Postnatal Ward Hell

[MoneyM]

AIBU in suggesting that postnatal wards are literally hell on earth? Baby born today - stuck in a room with snorers, loud texters, newborn babies being left to cry it out...not to mention the incessant succession of beeps and buzzers. And the intense heat!!

I was lucky I was given my own room while I was on the labour word and had to stay in 2 nights before DD was born. Once she was here I went home the same day to make sure I didn’t run the risk of being put in cubicles.

There wouldn't be wards at all if men had babies, all en-suite rooms, nice beds, buzzers answered, pain meds on tap, plenty of staff, no having to walk round and queue up to get food and water, share bathrooms, etc.

I had this in both Switzerland and France (no cost, so it's not the case that you can only get it in the US if you pay for it). I get that the NHS is not doing brilliantly, but certain areas are clearly not prioritised..

Good grief, what a country. In NL 16 months ago I had him at 3pm and was gone by 7pm with at-home help for a week (all included in the healthcare system). And people think the NHS is so great...

I’m a midwife and I agree they are hell on Earth. Badly designed, no one gets any rest and we have to deal with the over-tired, grumpy fall out. If it was up to me I’d do away with wards and have all private rooms.

Congrats on your baby!

Yep, postnatal is hell. I had to endure three nights of it (after one night on antenatal and one night on labour ward). It was horrendous - noisy visitors allowed all day with no restrictions, thankfully they weren’t allowed at night. Dirty, poor facilities. The staff were always hiding in the staff room (you’d hear raucous laughter coming from it if you went past). No one to look after the baby if you needed a rest/to go to loo (baby crib didn’t fit into toilet!)/have a shower.

We were readmitted two days later with problems caused by breastfeeding and I then developed PND. Both of those are related to the atrocious care on postnatal.

If you find the energy do complain OP - I eventually got my complaint in at 11 months via PALS after it was ignored by maternity. Nothing will change if women don’t complain about their experiences.

Congratulations on your new baby.

I'm so sorry Op I also think it's hell. Both times I've been in it's horrible and so bloody noisy. I tried to pay for a private room but both times the were full. I was up most of the night watching the snow out of the window.
Still much better once you get home

Yanbu...i got told off by a very nasty nurse as my canula fell out after my c sectuon. All my fault apparently.

If someone told me I had to choose either a) going through childbirth again or b) one night on a postnatal ward again, I think option 'a' might actually be more appealing!! Congratulations and hope you get out soon.

I actually had a lovely experience, rare I will admit.
Room was 4 bed but one me and another mum. I was put on the ward about 1am and didn’t see another person until the water lady at 8am.
Nurses may have come round whilst I was sleeping but I wasn’t disturbed.
Had a lush shower the next morning, got some breakfast and had a cuddle with baby whilst waiting to be discharged. Home by lunchtime.

Appreciate this isnt the norm and I’ve also experienced the other end of the scale! But nice post natal experiences do exist!

I was on the postnatal ward last month with dd.
There was one woman on my second night who made 4 very loud phone calls at 3 am.
I wouldnt be able to find one person up for a chat at 3am never mind 4 different people!

I had an emergency c section and then high BP following birth so had to stay in until it came down, my DD had a tongue tie which staff didn’t realise so wasn’t feeding properly initially. Staff took her one night and told me in the morning that they wanted to “drop kick her on to the island” ( there was a small lake in grounds of NHS hospital ) which obviously filled me with confidence. Another mother was calling out for morphine all night.
All together an eye opener.

I had both of my DC at night time - DS I got to go home the next day after our checks, but with DD we both had to stay a week since my waters broke 48 hours before she was born and they had to monitor her for infections. The staff were so helpful, but the other mums? Absolutely bloody awful. Playing YT videos on full volume, the one next to me kept kissing her teeth any time one of the babies cried, and my skin and back is still suffering a month later from being in such a dry, overcrowded room with a slab of rock for a bed. Thank God DH and I are done with having any more kids!

Absolutely hell on earth. 3DC - 3 different hospitals all ranged from fairly to totally hideous. Care awful, filthy, noisy, stressful and no rest. Makes me feel anxious just thinking about it. Clouded my judgement of the NHS forever.

I had my own room for a week because my baby was poorly in neonatal.
It was nice to have the privacy but I cried every night because couldn’t hold him and I wanted to be on the ward like all the other mums.
Pull the curtain, put in some earphones and enjoy precious cuddles with your newborn. Congratulations 💐

It’s really sad to read all these threads about how hellish the post natal ward is. it’s so far removed from what the first few days after birth should be. Certainly not conducive to rest and recovery which is the entire purpose of the ward.

I really do think there needs to be a big campaign to restore PN wards to a restful and safe place for new mums. Not holding out much hope it would ever happen but I think that’s what should be happening.

For my first there was no private room available on the first night and yes I agree it was horrid, I then got a space in a semi private which was lovely (and I made friends with the other lady, we’re still friends to this day!!)
For my second I had a room all to myself for the 3 nights!!!Bliss!!

Post natal wards and very lazy midwives ... one o the worst parts of the NHS.
Stand up for yourself and I hope you get home soon.
Congratulations

I have only read page one but I'm thinking a MN campaign to improve postnatal wards would be a good one. Even a check list of what needs to change, improve and implement would be a start..

It would be excellent @SunshineCake. It’s been requested repeatedly.

Agree sunshine.

I am reading the posts and thinking that this is all a matter of comparison. Yes, postnatal wards are far from ideal. Noisy, hot, crammed, yucky food. All of it. But I wish that I got all that with my second baby. Because the alternative is far worst. When you give birth to a beautiful angel, then they put you in a private room with no noise and no disturbances so that you can grieve for your little baby that’s not next to you. And you have all the comfort you want but actually want you want it to be in that horrid post natal ward cradling your baby. I would take the noise, the heat, snoring, loud talking, all of it in the post natal ward every time. As you don’t know how lucky you are to be there until you see the alternative. And that’s one place you don’t ever want to be.

My experience was brilliant. We have one DD born 2011. I had my own unit well away from the maternity ward as I didn’t want to be around other moany women. DH stayed for the two nights and the midwife took baby for a few hours overnight. I didn’t want to BF so they were happy to formula feed her while I had some rest. Didn’t lose one wink of sleep and by week 4 DD slept the whole night. Luckily the night I gave birth there were no other women in the delivery ward so it was lovely and peaceful. I’m in NI so possibly a little different.

Yep totally horrid! Spent 4 nights in one and it was totally horrible - too hot, too noisy, awful inconsiderate people in other beds.

The bins used to be emptied at 5 am!!! You know the big, heavy lidded ones that you open with your foot!! Why? Why would they do that!

Yep! I'm not sure hospital wards in general are conducive to rest and good sleep. But throw in crying newborn babies and it's dreadful. Just be grateful it's not the good old days where mums had to stay in for ages 🙈

bananasplit. I’m sorry for your loss and recognise you’d have loved to have been on PN ward but I think it’s also ok for people to want improvements to be made to a pretty shoddy service too.