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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Phone conversations on maternity wards

206 replies

user1494667160 · 16/12/2017 07:13

It is 7am and the woman in the next hospital bay has been on the phone for the last half hour.
She is doing my head in.
It is a maternity ward so only gave birth yesterday. Absolutely shattered from babies waking up all night (completely reasonable as that is what being on a maternity ward is all about).
But being on your phone and having lengthy conversations at 7am is taking the mick.
I finally drifted off at 6am and woke up to her chatting away loudly.
She is speaking another language as well which means what she is saying to me sounds just like an extra noise!
Raaaaa

OP posts:
JediStoleMyBike · 16/12/2017 07:15

I'm not sure how 'another language' equates to extra noise but otherwise I know exactly how you feel. The woman in the bay over from me after I gave birth chatted on the phone through the night and woke my DD a few times. Eventually she went to the toilet and sets the alarms off smoking in there. It was a total nightmare.

user1470420871 · 16/12/2017 07:19

Poor you, hope you and baby get to go home today! There was a lady in the bed next to me when I had my son who talked on her phone allllllll night. God knows who she was calling at 3am but thank god one of the other braver mum's opposite eventually told her to shut up

Bobbiepin · 16/12/2017 07:19

Totally a PITA but I would have taken that over the man who snored so loudly he woke all the babies up, the shouted at his partner who had just had a c section that the baby was crying and she needed to get up to "sort that baby out". I think of her from time to time and hope she's already LTB.

sandytime · 16/12/2017 07:24

Congratulations op. I can imagine how annoying this is. All you want to do is rest. Hopefully you will be home with your beautiful baby. Bobbiepin that's really sad about the woman who had the c section. I too hope she's found the strength to leave him.

Candlelight234 · 16/12/2017 07:26

Tell her to ssssh! Talking at 6am on a shard ward is very anti social.

Emmalouise1210 · 16/12/2017 07:29

I lost it with a dad in the bed opposite me who came over and told me to stop my conversation with DD on he phone after giving birth to DS. This was 3pm. I missed my baby girl and she missed her mummy. People having conversations everywhere and midwife agreed he was being a complete twat. But 7am? Absolutely YANBU. Waaaaay too early.

Emmalouise1210 · 16/12/2017 07:30

Correction - the dad with the new mum in the bed opposite me, clearly the dad wasn't in the bed!

pinkandpurpleandred · 16/12/2017 07:31

YANBU

I absolutely lost my shit with that staff when I had my last baby.

I first asked politely for them to speak to the other women about noise and cleanliness but nothing changed so I went berserk.

There was a lady facing me who phoned every single relative and friend and told them in great detail about the labour and everything else. Didn't give a fuck what time of day it was (6:30am and throughout the entire day).

A woman who snored so loud she drowned out babies crying. She slept through her kid screaming his lungs out.

Someone next to me who kept shoving her chair so far into my curtain she was pushing my drip and tugging on the wires. She was breastfeeding so had to have more space apparently Hmm

The last straw was going into the toilet/shower room and finding blood soaked pads and a piss filled bedpan left inside the toilet bowl.

I went ape shit and got moved to an amenity room. I think they knew I was close to breaking point having been there a week.

Ok these women have just had a baby, they are tired, excited, overwhelmed, maybe unwell in some way. But fuck off. Have some respect for everyone else sharing that space.

Uptownfuckuup · 16/12/2017 07:31

Speak to one of the midwifes

Louiselouie0890 · 16/12/2017 07:33

If it was earlier I'd have asked someone to tell her but at least where I was the ward started going at 7am and you was woke up to start the day with breakfast which I thought was brutal because after everything (couldn't pee has to stay up and drink to show I could wee) I got to sleep at 4am. I spoke to a midwife to ask the girl next to me to stop the pissing WhatsApp bing every 30 seconds though just put it on silent woman!

Fitzsimmons · 16/12/2017 07:34

I can see I'm in the minority here but this wouldn't bother me. You don't know what her circumstances are. She might desperately need that conversation for her own mental health.

MrsRamiMalek · 16/12/2017 07:39

Wow emma that is so inappropriate! How dare he. I would have been perfectly fine with a new mother next to me calling someone (especially her child!) at 3 in the afternoon. Very reasonable! It is a vulnerable time and I would have been disgusted with a man barging in and telling me off in a maternity ward after I'd just given birth!

pinkandpurpleandred · 16/12/2017 07:42

I can see I'm in the minority here but this wouldn't bother me. You don't know what her circumstances are. She might desperately need that conversation for her own mental health.

Only on Mumsnet. There's always an excuse for shitty, selfish behaviour.

It's disrespectful at that time of day when you are in a shared space, having all been up through night caring for new babies and recovering from labour.

Rebeccaslicker · 16/12/2017 07:47

Yes yes yes. I had 3 weeks on a central London ward when having DD and some people are atrocious. Loud obnoxious phone calls. Unbelievable snoring. People barging through my curtains to take my visitors' chair because I didn't have visitors at that time and "didn't need it". People allowing their other kids to barge through the curtains when I was trying to breastfeed. People leaving piss and shit and what looked like the contents of an entire jar of strawberry jam on the toilet floor - I had a c section; I know how it is afterwards, but I still managed to clean up after myself. And if I hadn't, I would at least have called someone for help.

So many thoughtless people!

LolitaLempicka · 16/12/2017 07:47

So conversation is noise, but if it is in another language it is extra noise? Fucking weird.

herethereandeverywhere · 16/12/2017 07:57

Poor you OP. When I was on the maternity ward the lady opposite had friends from her church visit her. They had a very loud prayer session (fair enough) which involved prolonged bouts of 'speaking in tongues' (as I understand it this isn't an actual language) - I nearly completely lost the plot by the end, the sound of crying babies was a dream by comparison.

scrivette · 16/12/2017 08:01

I was in for 5 days and I was driven made by the thoughtlessness of other people. Ignoring the visiting time and amount of visitors allowed, bringing in takeaways which made the ward stink and the couple that wouldn't feed their baby at night and kept telling it to 'shhh' and sang to it instead.

Bowerbird5 · 16/12/2017 08:03

Too early here but perhaps she was phoning abroad and it was because of the time difference. It would have been better to go to main atrium where everyone would be awake but perhaps she didn't feel able to do that.

Original poster
user1494667160 · 16/12/2017 08:03

No not 'fucking weird'
Obviously if you understand the language it is more bearable -still really really annoyingwhenyou are trying to sleep.
But when you don't understand the language it is just lots of sounds and noise because your brain can't interpret it.

OP posts:
LolitaLempicka · 16/12/2017 08:08

How on earth does understanding a language make it more bearable? Seriously? I really cannot understand.

genever · 16/12/2017 08:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ememem84 · 16/12/2017 08:09

I am so glad I had a private room when I had ds. So so glad.

Hairgician · 16/12/2017 08:10

Oh god I can mind the woman next to me who snored like a fucking john Deere tractor Angry she slept through her own baby crying. Who in turn disturbed my ds. I was a wreck by time I got out of there!

Afterconkerseason · 16/12/2017 08:12

Sympathies, it’s exhausting being on the postnatal ward with all that’s going on around. Hope you get home soon Flowers

I was in for a week and for my first few days there was a woman on the phone at all hours complaining to various family members about the noise the rest of us were making and how tired she was! It was quite amusing in a way!

Original poster
user1494667160 · 16/12/2017 08:15

Lolita I just explained how it makes it slightly more bearable.
Anyway at this moment in time I really can't be getting into a debate about that. It is my opinion and you have yours.
Just think in general half 6 in the morning is to early to have lengthy telephone conversations on a maternity ward xx

OP posts:
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