Hospital should feed breastfeeding mums?

[NurseRosie]

AIBU to think that if your baby is in hospital and Mum is staying as fully breastfeeding, the ward should feed Mum? The NHS is not spending money feeding the baby as mummy us making the milk. Baby feeding sometimes 2 hourly and very clingy as unwell. Ward have only given tea and biscuits. Restaurant expensive and open funny times, for example baby upset over lunch yesterday so didn't get down until 2 and they'd stopped serving hopt food for the day. Do you think they should offer mum a meal?

So Riddles clearly non breast feeding mums should be fed too then?

Stayed in as as a breast feeding mum and a non breast feeding mum,I didn't change as a mother and coped just fine both times.

At one stage the child who had me in as a non breast feeding mother needed me more. 1 year old blue lighted in with croup struggling to breathe and severely distressed,I was pregnant at the time and broke so didn't relish paying for canteen food.

Seriously don't see how when I was breast feeding I morphed into a more needy or entitled parent. As I stated before my frail elderly fil on a pension with a seriously ill wife suffering from cancer coped too.

The OP has at no point demanded free food. She just wanted to be able to get food and found only a closed, expensive restaurant a long distance from the unit.

Parents in these units are generally providing a lot of the supervision and care and not sat there watching day time tv and whining about room service.

I guess the thing with breastfeeding is that you can't go home and take turns with your partner, parents etc

Re Calpol I would rather a child from a poor family in pain had access to it than a wealthy mother to free food she is more than capable of providing herself.

C8 all mothers are in the same position.

Op said restaurant expensive and not serving hot food. Clearly didn't like the expense and didn't say it was closed just not serving hot food.

All mothers would be in the same boat.

I think food should be made available / brought to the ward, but the cost should be fair and the patient should pay.

Have skimmed this and read only your posts OP but YANBU. It makes absolute sense to feed and hydrate the breastfeeding mother of an infant patient if clinicians agree that's the best way of getting the baby nutrition.

If the mother can spend time with her baby that's great too - from her perspective and also from the perspective of Saving Precious NHS Resources, which so many dolts bang on about.

We're not talking about gourmet meals here. Just a sick child, a frantic mother and the best way to care for them both.

I was very lucky then. Manchester and Salford fed me. This was over a decade ago though. After two days of toast and Philadelphia I made in the little kitchen they realised I was still feeding on demand and co-sleeping and they insisted on bringing me a warm meal. Bloody lovely they were. We didn't leave the hospital for six weeks then later I think it was a month. I was glued to DC pretty much the whole time. They were so so kind to me.

I was fed when my 14 week old EBF baby was in hospital with a bad infection because he was EBF. I noticed another baby on the ward was provided with formula. Nonidea if his mother was fed as well or not though.

I was just recently in hospital with my breastfed baby for 10 nights. Whilst I wasn't expecting to be fed it was extremely tricky trying to get food!

He had lots of invasive and upsetting procedures happening and I never knew when they were going to come, so timing a trip to buy food was very difficult.

The security on the ward wasn't great. There was a buzzer but you could easily get in there if you weren't a parent, so I was too scared to leave him for any time.

Hospital is in the middle of motorway/industrial area so nearest shop at least a 20 min walk away (40 min round trip). Takeaways weren't easy either, as the 'norm' was for parents to go down and meet the driver outside (took about 15 mins) Luckily there was also an on site m and s which I could do in about 15mins, but it was really pricey!! Maxed out my credit card.

Still, i was so grateful for the treatment he was getting that I'm not bothered, I do see your point though OP.

Free formula was avail. No teas or biscuits.

(Hot drinks were banned anyway for safety reasons which I thought was fair enough, much as I'd have loved a cuppa on many occasions!!)

I agree with DancingDragon. That would have been great.

The NHS should not charge patients for food. It is part of their treatment. If that patient is receiving food through breast milk, that counts and the NHS should feed the mother who is providing it. What the fuck is wrong with people?

"Maxed out my credit card."

You maxed out your credit card by buying food for one person, for 10 days, SantasBigHelper!?

That seems weirdly excessive, even at M & S prices! Do you have an unusually low credit limit?

Lots of people go into hospital for the free food and nappy changes. I know I did

How can you max out credit card in 10 days eating food from a supermarket? You can easily eat for reasonable amounts from m and s. Sometimes we buy weekly family shop in there for around £100 for whole family. A bunch of bananas is £1

greenginger2 All mothers are not in the same position and its disingenuous to suggest they are - read some of the posts from parents who describe long expensive journeys and struggling to pay for food - its far more expensive than eating at home even if its available.

The OP did not say she wanted free food - she said it was expensive and not available. The cold food available out of restaurant hours at our local hospital is vending machine crisps and confectionery. You are utterly dependent on having family with the funds and the time to visit if you are providing care for a sick child in hospital.

Stop blaming the parents of sick children and look at the defunding of the service.

When my DGD was 4 weeks old,she was admitted to hospital for 4 days. Her mum (my DD) was bf and was offered food. This was just over 10 years ago though,but seemed to be standard procedure then. Obviously not any more!

We've been in hospital both when I was expressing and when he was having formula / solids.
I wouldn't expect hospital now to feed me even though I can't get away from his bedside if he's awake and getting to grab food can take half hr with me then eating it at his bedside. In NICU you couldn't eat on the ward so it was more like an hour. They "feed" my son whether that's maintenance fluids, TPN, formula or food.
When we were in when he was having my milk, I was fed off the children's menu because it was simply the budget they allocated for our bed space anyway.

Its reasonable to do this, the fact that many of us were fed in these circs shows its reasonable to do so. If an individual hospital cannot afford to do so then its reasonable funds are directed where needed but that doesn't make it unreasonable for OP to assume shed be fed, given that it happens all over the country

I think it depends on the hospital as I had 3 meals a day when I was I. for been induced. and they provided formula

Sooooo I'm guessing you want funding for all parents,oaps and families on fsm then.

If you read the thread you'd realise that most of us who think this is ludicrous and entitled have had seriously ill babies and children in hospital so are fully aware of the situation.

AD and Artandco - there wasn't much room on it on the first place and it cost about £25 a day in food. Why is that so hard to believe?

I wasn't being massively extravagant, but there wasn't much scope for scrimping as it was the only shop I could get to.

I have read the thread, I've also had seriously ill children in hospital. I also remember when it was possible for resident carers of sick children to access affordable food in hospital and even when staying parent didn't have to provide most of the care. That last is also true for elderly and mental health patients who are also regularly dependent on family to provide basic care like feeding.

I think this is wrong. Plainly we are not going to agree on the massive cuts in basic provision in hospitals.

Anyway...I wasn't complaining about it. I only mentioned the CC as I was aware that not everyone might have been lucky enough to have available cash to blow unexpectedly on 10 days worth of M and S food.