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?

[Artandco]

I do kind of think it was your fault a bit though.
Firstly even with a home birth you should have had a bag packed, with some snacks, drinks and spare change in. Secondly your partner could have nipped straight out after everything was OK and found a garage or 24hr tesco or something.

However I do think hospitals should provide more. People pay tax to have the NHS, and a service should provide adaquate food for anyone staying. They don't have to have additional cooking, but could provide things like bananas, bags of nuts, some yogurts, some biscuits, individual wrapped brioche or similar alongside some toast. This could be kept in a fridge or cupboard in the maternity ward and refreshed each evening so patients could help themselves at 2am. They could encourage an honesty box on the wall so people could put some money if they have, or on their way out to help cover the majority. Many would happily put £5 in after an overnight stay, even if they are 50p worth

[Cantusethatname]

I have been there and I do know what you mean.

However, I do wonder whether the time has come to end free food in hospitals. Maybe bring in your own or pay for the food of your choice? This could be means tested. Just interested in what others think.

[Goingtobeawesome]

When I was sent to hospital as the doctor was worried about me the staff laughed when I asked for some toast. Would set the smoke alarms off they said.

[Mishegoss]

They could staff a canteen, not like they've got anything else to do... OR you could have had a stand by hospital bag with non perishable snacks just for this occassion.

[MrsHathaway]

In my postnatal ward there was a kitchen you could access pretty much whenever that was stocked with bread (for toast), butter, jam, cereal and milk.

I had the opposite problem to OP: DC2 was a precipitate labour so I had a full roast dinner at 6 pm, started getting pains at 7 pm and gave birth shortly after 8 pm. Every single mw who saw me thereafter kept trying to offer me some dinner and simply wouldn't believe me that I was still full from my big roast.

That said, I'd packed snacks in my hospital bag including fresh fruit. It's apparently impossible to get fresh fruit and vegetables in hospital - one sad spoonful of peas maybe. The heating is always on high in the maternity areas so you get dehydrated very quickly!

[Bestthingever]

Don't be ridiculous even private hospitals don't provide meals 24 hours a day

[miserablesod]

It wouldn't bother me but then i can't eat after giving birth makes me gag and feel very sick! Midwives are always trying to shove toast/tea/sandwiches down my neck. Dp even bought me my favourite KFC but i couldn't eat it, was gutted!

[painbadger]

Wow - 4 DC and never offered anything. I always brought some biscuits and fruit in emergency bag. Could usually get a horrid tea/coffee from the machine in the corridor.

Also, after giving birth (induced/complications) and multiple stitches expected to clean the bath before using it. This was a London teaching hospital.

Had to have whatever the person in bed before me had ordered for next 2 days. Often they had not ordered milk to go with the cereal or a bizarre choice etc. It was dire. Luckily my DP brought in supplies which I shared with a young girl in the next bed who had no one to visit

With my youngest they had no beds on the ward so I was put in a side room in a different corridor. The room was freezing and the midwife told me to take baby into bed with me. On 4 occasions couples barged in for sex /sneaky fags. So no sleep - absolutely dire.

[APlaceOnTheCouch]

I sympathise.
I remember I was trying to establish breastfeeding and DS was always attached at meal times. Babies weren't allowed in the dining room and food wasn't allowed out of the dining room hence I didn't get a single meal whilst I was in hospital. I relied on family bringing in flasks and sandwiches.

[WorraLiberty]

You were responsible for your own hospital bag OP.

It should have contained money and snacks.

[ButEmilylovedhim]

I was given no food after either birth and they were long labours. No tea, no toast, nothing at all. Until the next meal when I was finally on a ward, which was many, many hours away and then the food was shocking. One tinned tomato on a slice of bread anyone? I do wonder if lack of food was a factor in my milk never really coming in.

[MTWTFSS]

YANBU!

[Womenareliketeabags]

So the majority has decided and IABU. Yes I do accept that I should of pack my emergency bag more thoroughly and well better!

To those PP's who seem to think that I was expecting a personal chef to cook me whatever fancy dish I desired this is not the case, I know how under funded the NHS is I was just honestly surprised that on a ward that is 24hrs and women give birth at anytime and are all hungry that the only thing available was toast. For example if you were a single lady who was rushed to hospital off the street and were unable to get your well packed bag from home then there is little option to you.

To the PP's who stated that they had to stay in and missed meal times due to one reason or another I quite frankly thing this is appalling.

[oobedobe]

I sent my husband out to get me a footlong Subway - I was starving and it was wonderful! But the hospital I gave birth in was in a large city with lots of 24 hr food places close by.

[TheFairyCaravan]

YABU

When I had DS1 (almost 21) in the early hours I got dry toast, and tea, after not eating all day. I don't like butter or margarine, they didn't have any jam or marmalade so it was dry or nothing.

DS2 was born on Christmas Eve just about lunch time. I missed lunch, so had to wait for tea. Yes I was hungry but I was very aware I was in a NHS hospital not a hotel.

[TheFairyCaravan]

DS1 is already 21, he's almost 22!

[sentia]

Every time I read a thread like this about postnatal care in hospitals it makes me more determined to stay at home at almost any cost when I go into labour. No food is a problem. Even with money how are you supposed to drag yourself down to the shop? A pph can be a fairly major medical emergency, you don't just bounce back, and lack of food slows recovery

[Stopyourhavering]

YABU....you were lucky you even got toast!....Staff working 12 hrs shifts at night can't even get hot meals at our hospital any more....
The NHS can barely afford drugs.....

[JellyBelli]

'time to end free meals in hospitals'

Hospitals and even many large companies used to run a canteen. You used to be able to get a break from the ward, and buy a decent cup of tea and a snack at any time. Staff and visitors all used to use the canteen round the clock.
They used to send food to the wards for patients.

This generation know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

[MumiTravels]

We don't have 24 hour facilties unfortunately, I've never worked in a hospital that does. We have a small kitchen with bread and spreads, toaster, fruit, cereals and yogurt. Sandwiches are sent up but if there's loads of diabetics then they're gone early.

[yeOldeTrout]

I can make a meal out of 10 pieces of toast so I am going to assume that OP means that only 1-2 small pieces of toast were available and absolutely nothing else but black coffee (which I would have refused myself, so sympathies there).

Still, I'm on the fence. I could eat a stone cold McDs anything if I was hungry enough. Most of us are over-nourished & can wait for a meal; we aren't elderly frail who haven't eaten properly in months.

[Shakey15000]

I don't think YABU. After all, it is an establishment solely designed to look after people's health and I think eating and fluids would come under that bracket

Better than a bloody KFC bucket being brought in when I was there, stank the ward out

[Vandree]

In our hospital you get tea and toast after the birth. 3 kids and its by far the best tea and toast ever. Its literally food to tide you over until the kitchens open and the food is cooked. Most hospitals have a separate company that does the food. Who would set up, run, clean and stock a natal ward kitchen? Whats to stop people from requesting food at all hours just because? Nursing staff have enough to do especially at night when there is less staff. On the hospital bag list it does suggest money for the shop and snacks in the bag. I learned to have a pack of figrolls in my hospital bag. 4am in the morning shoving figrolls into my mouth while breastfeeding is burned into my memory! But god, that first tea and toast was amazing. I had gestational diabetes 3 times and months of no bread, it was manna from heaven.

[MoonStar07]

That's all they generally have! The food is usually given out my contractors. Hot and cold. If there are left over sandwiches they keep them. If there isn't then that's it. It's toast! I had GD and said no way am I having toast so I would wait for DH to come in with bacon and eggs and some seeded low gi bread! I did though after having second DC break my GD diet asked for white toast with butter and jam!

[Artandco]

I had cashews, strawberry licorice and some shortbread packed. With juice cartons. Best 3am feast ever