The NHS should be funded so that postnatal wards are small, cool, fully staffed and quiet. Mine was none of those things. I'd had an appalling birth throughout the previous night, then a PPH, and had been in an amenity room until another woman's baby had to be moved to SCBU and she, rightly, got it. I couldn't stand. I could barely lift my head. I was still on monitors and throwing up. I was on, I now realise, a paltry combination of pain meds. There were some night staff, who would occasionally take crying babies away from mums but they were otherwise absent. My DH did every feed (I was too unwell even for BF support) and nappy change - I couldn't lift DS from his crib.
My DH stayed, didn't sleep (nor did I) and still it ranks as the worst night of both of our lives. Ideally he'd have gone home safe in the knowledge that DS and I were resting safely, but that wasn't an option. I feel awful that him being there might have distressed some other women, but I think my newborn DS would have been unsafe if he had.
It's not as simple as a preference for some women.