to want some peace and quiet on the ward?

[vodkaredbull]

It's 3:30am and I'm losing my mind.

I was admitted to antenatal yesterday morning for induction. So far fuck all is happening and I'm exhausted. In a stupid amount of pain and all I want to do is sleep.

But of course that's not going to happen is it? I'm in a bay with two other beds. Across from me is the snorer but really I could probably block her out. The problem is the other patient who is surgically attached to her fucking iPhone. It's the middle of the night and she's ringing all of her friends for a chat. Who does that when people are trying to sleep?! I don't give a fuck if she's missing a party to be induced. I want to enjoy the totally useless paracetamol they've deigned to give me and try to get a little rest.

The midwife isn't helping much either. She's rather old fashioned and I'm surprised she hasn't locked us in. I tried to go for a walk to escape iPhone girl and she escorted me back to bed.

AIBU to expect a little peace and quiet in here? Seriously losing it right now.

Tell them you've got the shits / MRSA.

She's asleep now! Day staff are concerned that nobody listened to me in the night and are logging it. Hoping to be off this ward before tonight one way or another! Still only offered paracetamol as pain relief. Damn them.

Wake her up! Inconsiderate cow!

I know that now is not the time but eventually you should speak to PALS and tell them about your experience on the ward. It isn't on at all. Good luck with everything, I am being induced next week.

That sounds horrendous some people are so inconsiderate.

As a side topic though, you may want to be careful how much paracetamol they give you. I read a very convincing article a while back about how paracetamol may actually slow down early stages of labour.

Sleep? In hospital?
Are you joking? :o

Every day in hospital is like two days!

I've loudly walked past a few times. They woke her up and guess what, she's on her bloody phone again.

I'll give PALS some thought when I get out of here. Waiting on consultant because I've stalled and the baby isn't happy. I see a C-section in my future.

It probably doesn't help that due to hospital closures and the other local unit in special measures this place is oversubscribed.

Offering you codeine to sleep instead of telling the stupid inconsiderate girl to get off her phone. That is outrageous. I would certainly get PALS involved with that. As a medical professional I'm shocked. What an abuse of medication. She should get disciplined for that.

You poor thing. I can't believe how selfish people can be.

To be honest, having the deal with this sort of shit is what worries me the most about birth.

I shouldn't have read this thread. Ward sharing is my absolute only concern. Was planning a peaceful private home birth to avoid just that, but in the last few weeks I've become high risk and am getting induced in a weeks time, at 39 weeks.

This means induction ward and an extended stay in postnatal ward while baby is monitored. No private room option.

I'm thinking earplugs, eye mask, my own stash of pain killers for post natal. And probably a lot of tissues as there will be lots of hormonal crying.

I feel your pain. The woman in the next bed to me was so rude. Lay there literally wailing all night because of her section pain (yes it hurts but all six of us in this room had one too and managed not to wail constantly) absolutely refused to get up and see to her baby, would leave her crying for a good hour until either a) a midwife took the baby b) finally get up and turn every overhead light on. She brushed her teeth and hacked up into the hand washing sinks. Would close her curtains around her bed despite being asked not to because it completely blocked the view of the only telly in the room. If you had been watching something, tough shit.

Her husband brought her in Chinese takeaways every single day and made the room stink constantly. She was absolutely awful. I was in for four days and didn't sleep more than half an hour at a time solely because of her.

Well I'm still sharing a room with her and I'm still grumpy. Cried when DH arrived because I felt so relieved to see him! They're going to try a third prostin soon and I'm wondering if I can refuse.

Meanwhile my loud new friend is munching her way through 12 bags of crisps.

Sorry to anyone else who had to deal with this kind of shit!

vodka it sounds hellish. You have my sympathy. I hope she chokes on her crisps

In my post-CS ward, at one point I had someone who hummed on every out-breath in her sleep, someone chowing down on stinking KFC and a poor lady sobbing as her new DC had been taken to special care while I had my DS with me. Id had 30 minutes sleep in 48h. It was so awful.

But this hell will end OP and then you'll have a beautiful baby and a 'hilarious' labour anecdote to share on MN

I was in hospital last weekend following surgery and my issue was the student nurse. So loud throughout the night banging drawers, waking up patients by shouting at them to do obs!

I spoke to her in the morning and pointed out how inconsiderate she had been to other patients on the ward and felt it was something she needed to work on. I made her cry which I feel bad about but it was a nightmare getting to sleep to start and she woke me three times!

Poor you Vodka, it sounds torturous .

People are so inconsiderate. I was in for 10 days after birth and it was a nightmare. I feel your pain! Let us know how you get on.

PitilessYank - any decision to turn off IV fluids overnight should be clinically-led. Alarms are there for a reason and can often be altered according to clinical need. Sleep is crucial though, I agree.

I think the issue here is lack of clinical leadership and empathy with OP's situation.

Vodka - ask to speak to the nurse/midwife in charge and explain what's going on and express your concern. They should be observant enough to see the other woman with her phone clamped to her ear constantly. It's ok for them - they are not next to her constantly having to listen to it. They go home at the end of their shift but you are stuck with it! They could ask her to be more considerate and use the day room if they have one if she wants to use the phone and certainly she should not be disturbing other patients overnight. If the midwife in charge doesn't sort it out, ask to speak to the senior nurse on duty for the Obstetric Unit. Dollymixture's points are well made. Get on Twitter or the Trust's Facebook page!

vodka my MW told me that if the 24h pessary does nothing and the second pessary (6h) does nothing the chances are they'll CS you (if that's what you want and nothing upon nothing is happening)

All arrows are pointing to me being in your position next week and if there's eff all after 2 pessaries I'll be kicking off for a CS (esp as I expect to get no sleep as like you I'll be an antenatal in patient).

I want to kinda hug you right now, you must be feeling so mental

Glad it's not just me that finds the idea of turning iv fluids off overnight due to the alarms a bit concerning. How far do you go? Sats monitors? Iv infusions? Those syringe drivers are pretty loud...

When I had ds I was on a ward with a woman who was on her phone all the time and it was like an episode of Jeremy Kyle! She was on to her (who I assume was her) partner threatening him etc. Then she was on to someone else telling them that the baby was being taken into care as soon it was born. From what I could gather this was about her 6th baby and they were all in care. She also kept going out for a fag despite midwives begging her not to. She was a nightmare, luckily I wasn't on that ward long!! I felt so sorry for that baby tho

Second the suggestion of ear plugs and eye shades. I would never ever share a room anywhere away from home without them in my kit bag. Some people are noisy sleepers or just plain old inconsiderate.

I had the live Jeremy Kyle show when I was on the ward too. The woman opposite was quite young and had dozens of visitors everyday. They were all just so obnoxious with their cackling and swearing, and were talking loudly about how the baby's father was a 'fucking cunt' for denying paternity and 'needs a good kicking'. Every time the baby cried one of them would go and fetch the midwife or a healthcare assistant to sort her out. So fuck knows how they took care of her once they were home.

Jibberjabber-I did not describe that very well. I am a doctor, and when I write orders, I give thought to the patient's need for sleep. I time antibiotics for awake times, order non-essential fluids off for sleep time, and try to not give doses of diuretics, for example, late at night. Of course I only do this if it is medically safe.

You wouldn't believe how many of my colleagues never give a thought to the sleep needs of their patients.

2many I'd welcome a section right now. Waiting for third prostin and I've been contracting since 9pm last night. Still no dilation and now I get horrific pain when I urinate. I asked to speak to the doctor at 9am but I've been fobbed off! MW says he agrees that we should do 3rd and 4th gels.

Can I realistically suggest a section now, mid induction? Would anyone listen? The only pain relief on antenatal is paracetamol and I'm struggling.