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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:
OVienna · 16/12/2017 09:55

@Mrscaindingle Homerton, Nov 2004? If so, I was in a nearby bed, listening to it as well.

Aftereights91 · 16/12/2017 10:06

I was only in one night and it was awful. Ridiculously hot. I know they have to keep it warm for the babies but I genuinely nearly passed out it was so hot. Ridiculously noisy. Finally get to sleep and the fire alarm goes off. Really hope I don't have to stay in again with this baby

frogmellah · 16/12/2017 10:08

Yes SO Hot! Don't they say the ideal temp for babies is 18c or something? So why do they make it as hot as the Sahara on there?

venys · 16/12/2017 10:16

Or Lolita is the medical tourist who didn't pay any taxes towards the healthcare system and came over specifically to give birth. Did not have any ante natal lessons, ignored the midwives , and really shouldn't have been in the ward, let alone in my cubicle asking for advise at 3am.

Bratsandtwats · 16/12/2017 10:19

If the lady is from another country having a foreign language and all that, maybe due to the time difference it's the only time she can speak to her family?

MsVestibule · 16/12/2017 10:28

Are there any midwives on here who can explain why this sort of behaviour is allowed? Surely there should be a rigidly enforced, complete ban on any unnecessary noise between (say) 10pm-7am.

And that includes midwives chatting loudly at their station at midnight.

MsVestibule · 16/12/2017 10:30

brats maybe, but why does her need to talk in a shared ward top trump the other patients right to sleep? If she absolutely can’t wait until she’s discharged, she should take her phone into the day room.

HappyAndRelaxed · 16/12/2017 10:31

I feel your pain. I wouldn't give a hoot what language she's speaking. She woke you up at 6.30am yakking on her phone. I'd be saying something. Can you tell I'm not a morning person? Grin There was a woman speaking loudly in the corridor outside our ward when I was in having DC2. She was asked to leave her own ward because she was disturbing everyone in there.There was another woman in the next bed to me who played music on her phone loudly throughout the night. I eventually got fed up and said it to a midwife. The woman sighed loudly when told to turn off the music and get some rest. She used to have 12 visitors in at each visiting time. It was awful. I was kept in for an extra couple of days due to complications but I couldn't wait to go home.

FabulouslyGlamorousFerret · 16/12/2017 10:45

Lolita I wished her well by 'hoping she got out of there soon' that as a stand-alone would have given me an invite to the relevance party!

Woobeedoo · 16/12/2017 10:51

I feel your pain. When I had my son, the woman in the bed opposite must've gone through her whole phone book telling her friends that "Yeah I've had it. It's a girl and she's f*cking ugly, I'm not picking her up". (I'm not making this up, even when some friends arrived, she pointed out how ugly her daughter was, and left it to her boyfriend to feed and do nappy changes).

The icing on the cake was that the boyfriend had done some dodgy deal and had a guy in the phone who apparently was a cage fighter and they were arranging meeting in the hospital to "sort fings out propa". The maternity ward was almost put into security lock down due to this utter twat.

I often wonder about the little girl and hope her mother has changed but I doubt it.m

Eatalot · 16/12/2017 10:54

Omg due to give birth anyday now and these posts are reminding me of some of the beauts on my ward for dc1. Favourite was not being able to go to toilet when other womans dp was around unless you had visitors as he would steal your stuff.

All these gems to look forward to.

VivaLeBeaver · 16/12/2017 11:02

I’m a midwife. Sometimes we don’t know about it, if the bay is away from the midwives station and we have no need to go in the bay we wouldn’t know unless told. Or if we know we hope it’s not causing a problem for anyone else. If someone tells me there’s an issue I will go and ask the other person to keep it down as others are trying to sleep.

Some people say sorry and comply, others tell you to fuck off. I can’t make people be quiet. I can’t kick patients off the ward. I’ve been in situations before where I’ve tried to kick visitors out and been physically threatened. You ring security for help but there’s only one old bloke and he’s busy in a&e. Police wouldn’t be interested.

Ellendegeneres · 16/12/2017 11:04

I had hell when ds1 was born, the ward of 3 other women was ridiculous. One was an absolute sweetheart, opposite me. The one diagonal was clearly in some religious sect, people chanting around her bed all day- the visiting hours didn't seem to apply to her.
The one beside me, her husband shouted into his phone, his dw kept saying to him to talk quieter, he was disturbing people, he told her to shut her mouth or she'd know about it when she got home 🙁 He also kept shoving the chair back into my cubicle, I lost it when he smashed it into my baby's crib and disturbed him. Was so glad when we moved to a private room.
Then we had the absolute nightmare where someone who'd given birth tried to escape the ward at 9.30pm with family, kidnapping her own baby. Baby was subject to a care order, within 6hours of being born, her family had hatched a plot to take baby anyway. Baby was on meds for drug withdrawal. Police were called, they got as far as the downstairs lift, hauled back, mayhem ensued where chairs in the main area for parents to socialise were being thrown around... everyone was loudly advised to stay in their wards/rooms and not to exit until it was deemed safe. Bloody terrifying.
Sorry for the tangent op... it made me think of the hell of hospital lol

Please speak to midwives, they should deal with this.

WrittenandGrown · 16/12/2017 11:13

Congratulations, hope you escape soon.

beepbeeprichie · 16/12/2017 11:51

When I was in the woman opposite me kicked off and effed and blinded when her DP got asked to leave after arriving at 9am (partner visiting started at 10 or 11, can't remember) because the doctors/ physios were doing their rounds and checks. Eh hang on love I don't want people checking my wound and my catheter and asking about my bodily functions in front of your man. So bloody selfish. And she had a string of about 20 visitors including all her pals' small children who pulled open all the curtains and used the toilet. Normal me would have kicked off. Post c-section me just cried.

Mrscaindingle · 16/12/2017 11:53

OVienna

It was 2001, the Whittington hospital, hopefully my woman didn't have a second baby.

A midwife friend has told me that some places are trailing noise alarms on wards which give off warning lights when noise levels get too high at night especially around the nurses stations. I think this is a great idea and hopefully more hospitals will roll this out.

Blackteadrinker77 · 16/12/2017 11:59

Congratulations on the birth of your child.

Have you spoken to her to ask her to keep the noise down? She might not realise she is upsetting people.

FannyTheFlamingo · 16/12/2017 11:59

When I had DD by emcs, I was on a 5 bed maternity ward. The woman in the bed next to me for the 2nd night was the loudest person I'd ever encountered. When she wasn't surrounded by a million children and her almost silent DH, she was on the phone, bellowing about how new baby was her 6th and he almost fell out of her in the car park! Then she snored like a freight train all night. I honestly thought she'd been put there as some horrible prank.

VioletDaze · 16/12/2017 12:02

I feel it's a bit unfair to lump snoring in with general 'inconsiderate behaviour'. The poor snorers can't help it and I'm sure they'd rather not be in a ward with a dozen other women either.

Thymeout · 16/12/2017 12:08

Just remembering the good old days. No mobile phones. No take-aways. Visiting hours strictly enforced, even for partners. Babies brought to you to be fed then whisked away to sleep in the nursery down the corridor where experienced nursery nurses knew how to look after them better than cack-handed sleep-deprived new mothers.

The new mothers were the priority then. Jugs of foaming hot milk for Horlicks and Bournvita brought round for a night cap and then lights out.
We had to stay in longer, but we were in much better shape to cope when we were discharged.

Not all progress is for the better.

Dinosauratemydaffodils · 16/12/2017 12:09

My son was in NICU so babyless I was on a shared ward with one woman who snored very loudly at night and talked all the time during the day, one woman who seemingly could have slept through the end of the world as her baby screaming it's head off all night didn't wake her up and a lovely Indian lady whose family kept bringing her in food and touring the ward to share it out (which was really nice but I was a suicidal wreck who thought I'd failed at motherhood from the start and didn't really want a samosa... although they were delicious).

I'm pregnant again and planning an elective. My plan is escape asap because I reckon Dante's circles of hell have nothing on a shared maternity ward.

JaneBanks · 16/12/2017 12:12

I discharged myself 24 hours after a c section for this very reason!

Specialcircumstances1 · 16/12/2017 12:18

Postnatal wards are hell. I spent a week on one with DD in NICU. I was expressing and obviously upset as she was very poorly and I'd been seriously unwell and seperate from her for two days when I was in HDU.
The combination of noise, heat, other peoples babies and patients/family staring into the cubicle looking for the baby sent me bonkers. Especially the ones who asked where the baby was and when I replied NICU said 'well, hope she makes it'. Oh and someone ate my lunch when I was on NICU trying to feed her,.

Children's wards aren't always much better- again noise, heat and the mess people leave on the playroom, the whole family tearing around the ward, opening curtains and my personal favourite eating the clearly labelled food stored in the parent fridge. Luckily DD is positive for a Hospital acquired infection so we now get our own room!

LostMyBaubles · 16/12/2017 12:19

With ds1 I can't remember anyone talking loudly in the phone but had to have emergency surgery to repair down there so prob don't remember

With ds2 I was in hdu and once transferred they let me go too early (same day 🤔) obv was very poorly and was readmitted for another week or so but can't remember anyone being annoying

With ds3 i was transferred to the birthing unit ward and there was no one else in my bay 😁

I am a regular in paed wards with my dc and I have told parents to shut up (at 2am 😡) as my child was sleeping

They were speaking another language and I understood it lol so I told them in that language shut your fucking mouth and not a peep out of them after (im mixed race and don't look like I understand that language lol so it comes as a shock when they get a mouthful) 😁

noeffingidea · 16/12/2017 13:18

Agree with you, Thymeout.

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