About curtains on hospital wards

[Bubbinsmakesthree]

Currently on post-natal ward, baby in SCBU, recovering from c-section.

I don't mind leaving most of my dignity at the door, i don't mind partners and visitors on the ward.

But is it too much to ask to be allowed the bloody curtain around my bed to be closed?

Matronly midwife seems to have nothing better to do than insisting my curtains are open.

I don't think you are being unreasonable.
But when I was on the ward with DC1 both my neighbours kept their curtains closed all the time and I felt very cut off. I couldn't see anything except the end of my bed.
It made me feel quite down tbh

'No one is looking at you anyway

I wish. Try to have a bed at the far end, next to the door to the little cafeteria area, where people get their sandwiches. The whole flipping world is gazing at you in passing. It's lovely when you are in pain ,bleeding, in tears (semi hysterical even), and your boobs out feeling like a failure.

We are supposed to be a modern and civilised country. Women don't deserve that. A little respect, a little decency, is that too much to ask?

Visiting hours should be just that..a couple of hours.one in the morning one in the evening.(..partners are only allowed in to save the nurses properly looking after the patients.)..give women back their dignity,by 2 visiting hours a day.and no partners allowed other than visiting...women can support each other and chat to each other with curtains open and no one feels like a freak show.

yanbu
if you had a private room...

I think the whole set up is crazy. I feel for you OP. I hope you feel better asap and that you and bubs can get home soon.

bit stunned at the poster telling you to get up and close them all the time!

I remember queuing for the loo,after having dc4.. dripping down my leg waiting in line behinned visitors..ffs..it's rediculous

I agree with you photograph. I get a little bit annoyed with the 'no one is looking at you, get over yourself' attitude sometimes.
People don't lose their need for privacy or their bodily automony just because they've had a baby.

Firstly congratulations on your new baby. Secondly, I got sick to death of this every time I have been in hospital over the years, the first time was when I had my DD back in 1983. The woman in the next bed had loads of (mostly male) visitors every visiting time,for the whole 6 hours of visiting time. I on the other hand, had only my DH who couldn't get to the hospital before 6pm due to work and all my family lived too far away to visit regularly. I would get fed up with certain ones of this woman's visitors watching my every move, so I started pulling the curtain across for some privacy. However, a certain nurse kept yanking it back. I just kept pulling it closed again. This went on for several days with neither of us saying anything. But then she totally pissed me off by starting to yank it back when I was trying to breastfeed my DD. I shouted at her 'Can I have some bloody privacy when I've got my boobs out please?!' She didn't do it again.

I'll pass on support & chatting to random women who just so happen to happen to have produced a baby at the same time as me thanks! As if baby groups weren't bad enough shudder I loved my private room - I was in for a week as ds needed followup, and managed to finish two whole books in peace!

Thumbs up for strictly limited visiting hours though.

Visiting hours should be just that..a couple of hours.one in the morning one in the evening.

I absolutely disagree with you.

In any case, I want privacy from everybody, patients and visitors alike. I don't want my curtains open, I don't want to talk with the person in the next bed. I just want to stay as dignified and comfortable as possible.

Absolutely agree!

I remember after having an emergency c-section and 2 blood transfusions, I was a mess. Could barely sit up let alone get out of bed.

The midwife told me off when I pressed the buzzer for some pain relief. She said I had to walk to the nurses station if I needed anything!
I had already collapsed in the toilets earlier that day.
I called my husband crying to come and get me, some people truly need a different profession.

I don't understand it at all after my DD (and a haemorrhage!) I was in a private room down the far end of the ward, had the door shut and was only checked on every 4 hours

we get it in the neck from management if the curtains are closed for no reason.

A patient's desire to protect her dignity/ privacy is not "no reason".

Why, because the NHS is paid for out of our taxes, rather than via insurance, are patients in the UK not only supposed to put up with dehumanizing treatment, but also to pretend this is the best health service in the world?

It boggles my mind.

the idea of having MORE engagement with others on the ward...!! Eek!

GnomeDePlume
Surely it is the patient who gets to decide how much they want to be exposed to idle gaze not the staff!

You are right! Having a lack of privacy and space is dreadful, especially when feeling unwell and vulnerable. Having curtains back is great for nurses and observation of patients, but it doesn't take much to pop your head around closed curtains to make sure everything is OK, irrespective of what type of ward and how busy it is. The Care Quality Commission are hot on the use of curtains to protect dignity and privacy, and quite rightly so too.

I think I must have been really lucky, the ward I was on (3times) had 4 to a side ward, the midwives were lovely, friendly and helpful. I didn't notice the curtain issue, sometimes I had them open sometimes shut. Visiting times were super strict and only 2 visitors maximum - they did give a bit of leniency to partners though so they could stay past official visiting hours. I also read my notes one day and was surprised how much they do actually check on you even when you think they don't - there were loads of notes mentioning the different times they had checked (i.e. Just looked at me and baby to make sure all was ok). I can see why people want privacy but there must be so many cases of mums and babies lives being saved by a midwife noticing something wrong just by glancing.
My opinion might be swayed by my good experiences though.

YANBU - I found sitting around topless cuddling baby resulted in them shutting the curtains for me

we get it in the neck from management if the curtains are closed for no reason. Nurses need to challenge management. Perhaps these managers should be subjected to a few days in bed, bedpans, bodies exposed, and no privacy!

Wankingmonkey Your experience is horrific! Gallbladder removal is known to be excruciatingly painful, it was negligent to have left you in such a situation.

I just feel so sad when I hear these terrible accounts, I could cry

Hmm. The reason I don't fully buy the "oh we must have a clear line of sight on you for your own safety" justification is that I was lucky enough to have a private room after both DC and was left peacefully alone for hours. I had the space and privacy to breastfeed, check if my maternity pad was overflowing (it was), stagger to the en-suite bathroom to clean up with blood running down my legs, etc. And people knocked before coming in.

YADNBU, OP. Everyone deserves the level of dignity I was allowed.

(And I didn't pay for the rooms/privilege either - postcode lottery of birth provision meant that DS1 was born in a lovely standalone birth centre that only had private rooms, and DS2 in a hospital obstetric unit that gave me a private room to get some sleep after being in the delivery room the whole night).

This was one of my biggest bugbears after having DS, constant insistence of the curtains being open unless you were feeding or changing.
I remember one particular day (I was in for 6) when it had been a dreadful night. My DS wasn't settling well, neither were many of the others in the room. One of the ladies in another bed had an emergency overnight, and another (with what I would assume we're MH issues) kicked off and smashed her cubicle up meaning security were called - in short, none of us had got much sleep. When DP arrived I was hoping for a quick nap while he held DS (who screamed if he was put down). It was visiting hours and all other patients had lots of visitors, still I wasn't allowed the curtains closed, with DP sitting about two feet away from me so perfect capable of watching me!
My postnatal isward experience was awful. I did request my notes and few months later and there was barely anything in them, mine and DS's names were wrong. I had such a great pregnancy and labour experience it was such a disappointernet, and contributed to how much I struggled in the early days I think.

Children need their privacy just as much as adults do. When a child is particularly unwell, then the staff allocation should reflect this.

When it is dark at night, we have to look more closely at the patients, not much different to popping your head round a curtain to check all is OK. Curtains are a cultural issue within the nursing profession; an ongoing battle!
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When I had mine, the midwives said that they kept the curtains open as much as possible to allow lots of natural light across the ward and reduce jaundice.

Do how do these nurses who insist on being able to see you cope with wards with private rooms, then? Take the bloody walls down?

When ds has been in hospital, I ask for the curtain to be closed, he gets distressed enough without strange children trying to talk to him.

Once there was a situation where the family opposite went silent every time the Drs came round, they stared and stared and then I heard them complaining at the nurses station that their son had not received the same treatment, and 'why didn't their son have an xray, when that boy did....' (they didn't know I was sat behind the desk looking at said xray, with my back to them).

A lot depends on who is in the next bed!

I am genuinely shocked at some of the experiences on here. I had my DS 5 weeks ago. I was initially in a private room as he was in SCBU but was transferred to a ward the day he came down to me. Curtains were always closed. The only time they got opneed was when the cleaner did so to clean the floors and that was bad enough. After the first few days of my baby's life being in Special Care, I wanted absolute privacy to enjoy him and spend proper time with him without him being covered in wires etc. I had zero interest in interacting with others. The midwives were absolutely lovely as well and nothing was too much trouble, even when I broke down crying in the early hours on two occasions.

Can't believe this stuff goes on, it's revolting.