Ideal world: individual postnatal rooms, double bed for both parents, supportive midwives helping the new family to form and bond. I'm sure we all agree on that.
Reality: in the last hospital I worked in, the only depts that employed 24-hour security guards were A&E and Maternity. A&E no surprise to me, Maternity was - until I spent time working in there and saw what it was like. Constant constant aggro, particularly focused around visiting policies. Cultural norm for the predominant local community is for lots of visitors, staying all hours, making a bit of a party of it. I make no judgement on that, but it doesn't fit with current NHS practice, resources, architecture. The midwives were constantly having to argue, "No, 8 visitors is too much, no it's not ok for 5 children to be playing football on the ward, I don't care if your cousins have just arrived on the coach from Birmingham, it's 11pm and they can't come in". And then it would all kick off. Oh, and sexual activity on the ward wasn't anywhere near as infrequent as you would think (and hope).
I'm also thinking of time I spent on a gynae ward, next to a frightened young East European girl who was almost constantly flanked by two guys in leather jackets who were always on their mobiles or talking to her in a dismissive or threatening way. When visiting hours were over she would just weep silently into her pillow. Another woman on the ward, who spoke her language, tried to get her to open up but all she would say is that she couldn't talk about it. It was devastating to witness, but also pretty bad to lie there feeling ill and somewhat under threat. Have those two thugs hanging around all night? Awful awful awful.
Of course childbirth is different from being ill, and it is rather bizarre that we separate women from their partners and loved ones just at the point when they really want them. But I don't see any alternative within our current NHS, and within the hospital wards that we have. I also think that this thread is one long cry of despair about the desperate state of postnatal care - it's fecking shit, and that's why we're having this conversation at all. Of course, it's possible that trying to prop it up by allowing partners in 24/7 will ultimately make matters worse - it will become the expectation that personal care is provided by family, and women who lack that will be worse off than ever.