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’m in NI so possibly a little different.

I am in NI too and had a Very similar experience to you! Partner wasn’t allowed to stay over but tbh it hadnt even occurred to me that he should and I wouldn’t have wanted that anyway. Most of the midwives were very helpful and took babies so I could shower. Or snooze.

didnt even know you culd pay for private rooms?!

anyhow, yes hell on earth i agree!, hot - sticky hot - was vile!!!

Absolute hell.

No sleep, no food (unless you leave your baby unattended and hobble to fetch it yourself) and no help from midwives.

I left hospital after my first baby an absolute mental and physical wreck. And breastfeeding hasn’t been established and my baby, unbeknownst to me, was genuinely starving.

When I had my second by elective section, I made sure I got discharged within 24 hours.

It’s Awful. I remember DS2 would not stop crying and the nurses told me to try and keep him quiet because the other two ladies had babies in the nicu and they would normally have their own rooms. I’d just come out of Icu myself. The lights, the noise it was horrible. So glad to be home

They are generally awful. My lasting memory is the temperature being comparable to the earth's core, and plastic pillows that make you sweat With my third, I had a planned section, and I stayed one night and couldn't wait to go home. You cannot recuperate in that environment; I don't know how women survived when they had to stay in for days on end.

You listening, MN HQ?

Campaign to improve post natal wards would be fantastic!

I generally support NHS staff to the very last and I hate to criticise, but what exactly do they do on these wards?

I hardly saw anyone in five days. No checking my wound, one ten minute check of the baby, no help BF, nothing!

I have no idea what the staff do?

First time i went onto a postnatal ward was when i had DC3!!! I was rathar shocked let me tell you!

@bingbangbing Believe me the staff don’t stop and hate it as much as you do because you go home knowing you’ve given crap care because the system doesn’t let you do anything else.

As an example last week I was working on the postnatal ward. 31 women inpatient, 2 midwives staffing it. So I had 16 patients. Babies don’t count on our numbers as they are apparently not the patient and the mums should be looking after them. Obviously those who make the rules don’t realise some mums can’t.

By the time I’ve gone round all my patients and made sure they are still alive, given them prescribed meds and done the routine observations it’s time to start the next round all over again. If a mum needs me to sit and help a baby breastfeed that’s another 15 ladies being ignored for however long that takes.

On that particular shift I had a lady who was very poorly, massive haemorrhage, developed sepsis. Needed pretty much 1-1 care, obs every 15 minutes. I am sure the rest of my patients said where on earth is my midwife I haven’t seen her all day. It’s awful. That’s us fully staffed as well as our ratio is 1:16, short staffed even worse.

It’s got to a point where if you aren’t at risk of death on the ward then we have no time to help and support you as we are too busy with those that are. It’s the absolute worst part of my job and I HATE when it’s my turn to cover the ward.

I am an extremely obedient and rather passive medical professional. I discharged myself early after a Caesarean with DS because two days had passed on the postnatal ward and I’d had nothing to eat. They pointed vaguely down a corridor to a room where food was apparently served for new mums, but I couldn’t work out what I meant to do with my baby is his plastic wheeled cot if I walked off, and I couldn’t walk anyway (what with having had major surgery and a catheter). It was utter bollocks. Downstairs the hospital had spent loads of money on a beautiful birthing suite (and rightly so of course) for everyone having a normal birth, while those of us who’d be stuck there for days had a ward that was last refurbished around 1952. Still makes me angry & DS is 15 now

Like previous posters on this thread I gave birth before all this happened
50 and 47 years ago Had my two children both born by emergency section.Each time I had a single room, which all mothers having a section were given then, there was not so many having sections then tan there is today.
I was very ill having my children and they were in NICU for first two days so cannot remember much about those early days.I do remember later in my stay, the care was excellent, plenty of staff to help, restrictive visiting times, no husbands staying on the ward, and babies of section mothers in the ward nursery at night apart from feeding times.
Last time I visited a post natal ward was when my youngest grandchild was born.All the beds seemed to be just inches apart, visitors sitting on the beds and babies being passed around family making them unsettled
I would be glad to get out as soon as possible now.
What has happened to our once lovely NHS?

Oh yes it's the worse I hated that stay with mine and the food was disgusting

Feeling a bit anxious now, shouldn't have read this. My daughter's were born 13 and 11 years ago and the postnatal ward was lovely. No men overnight, visiting times for everyone but dad and children, plenty of midwives. Sounds like that's not the case anymore.
I'm dreading what it will be like when my baby is born and it's likely I'll have to stay in as I'm booked for a c section.

So both times on post natal were shit. They really do need to be improved as I’m sure bad experiences contribute to PND and worse outcomes for mother and baby.

But... I didn’t think there would be a worse ward than post natal until I spent far too long on a paediatric assessment unit (should have been admitted to the ward but no beds). No food for us or the baby, bright lights, lots of kids coming in and out, toddlers banging bricks with teletubbies on repeat while trying to get the baby to sleep. It was shite. I felt especially sorry for a young teenager that was in for a lumber puncture. The rest of the ward was full of screaming babies (including mine) and she was scared about her procedure and just wanted to chill and listen to music. Naturally there was no privacy (hence why I knew why she was in etc) as they’d rammed too many beds and assessment pods in for the space.

In which units are the patients expected to queue up for food or they don't get fed aside from postnatal?

I agree it’s absolute hell, I was prenatal ward (pre eclampsia) next to a girl who asked for colouring books (before this was a trend) and snorers. By the time baby cake I was knackered and post natal all they did was ignore me and baby for a mum who was post c section, and mu who seemed to have visitors all day. I would say my biggest bug bear was they don’t even give you line the “rules” and layout of the ward

I agree absolute nightmare with my first DD, only in for one night but the woman and her husband in the next cubicle drove me insane. My baby slept great all she did was cry all night and he snored like a warthog🤯 not to mention I had the cubicle with the sink and the husband must of came into my cubicle at least every hour to use it, literally no privacy at all. I must of waddled down to the MW office at least 15 times to beg to go home😩

@datasgingercatspot all wards where patients are mobile and competent

After my second birth they said we'll take you to the postnatal ward and I just said no thanks you can discharge us from here. They didn't have anyone available to do the newborn check so arranged a time to pop in the following day. Obviously I was lucky I didn't have a c section.

BananaSplitX So sorry for your loss. Having been in both situations (five losses, two living) the experience with my two living children still stays with me and was still absolutely awful. Having experienced the incredible pain of the losses didn't make the experience any better for me, but that's just my opinion.

But Fed, plenty of women in the postnatal unit are not mobile, and they're expected to fetch their own food or they go on unfed. Plus they have to leave their baby to do so.

The system in the Netherlands sounds good . It’ s better in France too...totally different with mostly single rooms with en suites even in the public hospital maternities, lots of help with feeding and learning to bath your baby etc before you leave and a short stay is counted as 2 to 3 days.Meals are served in your room. After sections the stay is usually 4 or 5 days. You can choose to have post natal home visits by private midwives (paid for by the state) and then of course there are the 10 to 20 free sessions by a midwife or physio to help with your post natal perineal exercises.

I had my first baby 46 years ago. The midwives on the post natal ward were awful to me. They had it in their heads that I was a single mother. My husband was in the army and was based abroad. They ignored me and my baby as much as possible and spoke to me like I was a piece of dirt the times they had to speak to me.
On the third day of my stay my husband came to the ward straight from the airport and the nurses attitude changed immediately, all smiles and pleasantness.
I sent husband home for my clothes and self discharged a couple of hours later.
In the early 70s unwed mother’s were still treated like dirt and at least now the poor women don’t have to deal with that on top of everything else

There were no private rooms available. Trust me I asked. I asked to be let home with my catheter and I will return the next day to have it removed.

It was hell on earth the post natal ward. No privacy, other people's husband's and partners all chatting, eating loudly, farting (yes!!) Watching TV on phones, having a full on Indian feast along with Indian music. Yes this happened.

One night, I slept in the "communal baby changing room" opposite the nurses station as I could not cope with all of the noise. I sat, sobbing, bleeding and feeding my baby. When the midwife told me to go back to my bed I refused. I told her I had no peace, the woman next to me had a baby that wouldn't latch and she refused any help from the midwives. The baby just screamed. The parents made no.effort to comfort the baby. It was awful.

When I had my DS (now 13), I was a single mum (my "D"P of 3yrs had dumped me for OW in the weeks leading up to our DS being born). The postnatal ward, was an open plan, "Nightingale" style ward. Husbands/partners were allowed in from about 9/10am. Other visiting times were 3pm-5pm. I wasn't allowed to keep my curtains closed (around my cubicle) unless I was getting changed. I frankly wanted to hide away, as I was the youngest mum on the ward (mid 20's!), and I was the only single parent there. Seeing all the lovely couples together with their babies was really hard for me. I wasn't allowed to have anyone visit me out of the 3pm-5pm visiting hours. I don't think I was a great patient though...I wasn't nasty to anyone, but I'm an HCP, and it's very odd being on the other side!! The staff were really sweet, but rushed off their feet....and their hands were tied re: the visiting rules....and I know they were wanting to keep an eye on me (I was very down about being dumped etc!!), which i think is why they insisted I had my curtains kept open.

By the time my DD was born, the old hospital had been torn down and rebuilt. NHS hospital but every ward had 30 single rooms, each with ensuite. It was fab (plus it was at the hospital I work at).

Had my DS 14 weeks ago. FTM, EMCS and I would have broken down if they made me stay more than the day and a half I did. It felt like I had been there 2 weeks. The nurses were monitoring my son as he hadnt peed yet and were threatening to keep me another night :O
I did, however, appreciate the midwives who were fab and really helped me when I was having trouble nursing in the middle of the night.
Felt very sorry for the woman opposite whose son was whisked off to NICU at 5am for laboured breathing and she had to stay behind crying with her DH. No privacy at all.