summer and I barely slept because I was so worried about disturbing everyone else! I told the nurse and she said "we have earplugs if anyone is disturbed, you need to rest". Didn't make me any less stressed about it though.

Also, when I had my first baby she was born on Xmas eve. I genuinely (high on post c-section drugs and post-natal hormones) asked the midwife if I could go home for Christmas and then if come back and pick baby up on Boxing Day! 😂😂 Obviously I didn't mean it and I've been an adequate parent for the last 18 years, but in the moment it made perfect sense!

My DS was born at 35 weeks so we were on the NICU unit for a week or so in kangaroo care (we got a room for me and DS as he needed a heated cot etc. but didn't need an incubator). We were very fortunate that our hospital also provided ensuite rooms for Dads/partners alongside the NICU unit. A woman in the room next to mine had a partner who played abrasively loud dance music at all hours of the day and night (bearing in mind there were parents sitting with very poorly, very early babies just down the corridor), boasted very loudly that he'd never used his room that he'd been allocated (no, but he used to take himself off for a leisurely morning shit in the only loo on the ward, leaving skidmarks in his wake and preventing any of the Mums on the ward from being able to go to the loo or have a shower whilst he was in there pebble dashing the bog) and talked at a million decibels all the time. I was climbing the walls to get out after a week of being subjected to him every fucking day.

I had long stays with both of my children and the most irritating part was watching how many other new parents were coming and going off the ward! But there are so many horror stories, some highlights:
-with my eldest the woman in the bed next to me had also been on the labour ward with me while I was induced, and decided it would be a great idea to loudly discuss my labour with her family. I had a traumatic labour and almost ended up giving birth on the labour ward. This resulted in her entire family (far more than the 2 visitors we were supposed to have) gawking at me through the curtains.

• when that woman left, the next ones husband thought nothing of opening my curtains to take my chair and pushing the chair so far against the curtain that it was touching my bed! (he needed the space to sleep apparently). When he wasn't snoring his head off he was talking very loudly on his phone about how exhausting the baby was.... His poor partner was doing all the work.
• with my 2nd I had an emergency c-section and was in the HDU for 2 days attached to all sorts if wires/tubes etc. And unable to get up at all. I was trying to establish breastfeeding with the curtains wide open because the midwives needed to see me and soooo many men walked past staring. It was the most uncomfortable 48 hours of my life.
• again with my 2nd once we were on the postnatal ward I was the only woman without a partner staying and I felt really vulnerable. (I know that's my problem not anyone else's but I was in a really vulnerable position and also it's bad enough sharing a bathroom with 3 other women after birth let alone 6 people).
• there was a woman on the ward with my youngest who let her baby cry, constantly, because she didnt want to spoil her! Apparently she had 6 others at home and so wouldn't be able to immediately respond. She was a newborn fgs you can't spoil a newborn baby! I was glad when she left but I felt so awful for that poor baby.

This is why I had wanted a home birth with my second

I remember being on a pre natal ward with a professional snorer over 30 years ago. She sounded like a freight train going through a tunnel.
She would be sat at breakfast looking as fresh as a daisy, while the rest of us were bleary eyed wrecks. It was terrible.
Would washing your ear plugs in warm water help to reshape them op?

I feel for you! Reminds me of when I had a c-section. Our little ward was right next door to theatre, so there was the constant banging of beds on theatre doors, every time I dropped off, someone woke me up to test something or other and the baby in a bed over the way wouldn’t stop crying. Off my tits on morphine, I’m not proud that I eventually lost it and kind of forgot that curtains are not sound proof! Was only in 2 nights but it felt like torture!
Hope you get some rest soon. Btw, I always reuse those earplugs.

Im fairly positive i had a private room for child 2 (cs)

Child 1 i was in for 5 nights and 4 of those nights were in a private room

So it was a dreadful shock to be on a ward for child number 3! 😀

I deffo had a private room for two nights with number 2

The lady whined constantly about needing a cigarette- her husband kept popping off to have one and I think that was just to annoy her. After a few hours she asked me if I could watch her baby when she went for a fag. I earnestly said I couldn't- I wouldn't know what to do as my baby was only 6 hours old! They ended up just leaving him and sauntering off.
The husband was very loud and stayed all night- I wish I'd asked to move to bay as I am quite nervous around men, especially very vocal ones but I was feeling very nervous and had just had a fourth degree tear repaired.
They probably found me annoying as my baby smelt very strongly of cabbage.

With ds1 I was in a very crowded nightingale post natal ward in London, the beds were practically touching each other and the staff were nowhere to be seen as they were run off their feet.
I arrived on the ward at midnight having not had anything to drink for probably 24 hours and the staff looked really put out when I asked for a cup of tea, I'd been promised tea and toast hours earlier.
I didn't get a wink of sleep mostly due to the woman next to me hissing at her baby to shut up

Keep waking her up.

Once when I was in hospital the lady opposite me used to hurl her bedpan across the ward - I think she must have been a former Olympic discus player judging by the range - being on the other side of the ward was no protection. The nurses used to hover round her to grab it off her pdq before she could get into action.

I had an emcs at 10pm and was in the ward by midnight. The woman next to me had her TV on blaringly loud and when told to turn it down, did so for a minute and then turned it back up. The woman opposite finally cried great heaving sobs and begged her to switch it off. She then occupied herself with ringing every single person she knew and yelling her birth story down the phone. "I SHIT THE BED THREE TIMES. THE BABY WAS COVERED IN IT, I TORE INTO MY ARSE" x45 retellings.

I did worry that being discharged 13hrs post emcs would be challenging but by God, it was bliss.

Oh and with my second child, the partner of the woman to my right kept peering round my curtain while I was BFing and ogling. He did say something to his DP about my "milky tits". He seemed to think he'd wandered into a porn fantasy. He was mithering his DP for a blow job at the point that a midwife kicked him out. That was bloody awful.

I was in hospital recently and the lady in the next bed fell asleep and snored loudly throughout the day. The nurses would say, “Aaww bless, she’s breathing heavily.”

Put your ear plugs.... up her nose

After having DD2 I was in a side room which had two beds in. The woman next to me talked really loudly into her phone all day and so did her partner, their toddler was stepped into his buggy for the whole day. After lights out some professionals came to visit (social worker?) and just switched the lights on and didn’t even try to keep their voices low despite the conversation being sensitive. It was awful. The next morning I asked to be put on the main ward and that was more peaceful!

@HandforthParishCouncilClerk

Couple in the bed next to me on the postnatal ward. Teens, whose baby was in special care. The boyfriend stayed and was so unpleasant in the way he spoke to his girlfriend. Played the tv at full blast all night and yelled into his mobile when they weren’t yelling at each other, or snoring like pigs. I felt so sorry for her. At first. Then they were asked if they wanted to go and visit their newborn in NICU, she said “nah, we’re watching tv. Love Island’s on in a minute.” When the midwife said their baby was doing a little better, and would they like her brought down to the ward for them to give her a bottle if they didn’t want to go upstairs, they said “nah, can’t you just do it?”. Poor baby.

Don’t think it’s anything to do with age though.

My first ds was in special care for three weeks, two couples didn’t visit for days on end as they were taking the opportunity to decorate, one went away on an impromptu weekend away.

I think it happens a lot.

Some parents are more detached, some, like I was are glued to the incubator 24/7 no matter what.

Also when ds was in special care, I had one of the side rooms just off it. The woman in her room next to me had family in night after night, loads of them, loudly chatting for hours.

After the third night of them constantly ignoring the nurses, they sent security in and banned her from having more than two visitors. Which they then loudly complained about for the rest of their stay, which didn’t help.

I was in hospital recently and the lady in the bed opposite was vaping under her dressing gown!

I had a woman who was constantly sobbing. This was the same woman who had not fed her baby since 10am, because " she didn't know she had to" and it was 4pm .

This lady was behaving as if the whole ward was hers alone, she had the windows open and it was cold.

The couple next to me were incessantly asking questions of the doctors or nurses.

I didn't get a wink of sleep

Go and stick a set up her schnoz.

Young woman on the post natal ward was too timid to tell the nurse she'd already been given laxatives so took a second dose....dreadful scream followed by an even worse smell. 🤢. Poor woman

@cecinestpasunepipe

In hospital waiting for elective surgery, so nil by mouth. It kept being put back so I was really pretty hungry. A nurse came and pulled the curtains around my bed, so I thought yet another pre-operative procedure was about to happen - no, she proceeded to take a Mars Bar out of her pocket and eat it in front of me! When she had finished it, she opened the curtains and went on her way. This happened decades ago, but I still feel the outrage!

did you not tell her to fuck the fuck off?

Get your OH to bring in a Nerf gun..

I stayed in hospital from 31 weeks until I had my daughter at 36 weeks due to complications in the first lockdown. So everyone was nervous and could only have visitors 2-4. I was quite understanding to begin with but my patience soon wore thin. I had people on the their phones all night to relatives in different countries, a women have a full blown fight with her husband over FaceTime from 1-6 am because he was at a party (obviously illegal at the time and she was in early labour). A women's waters break so dramatically that she frantically came over to me where her water proceeded to gush and I mean gush all over my weekend bag (bless her). To top it off a young mum came in to pregnant with twins (addicted to drugs) so in withdrawal, the midwifes trying to manage it, she was so angry and agitated, one night she was just shouting all night suddenly got a phone call left the ward came back collapsed (managed to get drugs and was completely high). It was such a drama and awful to watch. I went into labour that night so never knew what happened but honestly them four weeks were so stressful, I look back and think I couldn't make it all up 😂