Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 ··· 8 9 10 ··· 21 22

Original poster

Hospital should feed breastfeeding mums?

548 replies

NurseRosie · 08/01/2017 12:26

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?

OP posts:

Owllady · 08/01/2017 14:28

Drinking, which illustrates the fact that parents are relied upon to provide care.

Olympiathequeen · 08/01/2017 14:29

'Owl' her taxes pay for her baby's treatment not free food. And should the nurses take over full care of the baby for its stay there to save mum 'involvement'?

Next time DS is in hospital I shall head of for a long awaited holiday and avoid any DS 'involvement'.

I do not believe the OP actually asked for a sandwich and if she did and was refused she should be complaining to PALS no Mn.

I think it's the sense of entitlement that has pissed people off. That her baby is the only one on the ward and the nurses should anticipate and mind read her lack of food and fetch it to her. There were plenty of sick children on the ward and their needs were paramount.

GreenGinger2 · 08/01/2017 14:29

What is a "full time nursing mother"?

DrinkingCocktailsInTheSunshine · 08/01/2017 14:30

Owl That parents are relied upon to provide care I have never disputed and completely agree with you about. However, parents are relied upon regardless of how the baby is fed and that is the point that lots of posters are trying to make.

dontbesillyhenry · 08/01/2017 14:30

Daisy in all due respect you've just made this non existent pressure group up in your overactive imagination

Daisyfrumps · 08/01/2017 14:31

A full time nursing mother is a woman who is exclusively breastfeeding her baby, typically less than 6 months old but may be older if not weaning yet.

Owllady · 08/01/2017 14:31

The last time I was on the ward a parent went home for the day (she lived a long way away) and when she came back the day after they hadn't fed her child at all (tube fed) :(
Just to illustrate how much they rely on parents who have children with significant additional needs.

expatinscotland · 08/01/2017 14:32

'Am surprised the 'Mumsnet fight against full time nursing mothers hoping for ward meals' has so many members confused'

But if it's a baby in certain areas, there may not be ward meals at all. What is the NHS is supposed to do then, magic up a meal? What does 'Mummy' do when she needs the loo? At one point in time, you have to leave the child there and see to your own needs. It's not about having 'low expectations', it's about being an adult in a place with socialised healthcare. If you want catered to be prepared to pay more for it like they do in many parts of the EU and N. America.

Daisyfrumps · 08/01/2017 14:32

Daisy in all due respect you've just made this non existent pressure group up in your overactive imagination

Of course I have! To highlight the ludicrousness of the arguments being put forward.

JanuaryIsTheNewMonday · 08/01/2017 14:33

No - you need to arrange your own. The hospital my son was in even struggled with food that was suitable for him never mind providing non patients

GreenGinger2 · 08/01/2017 14:33

Also when my baby was in intensive care( partly due to disastrous breast feeding) I'd have felt great being declined a meal whilst the breast feeding superiors got one. Why should my sick baby have been denied her mother just because we failed at breast feeding?

BizzyFizzy · 08/01/2017 14:34

My DD was in and out of hospital for her first 4 years. I breastfed her until she was three, and I always got hospital meals. It was their policy to include breastfeeding mothers in the meals, whether or not the child had anything.

GreenGinger2 · 08/01/2017 14:34

I exclusively fed my 3 for 6 weeks including twins, it wasn't a full time job.

Daisyfrumps · 08/01/2017 14:34

But if it's a baby in certain areas, there may not be ward meals at all

OP - are you in a ward where meals can be provided to patients?

Olympiathequeen · 08/01/2017 14:35

OP so it would take half an hour to nip to the canteen and fetch a sandwich? Where was it, Mars?

I shall leave now as my scepticism and sarcasm are getting the better of me.

Fwiw DS regularly stays in hospital and has had several operations and I have never been refused a sandwich on the ward and there is a tea and coffee fund you pay into and help yourself to drinks.

Instead of elevating bfing women to near sainthood why don't you contact PALS and ask if they could ensure there are sandwiches available for parents to pay for and a parents rest room?

Owllady · 08/01/2017 14:35

I don't think the sarcastic reply regarding going on holiday is necessary if you have experience of hospital stays with your children. You'll know how difficult it is yourself.

SolomanDaisy · 08/01/2017 14:36

drinking, in the hospital I was in there were baby monitors, if you wanted to go out you switched it on and it connected to something the nurse carried around, as did the machine monitors. There was an en suite bathroom so I didn't use the monitor for showers etc as I could hear her myself.

Olympiathequeen · 08/01/2017 14:37

Nevertheless I did arrange my own food most of the time as well as DSs

Daisyfrumps · 08/01/2017 14:37

I exclusively fed my 3 for 6 weeks including twins, it wasn't a full time job.

I'm taking the OP's use of the phrase 'fully breastfeeding' to mean the baby is being exclusively fed by mum.

Full term breastfeeding denotes exclusive breastfeeding where the NHS obviously can't provide meals for the child.

PurpleMinionMummy · 08/01/2017 14:37

A bf mum is as capable of leaving her baby for half an hour to find some food as a ff mum or any other mum or parent. Anyone with half an ounce of common sense would attempt to feed baby before they go and if baby decides its hungry after they leave it's not going to starve in half an hour.

Who watches the bf babies when their mums go to find food? Who watches the ff babies or the toddlers or the pre-schoolers and every other kid on the ward when their parents go to get food??

Original poster

NurseRosie · 08/01/2017 14:38

to be fair it's a big hospital and the lifts are a nightmare so yes could actually take half an hour depending on how busy it is.

OP posts:

Owllady · 08/01/2017 14:38

So do I :)

KitKats28 · 08/01/2017 14:38

20 years ago in Bristol Childrens' I got bugger all. DS was 7 weeks and I was breastfeeding in theory, but crappy food meant crappy milk supply. It didn't even occur to me that they should be feeding me. They gave me mini bottles of formula for DS, which I was bloody grateful for! I didn't have anyone to bring me stuff as DH was working full time over an hour away. When DS slept I went to the supermarket up the road for a sandwich.

It seems like many "mummies" push out their common sense along with the placenta!

Daisyfrumps · 08/01/2017 14:39

Full time, that should say... Full term is a different topic!

SnatchedPencil · 08/01/2017 14:39

No, they feed patients but not relatives. You are there to feed your baby but you are not a patient yourself. YABU.

Flip

1 2 ··· 8 9 10 ··· 21 22

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

Join Mumsnet Log In

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread