Gift for midwives/nurses?

[harper30]

Posting in AIBU for traffic.
Well, I supposed it is maybe an AIBU as well really.
I gave birth at our local hospital back in July and we had to stay in for a week in the transitional care unit for baby. The midwives during the birth, and afterwards, and all of the nurses were wonderful. Like literally I could cry thinking about how amazingly they took care of us. I did take in a card and chocolates about a month afterwards to the MLU and the TCU.

Am I mental for wanting to take something in, again, as a Christmas gift for the people who work there?

And if that's not mental, what would be a good gift/gifts? Chocolate is a bit boring?
Any midwives or nurses out there who can suggest something nice I could take?

It’s probably unusual but a lovely gesture.

From my experience of the nhs all staff love a chocolate/sweets. They’re not boring, they’re classic! It’s also good to have a something that can be picked at on a short break or while grabbing a drink.

Nice handcream? Hospital hand soap and sanitiser are so drying.

Good tea and coffee is always appreciated, and lasts a long time. We can get a lot of sweets chocolate which is also appreciated. A fruit basket can be a lovely gesture and healthier!

Chocolate is always appreciated. Nice handcream is a really good idea as hands get dry from constant washing.

A written thank you is wonderful though, if you can name some of the staff even better - we can use it in appraisals and revalidation. Does the hospital have any kind of award system, i.e. WOW awards?

I'm a nurse on a SCBU, chocolate or handcream or cake or biscuits always goes down well!

Nice tea or coffee, herbal teas etc.
Not chocs or biscuits: loads of nurses and midwives are in an unhealthy weight range and get given so many unhealthy gifts.
Not handcream: many hospitals have policies about not sharing handcream around due to cross infection.

As a nurse I can honestly say staff LOVE chocolate and biscuits. If you're having a busy day, a little chocolatey snack from someone who appreciates what we're doing is the best morale booster

I was told by a midwife friend that a jumbo pack of pens (as you can never find one when you need one!) is a great gift so I took one with me, along with chocolates!

Hi I'm a midwife and it's so lovely to hear you had such lovely experience and were well looked after. We try our best and love it when we have the time and staff to give the best care to all our families. Re gifts, yes chocolate biccies, nice teas or coffee, cake and fruit always welcome. Lovely to have with a cuppa on a break.

Not hand cream it is an infection control issue. But I used to love fruit baskets we got so much chocolate I could face the stuff. But lots of ward could also do with donations for patients especially at this time of year.

Oh god yes tea and coffee and squash

I wanted to give something as well, but wanted everyone across all shifts to benefit in some way. After all, it is a 24 hour thing. In the end I gave a hundred quid to the ward sister to contribute to the Xmas do. Not sure if this was the most thoughtful thing to do, but I had other things to worry about!

Luxury tea, coffee, green and black hot chocolate, etc

We've had patients bring us in Christmas cards and presents, defo not weird and very much appreciated! Nice tea/coffee always goes down well!

DS2 was born premature last December and had to spend a week in Neo. As a present, I made a big hamper with a small packet of biscuits but lots of tea and coffee. It was well appreciated so I'm going to do the same this year.

Nice coffee and tea is always appreciated. Communal hand cream unlikely to be allowed for infection control reasons

Contribution to the Christmas do is also a lovely idea.

It’s probably unusual but a lovely gesture

Its not unusual! I am a midwife and we used to get gifts all the time, it was so lovely.
Weirdly the last 2 years it seems to happen less often, we love food type things because we often don't get breaks.
So glad you had a lovely experience OP!

I love a cakey, biscuity, chocolatey snack but in a profession mostly full of women there seems to be a VERY high number of staff members on slimming world (it’s always bloody slimming world! 😂) at any given time in my experience (partially due to the extra weight from nice gifts but also stress eating, night shift eating, grabbing something high sugar to keep you going when you can’t have a break etc.) so they’re possibly not the best. Although when we had DS I just bought a few massive boxes from Hotel Chocolat because tbh it was easier than thinking with a brand new baby!

Care packages are great - a box with tea, coffee, squash, biscuits, pens etc. Means there is something everyone will like.

We love getting cake, biscuits, chocolate and sweets from patients and relatives at Christmas, it's a real morale booster. (They don't last long that's for sure)

Thanks so much all for taking the time to reply 😊
I'm going to make two hampers then; one for the MLU and one for the TCU and will put in everything suggested above.
Thanks all, and especially thanks to all of the midwives and nurses who replied!
We had such a wonderful experience it really made me even look into training to be a midwife!

Imo I'd say no chocolates or biscuits, a fruit basket definitely a better option and still just as quick to reach for

Thank you for all the lovely advice, I also added mince pies to the boxes, one for the birth centre and one for the TCU 😊

I came on here to suggest a hamper, that's exactly what I gave my wonderful midwives earlier this year - nice tea, coffee, biscuits and even a little bit of homemade damson gin - it went down very well!