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!

@MintJulia

Yes, bless them, Salisbury. And they were fabulous. No frills but the care was superb. I had FOUR days being nursed back to my feet. It was wonderful.

Yeah I know the hospital well.

There’s obviously a call for some ‘frills’ as they’re about to build a swanky new MLU.

www.salisburyjournal.co.uk/news/18166502.proposal-new-birthing-unit-salisbury-district-hospital-approved/

I actually agree with a PP though, birth partners are expected to assist a lot postnatally, wards depend on them to do so as they are so short staffed; why shouldn't they be offered a slice of toast that can go in at the same time as the mothers toast? That would probably cost less than a penny.

@Hamtonn

They can not and should not prioritise food and drink for fit and healthy visitors of healthy young women who have just given birth. I’m talking about food and drink for ME. A new mum who’d just had an emergency c section and hadn’t eaten for 48 hours whilst in labour. Where did I say my DH was looking for food for himself? He had to go hunting for food for me because I wasn’t offered anything and I felt faint and sick. The nurses didn’t give a shit, they just said I’d have to wait 8hrs for breakfast to be brought round. It’s ridiculous that the midwife centre has a kitchen with free ready meals to help yourself but there’s nothing available for patients on the ward. There weren’t even any facilities for him to make me a cup of tea, never mind anything else.

Look at us entitled and ungrateful women, expecting hospital food and rest as an inpatient! Who do we think we are 😉 the NHS is FREE dontcha know, we don’t pay for it out of our taxes 😉

mum may or may not not need interventions but with GD the baby definitely needs to have doctors on hand and blood sugar monitoring post birth at the very least.

But why can’t she have nearby doctors and a nice and well equipped room to give birth in?

I do agree the lack of food and drink is bonkers. I was in alone during covid after a c section and very hungry. Been up since cracked of dawn with no food allowed. I had a manky bit of food left in my bag which should have been binned. I was given a tiny dry bread roll begrudgingly. I would have loved a tea or coffee. But I had to wait a few hours until dinner. I think they're set up for pre covid times when people came in with family to help. I got zero help with my new baby, which was fine cus I felt OK but did wonder about other women. I was very happy to go home the next morning and sleep whilst family took over caring for our new baby.

Hamtonn why do you keep talking about your husband having a bed? Does he not have one at home?
Funnily enough I needed someone with me to look after the baby. Because I was paralysed from the waist down and plugged into a catheter etc after surgery. I couldn’t even reach my suitcase to get baby clothes out. I certainly couldn’t get up to change a nappy or a vomit covered sheet. It wouldn’t be an issue if the NHS provided staff to help you look after your baby, but they don’t. And I needed someone to look after me too, to bring me food and help me to the loo. Again, it wouldn’t be an issue if the NHS had looked after me and brought me food, but they didn’t. I’d just had a 48 hour labour followed by major surgery and I was traumatised and literally passing out with lack of sleep, I was in no fit state to be left in sole charge of a baby. No new mum should be left on her own with no help!

I agree that the facilities on wards should be so much better. I didn't even have access to a shower after a 3 day induction ending in an emcs.

I got tea and toast on the ward (after c section) after I’d given birth. I thought everyone did.

Urgh I so hate the attitude of “I can’t have it so no one should have it”

I’m horrified to hear of postnatal mums not being fed. I work in a maternity unit, first thing women are offered after labour or CS is a big hot plate of buttery toast and a cup of tea. We even give you jam

@MelKarnofskyCrane

I got tea and toast on the ward (after c section) after I’d given birth. I thought everyone did.

Urgh I so hate the attitude of “I can’t have it so no one should have it”

I hate the attitude of ‘I have it so if you don’t, not a problem for me jack’.

Where did anyone say other people shouldnt have it? Rather than everyone should have it?

Hamtonn:

Ok, so don’t have those rooms at all then? My point is that it’s unfair to have those facilities for one group of women but not for another group

@MelKarnofskyCrane

Hamtonn:

Ok, so don’t have those rooms at all then? My point is that it’s unfair to have those facilities for one group of women but not for another group

I doubt Hamtonn was really suggesting dismantling MLUs as an act of spite 🙄 I think she was talking in a theoretical sense.

I got tea and toast on the ward (after c section) after I’d given birth. I thought everyone did.
It was the middle of the night, they obviously couldn’t be arsed. I wasn’t fed until 15 hours after my c section. If my husband hadn’t brought me food I’d have become seriously unwell.

Well I am due in 3 weeks and I am high risk, I honestly do not care about the room set up as long as I can give me and my baby the best chance of a safe delivery!

What an arrogant thing to say. As if the op cares more about mood lighting than a safe birth.

I doubt Hamtonn was really suggesting dismantling MLUs as an act of spite
I just think it’s insane that mums who have a natural birth get access to all of these essential facilities, privacy and dignity - while mums who have intervention get shoved in a curtained cubicle with no facilities. If anything, a mum who’s had a bad birth and surgery has MORE need for private facilities and more need for dad to stay and look after her and the baby because she’s physically incapacitated.

The thing is, all of you complaining, if the government asked you to make a small contribution towards your care, you’d be up in arms.

The sooner people understand that they can’t have an excellent health service and expect not to pay the better (either taxes go up or we start privatising)

Where did anyone say other people shouldnt have it? Rather than everyone should have it?

Don't worry op. Comprehension skills are very sadly lacking on Mumsnet these days. It was very clear that you were saying the labour ward should be better.

@Whstdoyouthink

The thing is, all of you complaining, if the government asked you to make a small contribution towards your care, you’d be up in arms.

The sooner people understand that they can’t have an excellent health service and expect not to pay the better (either taxes go up or we start privatising)

I would happily pay higher taxes for a fantastic and efficient NHS. For everyone.

I think YABU.

It's not high risk people that go to hospital. Its anyone who isnt low risk. Which is not really the same thing.

Anyone who is over a certain age, over a certain BMI, over a certain number of weeks, anyone who's pregnancy is not completely textbook, goes to hospital. I literally know one person who has given birth in the MLU. I started off there and then went to hospital. When it came down to it I didnt really care about the bigger room, the mood lighting etc. I cared about the epidural mostly. The MLU near us isnt attached to the hospital so they kick anyone out with any doubt at all that their birth wont go completely smoothly. They tole me that between 1 and 2 in every 5 people that start labouring there actually end up giving birth there.

I think they have more resource because its newer, off site, and not overwhelmed with patients, not because they are somehow favouring certain demographics.

Saying that I'd have loved a private room to recover post birth and I think the option should be there to pay for one if you want

The thing is, all of you complaining, if the government asked you to make a small contribution towards your care, you’d be up in arms.
Cool. So then the women in the MLU need to pay for their private rooms too right? Because it’s unfair if they dish out private rooms to low risk mums but then expect high risk mums to pay.

I’d have no issue with it if every mum got the same standard of facilities. My complaint is that the low risk mums get private rooms but the high risk mums don’t.

The sooner people understand that they can’t have an excellent health service and expect not to pay the better (either taxes go up or we start privatising)

Or the NHS could start plugging some of the MASSIVE leakage at mid and upper levels of management so they could put that money into patient care. They get plenty of money. They waste a hell of a lot of it (at least 8 billion a year in 2017 and that's the tip of the ice berg) and the patients suffer.

@Whstdoyouthink

The thing is, all of you complaining, if the government asked you to make a small contribution towards your care, you’d be up in arms.

The sooner people understand that they can’t have an excellent health service and expect not to pay the better (either taxes go up or we start privatising)

Except other countries manage to do more for the money so that is nonsense and if money was specifically ring fenced for this purpose I’d happily fund it and so would most people

It’s ridiculous to talk of ‘fair’ when it comes to something like this. It’s the NHS, as long as they do everything that can do safely deliver your baby, they have met their obligation.

If we want fancy rooms with baths and fairy lights and doctors on call, we have the choice to pay for it. Or, we can just be thankful that we all have access to free maternity care and stop complaining about fairness like primary children.

@DrinkFeckArseBrick

I think YABU.

It's not high risk people that go to hospital. Its anyone who isnt low risk. Which is not really the same thing.

Anyone who is over a certain age, over a certain BMI, over a certain number of weeks, anyone who's pregnancy is not completely textbook, goes to hospital. I literally know one person who has given birth in the MLU. I started off there and then went to hospital. When it came down to it I didnt really care about the bigger room, the mood lighting etc. I cared about the epidural mostly. The MLU near us isnt attached to the hospital so they kick anyone out with any doubt at all that their birth wont go completely smoothly. They tole me that between 1 and 2 in every 5 people that start labouring there actually end up giving birth there.

I think they have more resource because its newer, off site, and not overwhelmed with patients, not because they are somehow favouring certain demographics.

Saying that I'd have loved a private room to recover post birth and I think the option should be there to pay for one if you want

But it does favour a certain demographic whether that’s the intention or not. And that’s not fair. Especially when the demographic that is disadvantaged is the one that spends longer in the facilities, and generally has a rougher ride through the maternity system due to whatever issue it is that makes them ‘higher’ risk.

As for the 2 in 5 it further proves my point - the ‘nice’ facilities are wasted where they are, surely it’s not cost effective to build these lovely new facilities only for them to be hardly used?!

Only one or two women in 5 end up being able to stay in the MLU?! That makes it sound like a vanity project! I had no idea. Although thinking about my friends, that does sound about right.