to expect to get offered breakfast or at least a cup of tea before now on a ward ?

[shocknews]

I know people are busy etc (midwives don't do the food/drink here) but would it be particularly out of order to have hoped to be offered at least a cup of tea before 9.30am ! I delivered yesterday lunchtime, was given no lunch but was offered 2 slices of toast after i'd been sorted out etc. Then the tea scrum was at 6 (you get what there is left, no orders taken etc) and between then and now, not even a cup of tea or glass of water offered ! I had to ask for a jug of water at 11pm when I gave up waiting patiently ! How can they expect me to try to breast feed with no sustinence ?

...... or am I just hormonal and absolutely knackered from 3 sleepless nights already ?

Deliaskis - definitely bring in your own food. There is no reason for the labour ward to object and I have never had a problem. Some labour wards say you can't eat while in labour but I can't see how they would enforce this.

After all, what are they gonna do, chuck you out???

On the postnatal ward you can take in anything you want.

In fact take in a suitcaseful, it is probably all you will get while you are in.

The nursing care on your maternity ward may be great but the catering usually isn't controlled by the nurses so don't rely on food being available when you want it.

Every patient gets a bed bath or assisted shower every morning - well not at the hospital I was at...and neither were the bins emptied of sanitary towels and dressings - the toilets and showers were minging.

Even if you've had a CS, you don't get help with changing dressings and pads - blood on the floor - oh leave it there for your visitors to clean up.

Readmitted and placed next to the midwives station. I could hear the bell continuously ringing for help while 3 of them bitched about the guy who brings the post up. Cot for your baby? Not if midwives are too busy bitching - then after the shift change the Sister bollocked me for placing the baby on the bed - no cot!!

No, I wasn't at the Stafford either.

These, amongst many other reasons, are exactly why I had two planned home births and would have spent many thousands on an independant midwife at home if needed. Most nurses, doctors etc are wonderful people as individuals and do try to do their best, but they are utterly hamstrung by a chronically underfunded and badly organised system.

I had extremely good post natal care for my last birth. I felt nurtured and safe. Very unlike the first one described below. I had home births for the two middle babies partly due to the poor experience of the first labour. Was so happy to see that everything was different this time around. The unit where I had the 4th baby is brand new, and is going for baby-friendly status, and I like to think that this level of care is being rolled out to hospitals throughout the country and that the hospitals that are not doing so well at the moment will be revisiting their policies soon.

Sorry about my rant...but my experience of the ward was bad. Def take your own snacks...maybe even a few floor cleaning wipes too!

I thought they had brought in matrons to make sure everyone was nursed properly and the wards were clean?

I'm talking about 5 years ago so I hope things have changed!

I really liked the fact that my postnatal ward had a large self-service kitchen with a fridge full of juice/milk/butter and a cupboard with lots of packets of cereal/bread and a toaster.

And there was masses of fridge space for us to store our own food. My MW warned me not to eat the hospital food as I would get constipated, and I got my mother to bring me in fruit and sandwiches instead which I stored in the ward fridge.

No assisted bath or assisted showers at ERI when I gave birth to DD2 almost 5 years ago, or when I gave birth to DD1 7 years ago.

Midwife bollocked me for taking my own paracetamol and ibuprofen to agonising afterbirth pains (having given birth to my 3rd). I told her if someone had answered the bell after I'd rung it 9 times I might have needed to take it.

Was also bollocked for not getting up to walk down the corridor to get breakfast after having given birth at 4AM and put on the ward at 8.

Um, I still couldn't feel my left leg after epidural so wasn't up to walking down a corridor and carrying a tray.

And yes, you were expected to leave your baby in the cot on the ward whilst getting your tray (RAH).

I brought my own stuff so only went maybe once before, again, having to threaten to walk out to get discharged after informing them 12 hours before that I wished to go home.

I think a whole lot depends on how good the individual nursing is, I've had mixed experiences too.

I remember finding it difficult hobbling down the corridor to get a cup of tea and thinking how nice it would have been if, having been up all night giving birth, somebody had got one for me. Ideally DH, but he wasn't allowed to stay.

ooh it's time to tell our tales?

I gave birth at 9am on a Friday. I'll try to keep a long story short, but I continued to bleed despite my stitches, then had an excruciating hematomia (sp) which took ages for them to discover because no one would listen to me regarding how much pain I was still in. I was finally sent into surgery around 4 in the afternoon. The sum total of my blood loss was 2 litres, which is quite a lot (I think we only have 5 litres total?)

So, I was given the one precious private room near the ward, as I needed to be monitored overnight after receiving a small transfusion. I hadn't eaten since before my labour had started early on Thursday.

Saturday morning arrived and I still hadn't been given any food. I had a catheter still in which was taken out at 7am or whenever shift change was, but no one told me I needed to drink more so I could prove I could use the toilet (standard after having the catheter in, apparently).

8am rolled around, or whenever breakfast was, and I was told (after I asked) that I could walk to the breakfast room which was down two hallways from where my room was. Outside of 'drunken' I'd never experienced a 'stupor' before but I swear to you, this was it. That walk was practically an out-of-body experience, and I was scared at the halfway point that I would pass out.

Needless to say, once I made it to the breakfast room, I didn't move for a half hour. and I think I ate my weight in toast because that was the only damn thing there.

That having been said, if I'd been in better circumstances, I probably wouldn't have minded having to get my own food. I mean, if I'd had someone with a trolley by, I'd have had to make do with just a couple of pieces of toast instead of half a loaf or whatever I did have. Considering I hadn't eaten for two days, I felt I was due it.

Childbirth is hard enough without having to endure starvation in the postnatal ward. Why are hospitals like this?

They really seem to be doing all they can to try to put women off hospital births, but then if you ask for a home birth you are treated like an irresponsible freak.

What is going on?