To take my 3 year old to my Gynaecology appointment

[Cakeymamma88]

I'm having a biopsy tomorrow afternoon and cannot go unless I take my toddler with me. A friend made a face when I mentioned I would be taking my little one. Is it really that bad to take a 3 year old ? They are well behaved (mostly) and very ised to medical setting and I'll hopefully be in and out.

You know your child better than any of us. So if they are well behaved and will sit quietly with a snack or toy/tablet then take them. I took my child when she was 4 to an internal ultrasound appt and she was fine.

OP, I'm pleased to hear you've been able to arrange child care. I hope all goes well this afternoon.

You haven't said whether you have been booked in for a pipelle biopsy or biopsy via hysteroscopy, but either way, I would have something to eat before you go and painkillers. I usually take two ibuprofen and a paracetemol around an hour before the appointment.

I have never felt faint during or after a hysteroscopy, myself, but I did feel wobbly after I had a Mirena IUD fitted, as that was a bit of a faff due to the presence of a large fibroid and I did need to sit quietly in the waiting room until I felt well enough to go home. You may get some transient cramping during the procedure or afterwards and some bleeding. But all this should have been set out in the leaflets sent with your appointment.

If you are not on the fast track cancer pathway, some hospitals are taking 4 weeks or more for pathology results to be available. I had biopsies done 5 weeks ago and am no longer on the fast-track pathway and I'm still waiting for my consultant to send me the results of the path report. Your hospital may be faster for results.

Anyway, I hope it goes well.

It is not ok. You can hardly parent while being examined or having a procedure.

Op I attended loads of IUI fertility appoints with my toddler. Tablet with some games and he'd just sit in the chair.

If the appointment is going to be 10mins or less it should be fine, you know your toddler and how well they will sit. I might even have bribed with a McDonald's if he was good for me

I would definitely ring and ask - in my local GUM clinic it clearly states no children are to be bought to any appt, and I'm only having the implant fitted. Hope it goes ok.

I recently had a follow-up appointment for breast cancer. The appointment letter stated quite clearly that the hospital could not provide child care.

So what happens when you are legs in the air mid biopsy and your child kicks off or starts being a dick? Who will have to control or tame them? Not fair no matter how small the chances as this a working medical setting. Find some childcare. If you must ring in advance and explain your situation.

I'm sure that a nurse or another HCA would be delighted to drop what they are doing and look after your child as they have nothing better to do with their time.

You don’t need to worry, OP updated that she had found childcare.

You can just read all of OP’s posts you know if you can’t be bothered to RTFT before commenting. You just click “see all” on the original OP.

I read the thread, thank you, and was clearly responding to a poster who hadn't.

It's obviously not as I've had many appointments and the staff have offered because I am a regular at the clinic I attend, due to a chronic illness and are like family.

Also I said ring in advance to check and in one off situations. I would never impose my child on someone else but a lot of staff are very nice and offer to play/read/colour with them while you go into the consultant's room.

Anyway it's irrelevant since OP has now sorted childcare.

@Florissante reading several of your comments, you sound delightful 🙄... I really hope you don't work in healthcare 😂

Thank you. I am delightful; I just have no patience for idiots.

It's called having compassion. There is a holistic side to caring professions that includes the family.
Any time I have ever needed day treatment in hospital and had no choice but to take a young child, HCP have been so caring and helpful never making me feel like it was burden.

Difficult especially with a biopsy. My youngest son walked in the room just as they were putting the biopsy needle in my boob!!! If they can sit quietly then good, if not I'd double check with the department. Good luck x

It’s nothing to do with lack of compassion; quite the opposite. If you have a biopsy that involves disturbing your cervix, there is a risk that your vagus nerve will be stimulated and you may have a vasovagal episode which is where your blood pressure tanks and you pass out; this may resolve instantly or it may develop into a medical emergency if you begin to seize (this has happened in my clinic more than once!)

If the latter and I need to give you emergency care, I need to focus on you and not worry about what your children are doing or who is going to take care of them while I work on you and how we are then going to manage them whilst you are unconscious in the back of an ambulance. So we eliminate that risk by requesting that you do not bring children to clinic.

But what if you're somewhere where there isn't someone extra on hand to help? It's all well and good if there's a free nurse/HCP who can help but what if there's not? It's not a case of not being caring, you cannot physically look after a child while performing a medical procedure on someone.

I had a biopsy - admittedly on my lip not my vag, but I’d imagine vag would be even more hardcore. It was literally in theatre, there’s no way you could take anyone else in let alone a kid. Sorry!

@misssunshine4040 where’s the compassion for the women going through infertility treatment and having surgical miscarriage management for long hoped for pregnancies who will also be sitting in the gynaecology waiting room? It’s very different taking a baby/ young child to a gynaecology ward/ clinic than it is to taking them to other clinics and is banned in many hospitals for reasons of compassion.

I have a pregnancy losses that required admission to gynae ward and was sat in the same place as pregnant women and babies.
Having ultrasounds at the same time as pregnant women who have children with them. It's horrible being but it's not for other people to manage my feelings.

I think my comments have been taking to the extreme. I have had to do this in my younger day's myself and it's always been ok. My point was that it's not possible for some people to access childcare. Sometimes people have no one to leave their children with and have no money to pay for it. They still need to attend their appointments.

@misssunshine4040 bit women don’t have their babies and children with them. In all the hospitals I’ve visited in England over the last few years it’s made very clear that you cannot bring children and babies with you for this very reason.