To think post natal wards are absolute shit?

[SprogletsMum]

I had ds2 this morning and have been put onto a full 4 bay ward.

2 of the 3 other women have been quiet most of the day but one keeps ringing people all day long. There has not been a single minute of quiet all day.
I've been awake since 1am and I'm shattered but she just won't shut up.
I'm going home to the other 3 dc for some peace and quiet as soon as ds2s 12 hours of obs are up.

My eldest is 16 & conditions were much better when she was born than with my younger three. It was cleaner, staff were kinder & had more time (I remember a midwife actually sitting down to talk to me when dd needed to go to SCBU), visiting hours were strictly enforced, We were fed (vile but better than nothing) & had tea & drugs when required. Unfortunately they made some pretty major clinical errors with long lasting effects that time.

You only need 6 hour on usually? I self discharged at 2am with DC2 so I could get some sleep!

Yep, my experience was crap too. Had DS in a home-from-home room (17 years ago) which was a really lovely experience, couldn't fault it. He was born around 11pm so they moved me to the post-natal ward for the night. It was awful. I couldn't sleep, I had no bloody idea what to do with DS who wasn't latching on properly. It was too hot, too noisy, and the loos were down a corridor, as was the room where all the food was served, so I had to walk down there trundling DS in his fishtank cot thing, feeling like my insides were falling out.

I made a huge fuss (not like me at all, I'm very non-confrontational) when it was suggested the following afternoon that I stay another day to 'recover', and I insisted that they send me home. I just wanted my bed.

I didn't bond with DS for days because I was too bloody knackered.

When I had DD she was born at 1am, and I was out of the delivery room, home and in my own bed by 7am. No way were they getting me onto the ward - not that they offered

They're horrible. Staff on the labour ward were brilliant- couldn't have had better care. But the postnatal ward was grim. No privacy, they didn't bring me any dinner (an oversight apparently) so all I to eat was a mars bar I had in my bag, staff were rushed and unhelpful and it was soooo noisy and bright.

I had a homebirth with DD2.

Agreed! I learned after my first to just self discharge the next 2 times!

I had good care and the staff were lovely, but the place itself was aaaaargh. Hot, noisy, crowded. My baby was awake all night feeding both the nights I was there, and then I couldn't sleep during the day because of the noise and hustle and bustle. Woman in the next bed had a DP who liked to hold court VERY VERY LOUDLY and wanted all the staff's attention, and a toddler who roamed around the ward ducking in and out of other people's curtains.

I wish we'd had shorter visiting hours because it was only at non-visiting times I got any chance to rest. I needed so badly to just bloody sleep.

They are absolutely shite! Awful, awful! Hot, too many fucking visitors, no privacy, filthy, no access to adequate and timely pain relief (I brought my own with DS), didn't eat if you were unable to get up and fetch it yourself.

Yanbu! It's hell! The one time in life you need rest ands it's constant interruptions. My DD is 4 weeks old now, we were in for nearly two weeks for jaundice treatment and every blood test was at 2/3am?? Why?? I was lucky and in private room but was readmitted to a ward and it was awful!

Yes, they're shit.

YANBU i had a horrific experience and sadly i dont think thats uncommon.

Yanbu. It was hell on earth. I was in a four bed ward with three others - all except me were bottle feeding and they all looked down on me for breastfeeding. The babies all kept waking each other up and the woman opposite ate crisps noisily all day. I basically forced them to discharge me. I needed a lot more hospital care but I couldn't bear to stay.

Hope you get released soon!

Yanbu!
I was left with ptsd after my experiences with ds1
Horrific
So much so I gave birth to ds2 at a different hospital and left after 12 hours

'I wish we'd had shorter visiting hours because it was only at non-visiting times I got any chance to rest. I needed so badly to just bloody sleep.'

No chance! Any thread on here about that and you get a hundred different snowflakes going on about how they simply cannot be without their 'DP' for 'support' for a single minute. And of course, staff want them there to do their jobs.

Yup! Bloody awful places. I had DS by section 8 days ago and left the ward after 24 hours against medical advice because I could bear it no longer.

I was fine btw, all obs came back apart from iron levels but I was just on the cusp for blood loss anyway. They couldn't get blood from me because I was so wound up and tired.

Stuffy, noisy, dark and generally a miserable place that doesn't help recovery! Was so happy to be out

As a midwife I couldn't agree more with all the above comments. They are the main reason I chose home birth, discharged myself with dd1 from the postnatal ward and that was nowhere as a bad as where I work now. I dread being asked to work on the postnatal ward due to heat, understaffing etc and looking after 15 women, 15 babies (many of the mums & babies on iv antibiotics/obs etc) is beyond awful and I often find newly qualified midwives crying after 13 hours of being shouted at and abused by women and their partners when the midwives themselves know the care they are giving is substandard but are powerless to change it. What the hell can we do to change it is the question?

This is exactly the reason dc 2 was a homebirth and dc 3 I demanded a 2 hour discharge so I did not even get put on postnatal I was in delivery until I left (homebirth team where already out and I couldn't be bothered to argue with dc3)

I discharged against medical advice after my third, too.

HDU was fine! Getting transferred to postnatal at midnight was a shock. I hadn't stood for over 48 hours, and before the long labour, EMCS and complications I'd barely been able to stand because of SPD.

Noisy, bright, hot. Beds near impossible to get on/off. Skimpy portions of food that have about 50% of a postnatal calorie requirement. No food overnight from 5pm to 8am (my stomach thought my throat had been cut by 9pm, crappy sandwich long forgotten). No point in pressing buzzer. Dropped DS on his head when my strength gave out as I tried to put him in the crib. No idea what I should do with baby when I went for a shower. Wasn't told that I had to do more walking than I'd done in the previous month to go and get breakfast.

There was a significant difference on the 1:14 ratio at the start of the stay and the 1:8 at the end. The same staff were so much nicer because they actually had a little time to be human.

I was terrified at going home as I felt so weak and shit, but it was so much better.

Was told that we couldn't borrow a wheelchair to get from the ward to the car as it meant I wasn't well enough to go home. I hadn't gone that far in months! My god it was a long, painful shuffle.

Had an unnecessary prenatal stay just before DS2. It became obvious that it was a false labour (VBAC) but they wouldn't let me go. Had a long night shuffling around on crutches because there weren't any pillows to bolster my SPD ridden body so I could rest. Admitted at breakfast time. Was refused lunch "just in case" despite contractions fading off. Had to ask for tea-
pointing out that labour clearly wasn't happening and just got a minging sandwich with inedible bread, so in 24 hours basically ate a handful of cheese

I've not had any other reason to be an inpatient to be able to make comparisons.

YABU - only because you are lumping every unit together. Don't get me wrong, I am sure some of them aren't great, people expect better everything (even though its effectively free) but not everyone has that experience.

I spent 3 weeks on a post natal ward after delivering prematurely - not my local hospital but got transferred there, 30 miles away, as it was the only place within 100 miles that would take us even though they officially didn't have any NICU beds.

From the senior consultant to the porter - everyone was lovely and entirely professional. Yes, the lady and 20 of her family having a curry in the next bay wasn't a highlight, but I knew we were getting the best care possible.

Was so pleased with my care that I chose to deliver there 2nd time - even though again it wasn't my local hospital. No complaints second time around either.

Hated my experience with ds, kept in as blood pressure was sky high and didn't sleep a wink all night due to noise, continuous prodding etc. Was told to stay in another night and 'rest' which was bloody unlikely. I refused to stay another night in that place

Congratulations!
YANBU. I was on a 6 bed ward and my baby was in SCBU after a section. The other 5 had their babies with them. I was left in bed with the guard rails down and the buzzer out of reach. Midwife refused to give me oramorph 10 hours after my section because I wasn't in enough pain. Hot, noisy and understaffed. Plus the doors were all on really strong hinges that hurt to push. I hated every moment and I also think PND started there.

Yanbu. I was in a bay of 4, no sleep or rest at all after dd was born due to others being noisy. Bathrooms dirty. Couldn't wait to get home.

I do often wonder about women who want their partners with them 24/7 on a post natal ward - how the heck did they cope when their partners went back to work? I never the problem with overcrowding and families with my first two and luckily with my third, was in a private room - the 4 bed wards for my first two were huge, with my third so small was thankful for the room. I couldn't have coped at all being in a small 4 bay ward with families in all hours. I would have signed myself out. Without hesitation.

YANBU.

Why are they so bloody hot? It's not like the babies are lying around naked. There are vests and sleepsuits and blankets aplenty. So why are the mothers boiled to death. I could cope with most things on the ward, although I detested it, but the heat nearly killed me.