Snoring on hospital ward. Losing.my.mind.

[Travellingatthespeedoflight]

A moan. I had a baby today (!) and thanks to a some beast snoring at a ridiculous volume in our bay in the postnatal ward, no sleep is happening. I also happen to be in the bay next to the sink, where the light is brighter than the sun.

Send help! I am here until Friday at least.

I’m amazed that partners are allowed to stay overnight - don’t they have other kids to look after? And if you’re breast feeding for the first time you don’t want strange men around listening/watching. You need some privacy.
I always take ear plugs into hospital with me - snoring, dementia patients, buzzers, lights, admissions make sleep incredibly difficult.
Congratulations on the new baby - going home will be great!

Really solid argument you have there.

Are you going to magic more and better staff out of nowhere then to solve the current problem?

I’m sure you’ve heard a number of maternity wards across the country are being investigated for poor care.

Very least is that they need to allow someone to help.

My local hospital just set up a family bay so men can stay over, because women have been requesting it.

Snoring (and crying) isn’t ideal but not a problem if you need to be in the ward.

Men don’t need to be there, and if they disturb women’s sleep or make women uncomfortable then they need to be gone. If a woman needs support of a friend or family member she needs a side room.

if take postnatal care back to the 70s and 80s where you were shown how to hold and bath your baby, women were monitored for health issues and actually encouraged to rest. What we do now to new mums is barbaric.

We ensured we had care in place for our older child.

I think in an ideal world dads would be restricted to visiting times and women would get all the help they need from midwives, with enough private rooms available for women who have had difficult births. Unfortunately it's not an ideal world. Midwives rely on dads to be there I'm sure.

Hope you get some earplugs and an eyemask op. My Dh recently stayed in hospital and we arrived in a&e initially with a toothbrush, phone charger and pyjamas for him in case he needed to stay. He called me the next morning asking for eye mask, ear plugs and short pyjamas as the ward was boiling hot.

It's such a vulnerable time a woman's life. No man should be allowed to stay on a post natal ward, that's a safeguarding risk. What's the point of single sex wards if men can also stay overnight?

Snoring can be helped there are loads of gadgets to reduce it. Chin straps to stop mouths flapping open help, mouth guards help, nose straps can and of course losing weight is a big factor. What methods have you tried?

Thing is most snorers don't care, they're asleep.

I remember being put in a four bed bay after giving birth to my daughter and it was true hell with screaming babies, snoring, and loud taking all night. Thankfully I was moved to a side room the next morning because my baby was a bit jaundiced. But I never had to contend with men staying on the ward overnight. I assume I’m out of touch but why would it be necessary for a partner to stay on a hospital ward for the night?

I sympathise and also like a PP I spent the entire time in the post natal ward petrified of falling asleep and being the snorer on top of everything else.

Putting on weight and being exhausted are things that increase my chances of snoring and tend to happen naturally with pregnancy.

I guess I was right to be worried about being hated for it, even though I couldn’t help it.

Wonder what the posters advocating chucking out recommend if it’s another mum? 🤔

Thanks for your unhelpful input. None of these have helped. I've even been to hypnotherapy. You seem to be under the impression that these things work - and also that there's some kind of moral righteousness about it, as if non snorers are the only ones who should get to sleep? Do you imagine snorers are bedding in for an unbroken 8 hours on the maternity ward?

Well obviously there's nothing you can do if it's another patient.

When it is a visitor though it is absolutely unacceptable.

100%

My husband snores. Yep I use earplugs if needed but him making an effort helps too. It is a fact that losing weight, stopping smoking and drinking then the obvious side sleeping help but as I say many snorers won't even try. Hypnotherapy won't work it isn't psychological it's a physical issue.

Have you tried a mouth guard or side sleeping?

This was me. Woman clearly had sleep apnea and was making noises like a hog on a motorbike. I got the midwife to wake her up and change position as I could not sleep!

I had this with my youngest dd (shes now 18)

The couple opposite had their baby a few hours after I had her

He sat staring at me while I tried to breastfeed (licking his lips and smirking) snored all night,didnt lift a finger to help his clearly shell shocked partner out,did nothing but stare at the rest of us and play loud videos,made one hell of a smell in the toilets(more than once) and pissed on the floor (twice)

(he also made comments like 'ugh!shes got BLOOD on her nighty!' Or 'yuck-look at the belly on THAT!' All ignored by the midwives and other staff)

I tried to shut my curtian for privacy but it was snapped open within seconds by some midwife (telling me 'that baby needs light' we were by the bloody window!) Rinse and repeat-i tried to tell them I wasn't comfortable with a random man staring and smirking but was told not to 'be stupid')

I was meant to be in for 24 hours as she'd been born with the cord around her neck

I lasted 13 hours before I discharged myself

No support at home was 100% better than being in hospital

No men on maternity wards-ive heard bollocks like 'but I need to bond with the baby' and 'I have rights!'

No chaps,do that at home by helping her look after your baby

Why are you so convinced that snorers in general, and I in particular, am not making any effort?

Of course hypnotherapy can help with snoring, it just didn't with me.

Earplugs is a great solution, great shout. Should give them out on the maternity ward as standard.

Well, anecdotally for example going from many of the posts on here! Many snorers just seem to think everyone else has to put up with it.

If a snorer isn't overweight, doesn't smoke or drink, side sleeps and has a mouthguard/chin strap or a cpap machine and still snores I'd be extremely surprised.

That sounds awful. Why do some women saddle themselves with these awful men .
I'd have kept on closing the curtian and told the staff to leave it shut. Easier said then done though when in hospital and feeling vulnerable.

Post Covid they let men stay and the nurses don’t tend to you as much because they are used to having someone do stuff for the patient. I was the only one on the ward who didn’t have my partner stay.

I had an argument with a nurse as post c section I needed to do a wee after having my catheter out. I asked the midwife if she could hold my baby as she wouldn’t stop crying and when I went to the toilet I heard the nurse saying I was taking the piss.

I also had to beg for more pain killers even though I had only had my c section 8 hours before.

It’s changed.

My previous birth was in 2015 and there were visiting hours.

Plus there was a man who had some kind of viral illness and kept coughing and sneezing.

I got send home after one night and I couldn’t walk properly. I should’ve stayed longer but it was hell.

I had no midwife visit to my home the next day or day after. I had to chase it.

They say that less people are having children but it doesn’t feel like it. The services feel more stretched.

Why is a man snoring in a postnatal ward? Wake him up and chuck him out, surely?
Congratulations on lovely baby! ❤

I wasn’t able to take care of my own personal care for the first 2 days after my emergency section.

Anecdotally, who on here has said they're a snorer and that's everyone else's problem??

You don't seem to understand snoring at all. CPAP machines are not given out for it, for a start.

You are not the only who is worthy of sleeping

I wouldn’t have been angry at a fellow newly postpartum mother snoring, I think what PP’s are complaining about the dads snoring away.

Congratulations on your baby. I had similar after having my dd. The woman next to me snored like a freight train. The midwife even commented on it to me. I then heard her telling her family when they visited how she hadn't slept a wink!

You asked why I thought snorers made no effort so I said well for starters many comments on here are from people who experience snorers not making any effort.

No cpap machine aren't dished out willy nilly I was merely stating that they are something that do infact help as does losing weight, stopping drinking and side sleeping all measures anyone can do.

You sound so defensive, this is nothing personal but to state no one can help snoring is just not true.