AIBU to think this car park should ONLY be for mothers?

[HuwsLineIsItAnyway]

Our local big hospital has a maternity unit.

There is one small car park in immediate proximity to the maternity unit. No other departments have an entrance from this car park.

There are three large car parks on site but all are either on the other side of the hospital or the next closest to the maternity unit means climbing a massive hill to the Mat unit.
Every single time I've been here - both in this pregnancy and my previous ones - the small car park is chock full of visiting relatives, leaving a number of heavily pregnant and postpartum mums to either have to navigate the entire hospital or tackle the hill.

I view it the same way I view dads sitting in the waiting rooms and leaving pregnant women to stand.

It would be so easy to adapt the existing barriers to scan a pass (they scan staff badges) given to expectant mums.
I'm just being grumpy and sore and refluxy but AIBU to think it?

YABU. Pregnant mothers are not more important than any other hospital patients.

You don’t get to judge how important other people’s visitors are to them.

If there was going to be a priority system, healthy pregnant women would come below people who have illness or injury anyway.

Yanbu

Yabu. You don’t know why other people have parked there.

Maybe the standing pregnant women are more comfortable standing up. I know I used to be when I had issues with my pelvis which were pregnancy related.

Whilst I don't think you're being unreasonable i think in order to do that you'd need something in place to ensure only pregnant people use it and then someone to enforce it and doubt the hospital have the resources to do that

Yabu its pregnancy not a disability 🙄

I think the OP means family visiting the new mothers are parking there, as against other hospital patients

You aren't wrong, ideally there would be dedicated parking for certain departments.

The problem is, typically, that there is never enough parking at hospitals. Our hospital is very often used as a free park and ride as there are no parking charges and no ticketing system to deter people from doing that.

God yes. I don't even have issues really, but those hospital chairs are titchy once you're accommodating a significant bump. Especially when they keep you hanging around for hours. If they made the chairs bigger and more comfortable then the men could all stand whilst the women sat.

I think what you might mean is that a car park for visitors only might be preferable?

Otherwise anyone attending a hospital as a patient is eligible for any space. You can't say a pregnant woman is more important than someone with a broken leg etc.

YABU - some of the visitors will have disabilities. The hospital would end up in hot water if they didn't allow those with blue badges to park near the maternity ward.

One visitor, a grandmother, when I was on the postnatal ward brought a child in to see their mother and new sibling were both OK as they were in for about a week. So you really think a child under 5 should walk across car parks?

Sounds reasonable - from your updates they have means to do it.
It is ok to distinguish between appointments and visitors, as those are different groups with different needs.

Oh, give it a rest.

You know why I want advantages relating to pregnancy? Because it's bloody inconvenient, that's why.

Lots of appointments. Infuriatingly incompetent NHS processes and staff. Having to look stuff up all the time. Increasingly being less able to do my normal exercise routines. Being much more bothered by the heat than usual. Oh, and people telling me not to do stuff all the time, versus people telling me that it isn't a disability.

That's before any conditions that may have a short, medium or long term affect similar to a disability.

YABU. A hospital is full of sick people and worried relatives - parking has to be first come first served.

YABU, hospital parking is under enormous pressure in most places. Pregnant women are probably the healthiest patients going! Not the group I'd be giving preference to. The dialysis unit at our local hospital has its own carpark which makes sense given the amount of time patients spend there. Maternity units don't have that kind of need.

There can easily be some blue badge spots, having the parking lot open to all doesn't help them either.

I get your point. But you could say the same thing about every single ward.....and they couldn't police that. So YABU in that being pregnant doesn't trump other illnesses.

Op wants an entire car park sealed off to everyone except pregnant women. That's absolutely crackers 😂

Yea pregnancy is uncomfortable tbf.

I mean illness, not other illness. As obviously pregnancy isn't an illness.

This.

It’s not about you, or any other pregnant women. The hospital is full of sick people. They can park in any space they like

You know why I want advantages relating to pregnancy? Because it's bloody inconvenient, that's why

Dont get bloody pregnant then🤣

People coming into hospital often have temporary disabilities that you can't get blue badges for, so you can't just say if they're disabled they can use blue badge spots.

I know IBU it's just a rant.

But just to clarify, the only people parking here are users and visitors at the maternity department and it's the only department reached from this side of the building.

It's always full whereas the others have ample space.

People going to other departments have the hill/hospital navigation in reverse.

Can tell you've never had PGP 🙄

It would be so easy to adapt the existing barriers to scan a pass (they scan staff badges) given to expectant mums.
You’d be wrong about this. In theory, sure its simple to add a few more passes. But then that comes with management of those “expectant mum” passes. Administering, collecting, they would have to be turned off and turn on for appointments only as they could be used anytime by one one said pregnant person gives the pass too. It just becomes a logistical nightmare and the NHS struggles with basic admin as it is, adding this onto workload… laughable.