Low risk women/better birth facilities - unfair?

[Glassofshloer]

When DD was a baby we attended a breastfeeding appointment at my local stand-alone birth centre and WOW! To say it was gorgeous is an understatement - double bed, huge whirlpool bath thing, fairy lights and bouncy balls in every room. Looked like the Ritz compared to the tiny, dimly lit room on the CDU where I gave birth. Just a bed and some wall stickers of flowers

AIBU to think this is unfair on high risk/Consultant led women? And that we all deserve equal facilities, high risk or not? Fully prepared to be told IABU!

@mummyh2016 not yet but that’s a good suggestion, thank you

Have given birth on both types and yep the midwife led unit was amazing. It's a shame they can't encourage all women to be in good relaxed birthing positions etc rather than shove them on beds in brightly lit ward rooms . Surely would be good for outcomes.

Op
It's not a punishment for high risk moms but water baths etc just aren't medically suitable for these mothers so why should their rooms include them? High risk births often require more medical assessment and or intervention which obviously requires more equipment and a more sterile envoirnment.
In my experience most high risk moms priority is getting their baby delivered safety not the decor of the room.

Isn't it to do with avoiding intervention so keeping away from excessive monitoring that keeps you tied to beds etc.

Second time I gave birth I was in a horrible hospital room.neon lights etc. I climbed onto the bed facing forward and leant over thr top of the bed so I was sort of squatting. My daughter was born like that and I think I did that instinctively because my son had got stuck so I wanted to make space for the head.

Afterwards the midwife said she had never seen a woman give birth any way but on her back! Given that is a difficult position and I found it incredibly uncomfortable when I had been in the midwife centre so had avoided it I thought that seemed a shame.

Lots of research shows that lying on your back is not good positioning for baby

@Crazycrazylady

Op It's not a punishment for high risk moms but water baths etc just aren't medically suitable for these mothers so why should their rooms include them? High risk births often require more medical assessment and or intervention which obviously requires more equipment and a more sterile envoirnment. In my experience most high risk moms priority is getting their baby delivered safety not the decor of the room.

Why are they not medically suitable? Plenty of women on CDU don’t need drips or anything that precludes a water birth.

I think you’re being a bit dismissive if I’m honest, it’s not like I’m criticising the hue of the curtains.

We didn’t even look round the midwife led swanky new birthing suite because I knew it wasn’t an option for me (high risk due to GD). We went to Costa for that bit of the hospital tour. Heard a few mutterings of “oh my god this is shit” from the other women once we were up looking at the normal labour ward. YANBU OP, this has always struck me as unfair.

Having said that, every one of my friends bar one who started low risk and went to the birthing suite ended up transferring up to the ward for various reasons during labour so didn’t get to enjoy the luxury surroundings anyway.

Yep, its virtually impossible to get in my local midwife led stand alone unit, and yet there are midwives there doing nothing while you are lucky if you can find a midwife on labour ward. One of the reasons I would never have another baby is just how appalling the 'care' was after the birth of my last child. And that was pre-covid. IMO they should fully fund proper care in hospitals, but if they really can't do that, close the picture postcard stand alone MLUs and redeploy the staff where they can be more useful.

I was admitted to a lovely midwife centre with individual rooms, private shower and toilet, double bed and a sofa for guests that pulled out into a sofa bed for the father, my own tv and music system, and access to a shared kitchen with coffee facilities and free ready meals to use as required.

They rushed me out of there for a c section. After I left the theatre they put me on a ward with 15 other women and their partners, only separated by curtains. No privacy or safety. Constant noise. A single hospital bed and chair, nowhere for my husband to sleep. No tv, no music, no sofa. A single shared toilet and shower which meant I had to repeatedly make the walk of shame past strangers whilst wearing a hospital gown and leaking blood. No kitchen facilities, not even for a cuppa never mind food.

I gave birth at 1am and my husband said to the nurses if you can’t provide food and drink can you at least take me back to the midwife centre to use their kitchen and get a ready meal? They said no. He had to go out and fetch me a takeaway!

Honestly I see no reason why I couldn’t have been taken back to an equally lovely private room after my c section. I felt like a second class citizen. I’d understand if the NHS didn’t provide that level of care for anyone, but they are clearly able to offer it in the midwife centre. It’s incredibly unfair.

In my experience most high risk moms priority is getting their baby delivered safety not the decor of the room
And what about after I gave birth? I was in hospital for two days. Why couldn’t I be in a nice private room with a bed for my husband? If they can offer that to mums who’ve had a natural birth then they should offer it to everyone. There’s nothing about a c section that means you don’t need privacy or kitchen facilities or a bed for your husband. If anything you need it more!

It's insane. Women's needs are made to fit around buildings and staff, not vice versa. Why can't all women give birth in rooms with nice lights, yoga balls and midwives but if something goes wrong, midwives hand over to consultants and the monitors etc come out of the cupboards? Without birthing women having to go anywhere.

Oh I didn’t mind being moved to another room when I became high risk. I just think the second room should have been of the same standard. Not a tiny curtained cubicle with nowhere for my husband to sleep.

In my experience most high risk moms priority is getting their baby delivered safety not the decor of the room.

That was my priority in both my births - of course it was - but I don't know why that means I have to pretend that I didn't notice that one of them took place in a much nicer and more comfortable room. You can think that the difference is a bit rubbish and unnecessary and care first and foremost about your baby's health.

I was taken out of the pool in the beautiful MLU and made to go into the Labour suite when I couldn’t pee.

I was gutted. I would have clung to the door if I’d had the energy.

Meh so don’t care what it looks like as long as I have good care

Meh so don’t care what it looks like as long as I have good care
But I would say having access to private facilities is part of having good care. It’s not good care if I have to walk past random blokes in a blood covered nightie today get to the loo.

@Hamtonn but in either a midwife or labour ward there should be a certain standard

The point raised by OP was the aesthetics between the two and my point is I really don’t care about aesthetics. Safe delivery of my baby I cared about not the colour of walls of lighting

[quote Whstdoyouthink]@Hamtonn but in either a midwife or labour ward there should be a certain standard

The point raised by OP was the aesthetics between the two and my point is I really don’t care about aesthetics. Safe delivery of my baby I cared about not the colour of walls of lighting[/quote]
That wasn’t my point at all. My point was about the facilities, not whether the walls are painted the right colour. Of course it matters that women have equal access to good facilities to make their experience more pleasant.

Right, well putting aside the fairy lights

You must surely understand the practicalities of not having a bath in a medical room or even a double bed when doctors and nurses need access to you and your baby. It sounds like you had a straight forward delivery in a labour ward, I had 7 medical staff around me at one point (very thankful there wasn’t a bath or a double bed in the way)

I don’t care about aesthetics either. But I do care about being taken out of a private room with a private loo and shoved in a ward with no privacy and no bed for my DH. It’s unfair - if anything I needed MORE space, privacy and support as a high risk mother, not less.

Your husband doesn’t need a bed ffs.

@Hamtonn then pay for a private room or private labour

In the vast majority of midwife centres your transferred from that beautiful room to a labour ward post giving birth…you don’t get to stay in it as they need it for someone who is about to give birth.

Hamtonn then pay for a private room or private labour
Why should I when they give private rooms for free to the low risk mums.

I got a decent sized delivery room with my first baby however I was in too much pain to care about the fact I had space or a radio or even what was on the walls as I'd arrived at 8cm's dilated didn't even get seen first just whizzed into delivery as I was trying to push then sent to theatre to get him out with a ventouse thing. The second baby It was a ga section so was in a side room on post natal with three other beds with women in and I walked up to theatre and then was wheeled back down so other than recovery I didn't see much and I felt very closed off behind a curtain compared to the side room on post natal I had to myself with my first after I'd been moved down from the delivery suite.

It’s the postnatal care that gets me. For DD1 I looked round the lovely standalone MLU and heard all about the private rooms for after delivery where birthing partner could stay too and where there were more midwives available to offer support.
Thankfully I decided not to deliver there as I developed sepsis in labour, had an emergency section, baby needed resus and SCBU and I then had a 7 litre bleed and ITU admission. I was so traumatised and, once well enough, really could have done with one of those private rooms where we could have recovered and had some additional support. But no, busy ward for me and zero help.

I had my first daughter in a midwife led birth centre, no complications, a lovely calm water birth with just gas & air. I will say however that my birth centre didn't have proper beds and I stayed there post-natally for a night.. not great falling asleep whilst breastfeeding on a beanbag! Anyways, I'm now pregnant with baby no2 and have argued my right to birth in the birth centre even though this time I'm considered 'high risk' due to blood clotting disorder. I'm purely wanting it because of the opportunity for a calmer birth and use of the pool again, I have agreed to be transferred to maternity for careful monitoring post-natally though. My consultant has somewhat reluctantly agreed to allow me at least the opportunity to birth in the birth centre, so my advice would be to fight for it if you feel strongly that the labour ward isn't the best place for you.