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

Oh no, I snored so loudly in pregnancy it was unbelievable. I was too embarrassed to go to sleep when I was kept in in case someone recorded me.

I was in overnight at several points in the weeks before giving birth. The same woman was there each time. She happily refused to go home and would just sit and roll cigarettes, almost constantly. Her partner would come in with more tobacco, eat her jelly and collect what she’d made.

She’d ask him for money or food but it never came. Just more tobacco to roll. He’d leave her an allotted amount to smoke. Which she did, often with great flourish and noise, every 3 hours day and night! She made thinly veiled hints to scrounge food from others too. When she was lovely, she was lovely but people soon knew if she didn’t like them.

They were both noisy and disruptive and it was implied by visiting professionals (no privacy so easily heard) that her baby wouldn’t be going home with her. It wasn’t her first child. At the time I was scared, tired, sore, fed up and probably far less patient with her (in my head at least) than I should have been. It’s been years but I often think about her.

@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.

Omg that's awful.

On the ward I was on a lady left her baby crying for hours no idea where she disappeared to. Me and another lady told the midwife and she took the baby with her until mum returned.
the 2nd night a lady slept through her baby crying and when she did wake up refused to breastfeed and said she was waiting for her husband to bring ready made formula at visiting time which was at least 12 hours away.
On the 3rd night it was a bloke who refused to leave the ward after visiting was over. Security ended up dragging him out.
There's more but I'm trying to forget the awfulness of staying on the ward for 4 days.

I was in hospital for a month with preeclampsia. I’ve seen it all - the teen who’d just had 40 stitches and a blood transfusion wanting to know when she could get off the oxygen and go for a fag (in fairness, I don’t blame her after what she’d been through), the megasnorer, the one who played Snake on her clicky phone all day every day, the one whose husband came round every evening and ate her dinner, and he once had the gall to complain that the beans didn’t have sausages in them, the one who talked and talked and talked and talked - nothing was off limits. I don’t think I slept for two weeks and I was so distressed and exhausted by the end I had to be moved into a private room just to give me a chance to have a rest.

I have been on many wards and before partners were allowed to be there all hours, post natal was by far the nicest. Mostly healthy patients, bit of snoring or baby noise.

On other wards there are so many people with dementia, I was next to one patient that shook me awake every 20-30 minutes in the night because she'd "left her gas fire on at home," another time a lady kept rustling in my covers looking for her cat, she woke me once pulling on my foot. Another would wake up and feel the bed bumpers to stop her falling out and start screaming she was stuck in a cupboard.

However, it wasn't possible to be angry at any of them, it was just sad. All my hospital anger is aimed at the arsehole husbands/boyfriends who make the post natal ward a misery.

A racist next to me - saying ‘none of them speak English and I have a p@ki next to me’ that ‘p@ki’ was me. I had a word with the midwife and the midwife spoke with her and she said she ‘didn’t mean it like that’ stupid cow.

I snored in the ward after having DS. I also managed to sleep through his crying TWICE, until the midwife woke me. I had a very quick delivery and was completely shell shocked. I remember looking at DS who just wouldn’t settle and thinking “what do I do with you now”… apologies to anyone who witnessed that.

@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!

Hahaha WHY?! Is that all she did?! I can’t stop laughing about this

Went to the loo whilst in hospital waiting for operation. Came back and there’s a lady in my bed. She had Alzheimer’s bless her, but I wasn’t too happy having to wait almost two hours for some clean sheets after they had taken her back to her bed.

Can I add a lovely, positive story to the thread? When I was on the post natal ward after having my second DC, there was a very young woman in the bed next to me. I think she was around 16/17. She had just given birth to a 12 pound baby, and I have never seen a prouder mum in all my life. She was telling everyone who would listen about her beautiful boy. I still think of her many years later and hope that she and her son are doing really well.

When my DS was born, in July one year, it was VERY warm. The hospital were unable to open the windows as they were doing building work outside that was very dusty. The temperature registered on the air con unit in the main corridor was 32 degrees. That temperate every day for a week was unbearable, as I couldn’t leave for even a breathe of fresh air due to very fussy breastfeeding newborn. I was dizzy and so pleased to leave.

OMG I'm absolutely horrified at these stories! I had no idea partners were allowed to stay on the ward!

Had my 2 DC a long time ago. Strict visiting times, partners didn't stay and babies taken to the nursery to allow Mum some rest. No mobile phones , tablets or tv's to disturb us. In 7 days for first, 2 for second.

When I had my son, he miraculously slept for the first 24 hours of my life. I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to rest and relax after my difficult birth (I’d been awake for 3 days at that point with only brief naps during that time). Nope. Woman opposite me’s baby non stop cried - really high pitched shrieks of upset. Of course, not the baby’s fault but the mum slept through it all, snoring like a walrus. I kept having to buzz the midwife to wake the woman/look after the baby as the poor thing was so upset. I’m sure the woman was very tired too but it was hell on Earth for me.

When I had my first baby 14 years ago the hospital I was in were very strict about visiting times and partners were not allowed to stay over night. I had lots of interventions during the birth due to emergency so I assume that had left my baby drowsy as he slept and slept - however the baby next to me didn't stop crying all night

Most depressing was after the birth of my third. The woman opposite had been given criteria she had to meet to keep her child (hinging around not seeing her abusive drug dealing boyfriend). She was constantly on the phone to people saying she was going to do it right, commenting on the rest of us on the ward (i was "some old bitch, but she seems to know how to use her tits so I'm watching her cos the social love that breastfeeding crap"). We were all right by the nurses desk as she was also a flight risk (she told all the people on the phone everything). It was clear, however her boyfriend was literally hanging around in the hospital. She'd get these two ring calls, tell the nurse she had to get something from the shop and vanish for a bit. Then on her return she'd wait until the nurses were busy then phone her sister and start saying how she'd shown him pictures just now, how he was made up, how he'd promised to change, how he'd bought new stuff this time etc. It was depressing. I'm glad I left before it turned to where it was headed (child being taken away).
Most embarrassing was probably basically giving birth in a corridor. They were wheeling the bed into a delivery room, they had just a curtain round the end of my head (i was half in half out of the room whilst they were trying to make etc space because they realised I wouldnt get to the actual delivery bed). Anyway, the midwife couldn't release the brakes on the other bed to move it out of the way. They were all trying. I gave birth in one urgent push in the doorway. I could see some random dad with bags walking up the corridor looking horrified, fortunately he couldn't see much but he knew what was going on as the midwives started calling for extra people as I'd been so "impatient". But then of course the midwife couldn't get in the room as the bed was in the doorway. They seemed to lose their usual cool and the midwife outside took charge issuing instructions into the room "just get the baby on her chest, then move the bed" "get dad to hold the bags then". All the while random dad was agonising over whether to squeeze round the bed or go back and just wait. Kind of funny. Poor guy. His mouth was flapping a bit as though he wanted to ask the midwife but didn't want to butt in.

There was also another incident where I had had a vaginal examination before baby was born (with the curtains drawn of course). After, I had to stay there with my faff out because I was on the monitor and couldn’t pull my trousers up. Another heavily pregnant woman pulled my curtains aside and sat in the chair next to my bed, staring at me and stroking her bump. I asked her what she was doing but she just smiled at me and kept stroking her bump. A midwife appeared and asked if I knew her - I said I had no clue and the midwife asked her to leave - she still didn’t, so the midwife had to heft her up by her arm and physically walk her away from me. Bizarre!

The thieving scrote who ripped out my cannula and stole my morphine pump (and it took the nurses 45 minutes to notice/respond to my call bell)

Wtf?! Ripped it out of your arm? Didn’t you notice them?! @Floundery

I think I've diagnosed several resident parents with sleep apnoea, when they've stated on my ward with their children. I'm amazed some of them are still married. I don't know how their partners cope, as they snore and stop breathing so badly. I always tell them and suggest they see their GP as a matter of urgency!

I remember a very young father of a little boy say “He’s ducking shat himself again, I’ll fucking kill him”.

When I was in hospital on bedrest, a group of us became friends. We were in one room on a post natal ward, and as we had our babies we were moved out of the room into other rooms on the same floor.
When the first girl had her baby, and he was about 15 hours old, we decided to visit her after husbands visiting time. Her room was in darkness, so we walked in, switching on the light as we went in, only to find her husband was still in there.....he jumped up and his hand was covered in blood...

@Howareyouflower Oh. My. God.

When I was pregnant with dd I had high bp and bleeding and had to be admitted a few times, on one occasion I was put with a heavily pregnant woman awaiting a C-section of her fifth child who kept on complaining that she couldn’t go for a smoke and then proceeded to tell me that her friends child was recently still born and insisted on showing me the pictures of the baby. After she had left I was put next to someone who had their music up so bloody loud that I got out of bed in the middle of the night and told the poor midwife I was discharging myself in a exhausted, hormonal strop before she told me the lady was partially deaf 😳 so embarrassing. I hate hospitals!

The night I had my DS;woman in the next bed brought down at about 7am;She wasn't particularly well;they had one of those heaters that goes under the covers going (if you've seen them you'll know what I mean);thé staff were in every 30 minutes to check on her and the baby.Thé staff had to feed and change the baby too.

Her husband turned up at 10:45am (partners were allowed in from 11am);with 2 young kids in tow;he just sat there with the kids.The staff came along and told him that children until 3pm during general visiting hours.He turned around and said "it's been 6 hour's since the baby was born,you can discharge her".

Thé midwife told him there's no way his wife was a fit state to go anywhere and wouldn't be discharged until the next day at a minimum;he turned around and said "She needs to come home to look after the children and cook";the midwife had to repeat that his wife wasn't well enough to come home.

He got up and walked out with the two kids trailing behind him;he didn't say a word to his wife the whole time he was there;he didn't come back that day and by the time I was discharged the following afternoon on the day after he hadn't been back in then either.