To have wanted more than toast?

[Womenareliketeabags]

First time posting in AIBU so please be kind and I'm prepared to accept I am.

A few weeks ago I had a planned home birth, birth went well until the placenta was delivered at which point I had a large haemorrhage and was rushed to the nearest labour ward in an ambulance. By the time I had been sorted and I got my coffee and toast it was 01.30am and I hadn't eaten since lunch at 12.30pmish so I was very very hungry! Coffee and toast was lovely. However it did not ease my hunger, the kind midwife offered to see if they had a spare sandwich lying around, there wasn't so she made me some more toast. As I had been rushed in I didn't have my purse and my hospital bag only had very basic stuff, was middle of the night and DH had left at this point so I had no way of getting food from else where.

AIBU to think that labour wards should be able to access food for women at all hours of the day and night?

Your DH fucked off home leaving you with no money or checking you had any money or enough to eat.

Why is it the NHS' responsibility here? They fed you at 1:30am what else could they make?

Why didnt you just call your DH and make him get his arse back in with some food.

Why did DH leave? He should have got you food. But I do think there should be something available. You need energy to give birth!

So all these posts from women saying they were left for days without food. Is that ok too?

That's why I took tons of snacks in my hospital bag.

If there is nothing left from the lunch that day in the fridges there is nothing more they can give, most of the time.

However I have seen some hospitals have a kind of vending machine that ha fresh sandwiches/fruit etc that only staff can access with a key for 'out of hours'.

I had an almost 2 day labour and felt sick so couldn't eat throughout. They gave me tea and toast when I finally delivered my son at 2am in the morning and it was the best meal I have ever eaten, I was so hungry, happy and relieved!

Think it was lovely of them to make you extra, they didn't even check on me again til the morning.

Hospital toast is the best - sadly as I was about to have mine after first child at 6am I had a haemorrhage so lay and watched as husband and mother ate it - it took till lunch time to get to a full post natal ward I was in the last bed the only offering that was left was two little bowls one of gravy the other smash - still makes me smile in disbelief now - thank goodness for stash of cereal bars I carry 😀

I don't think it should be beyond the wit of man to have a fridge and a microwave on maternity wards with basic heat ups like pasta or jacket spud as the patients are never going to be routine and predictable.
I wasn't offered anything after I had DS as it was midnight. The last time I had eaten was 30hrs previously as I couldn't stomach it in labour, then I tore badly and had to be stitched and was returned onto the ward numb from the tits down and DH thrown out after 5 mins as visitors have to leave at 10. Fortunately, I had the presence on mind to ask DH to leave my bags on the bed so I could reach them and I was able to get into the snacks I'd packed.

Even when I had DD (2 years ago today!) and she was born at 6 in the morning the midwife had a long argument on the phone getting me a decent dinner as I was being stitched when they came round to take the orders. And then the following morning I got the previous bed occupant's breakfast order who was just yogurt and orange juice. I was so hungry I couldn't wait to be home.
When you're dealing with people who have just spent a huge amount of energy, are sleep deprived, may have lost blood Or just may not have eaten in a while, you'd think there'd be a better way of sorting food. Our midwife was saying it was just as bad for staff on night shift. Nothing decent to be had and she felt like she needed to plan carefully what to bring to get her through the night.

...and you survived. So why worry?

My next hospital bag will include the delicious marble chocolate brioche from Aldi. It's clearly full of calories and fat and until you open it, it lasts for ages. www.aldi.co.uk/bon-appetit-french-marble-brioche/p/043924003317800

I can't remember much about hospital food in the early part of having my baby. Community midwife sent me to hospital late morning, and when she called by at 5ish I'd had nothing to eat so she went and found me a sandwich. After an EMCS I was brought food at some intervals and ate it and once I was out of the high dependency unit I was eventually on a ward where you had to go to the trolley yourself to get breakfast. I do remember being a bit narked that DH would come in at meal times and watch me eating 1980s school dinners while he had a delicious panini from Costa. At least he brought cake.

Ah love the toast and tea after labour, don't recall being restricted to one slice, there was plenty. When I had my son late at night a sandwich was found but TBH I didn't expect it. Keeping cereal/pasta supplies on the ward and microwaves sounds simple but actually in reality it would be a right palaver...PAT testing, budgeting for how much to have in stock, then veggie, vegan, kosher options etc where to store it, checking food dates, complaints about food poisoning blah blah...would much rather the midwives focussed on delivering and looking after the babies - which often even that they are understaffed for ...

I think you really need to think about what you've said. It's the NHS after all. I got tea and toast after two very long labours. I don't expect the NHS to supply my food when I am having a baby.

28redshoes don't be sarcastic about a "172 hour labour".
People have hugely varying births
And if you and your babies did nearly die its unlikely you're thinking about food.
I mean many, many, medical staff saved our lives. No doubt they missed tea/snack breaks during the birth and probably do regularly.
I was so grateful to them I really couldn't give a fuck if they hadn't been on s cordon bleu course & able to rustle up something quick but healthy & tasty as well as being a specialist 7 years in the training, etc.
Entitled? Much?

The NHS does supply food when you have a baby. At 1:30am what more can be expected than toast. The OP had her life saved and didnt die of starvation.

Back in the day (1980s and early 90s) we had microwaves, toasters and fridges on the wards. We used to save unused meals (made on the premises by the hospital catering staff) to give to patients on admission/post op, but then health and safety got involved and we were no longer allowed to do it.
Now many hospitals have had their catering contracted out and the food arrives plated to order. There are no hospital kitchens in these, usually smaller, hospitals, so it's impossible to order food for people coming in in the middle of the night. There are usually cafes in the building during the day though.
That said, it should be made clear in the preadmission/antenatal literature that bringing food from home is advised, so patients know to pack their favourite snacks.

lovely Oh, does your opinion count more if you nearly died? Because I nearly died too so I guess my opinion is worth the same as yours. Perhaps we'll have to call it quits and agree to disagree.

Also, last time I checked you didn't have to go on a cordon bleu training course to heat up a microwave meal

Had my first baby in the NHS hospital in York. Not private but when I describe my experiance many think it was akin to private medical treatment. There was / is a dedicated kitchen in the maternity until where you could go and help yourself day or night to fruit toast croissants and sandwiches. If you were formula feeding thst was also provided at room temperature free of charge.

My second baby was born somewhere else. Toast dutifully brought after birth but unable to fibush it as I had to move asap from the delivery room for a mum to be in waiting. The formula came courtesy of a vending machine. Ice cold with no facility to warm it.

I guess it all depends on the hospital sadly.

Fibush? Finish !

What hacked me off more than the toast was having to stay in hospital with DC for 5 days and having diabolical food. No fruit juice, no fresh fruit, having to wait hours for water and it was the hottest summer for years (I hasten to add that I wasn't lazy but both DC and I were both really unwell and I was told not to get out of bed), no bloody support with any of it. Husband spent more time in the car trying to get us food than being able to offer support. Birth was fabulous in comparison to the hell I endured in the hospital afterwards

During my hospital stay all the women in the post natal ward got breakfast, lunch and dinner but had to queue up to get lunch and dinner or get a visitor to queue up (breakfast would be set at your bedside table at 7am) - we're in one of the top 5 most deprived boroughs of the U.K. So I'm very surprised reading about all these stories! Wasn't a private hospital either. Feel very glad the service was there so I honestly feel so very grateful for the NHS and the midwives for all they do

I'm really saddened by the amount of YABU because the individual had an even shitter time thsn the op

How about YANBU, I had a shit time too rather than - 'YABU, be greatful for your one piece of toast, I had fuck all an a belly full of stitches... Ect..

Honestly some women really have very low expectations and expect even lower for the next woman who comes along.

The hospital should provide food (snacks at least) as well as good anti natel care and post natel care. Giving birth puts the body under immense pressure and energy lost and these should be accounted for. Instead the hospital get away with treating vunerable women like shit and then those women expect every fucker else to have a shit time too

Try giving birth in Prague! They starve you for two days after a Caesar and then 'reintroduce' food slowly. Apparently this is so you dont get constipated! By DH had to smuggle in hot cross buns : )

Yes of course I would assume one is bound to be more grateful if one nearly died.
If I've had a profound experience I tend not to have the stomach for lots to eat afterwards. You don't see many people stumbling out of a car crash and looking for the snack bar. That is what a truly difficult birth feels like.
Four lives actually.
When you were doing your checking did check as to how realistic it is, in 2016, to have a microwave on the ward? Puerile.
Do you feel as entitled in every area of your life? Do you find it difficult to empathise generally or just with the people who supposedly saved your life?
Take your own food; don't be lazy and entitled and think about the bigger picture.
Our NHS is being eroded.