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 you have no idea why other people are there or what their needs are.

Yet, it can lead to other conditions, complications, illnesses and death.

I'm pretty sure DM and the other cancer patients that attend her chemo unit find their conditions pretty inconvenient too. They'd love dedicated parking.

Exactly.

One of our hospitals has several car parks all of which are pay and display. The one car park which is free of charge is for the cancer unit which is right at the back of the hospital down a hill. People have now realised this and park there leaving no room for cancer patients to park. Now that pisses me off.

You might not to know a particular individual's circumstances but it's a fair bet that there will be plenty of people who could easily park elsewhere/take public transport.

YABU being pregnant isn’t an illness or the make you the most ill in the hospital! Or mean your needs trump anyone else… and I say that as a pregnant woman!

Comments like yours are the reason why no one ever offers pregnant women a seat on public transport anymore.

As someone who spent the first 4 months of pregnancy feeling faint, dizzy and nauseous, and often had to sit on the train floor surrounded by men and non-pregnant women smug in their seats and their ’pregnancy is not a disability’ opinions, I find your attitude very ignorant.

For most women, pregnancy is hugely disabling.

My husband was a policeman when our youngest was born. He could barely walk due to an incident on duty which eventually meant he was told he was being pensioned out when our baby was ten days old. I carried my bag in when I was in labour and a nurse told him off. I told her to mind her own business as I needed him to be well enough to go home to our other kids.

He couldn't have visited me and brought our 2 year old if he'd had to walk up a hill so no I think everyone needs to deal with their own issues.

When I was going for my infertility investigations I had to go to the maternity unit because that's where the relevant doctors and equipment were located

Now I can already rant about the insensitivity of making infertile women wait in a waiting room full of pregnant women.

But telling those women they also aren't allowed to park there for medical appointments because they don't qualify because they aren't pregnant would probably take that insensitivity up a few levels I guess

How would that work? Do you want them to move the hospital or remove the hill?

I never found it remotely disabling and I have 4, I only know one woman who would say it was disabling and she could barely walk for the last few months so while I sympathise with people who find it hugely disabling I don't think that is the majority.

It's always full whereas the others have ample space

Our hospital has a separate entrance for maternity, and massive car parks all around the hospital. After 8am in the morning you'd be hard pushed to get a space in any one of them, even the dedicated disabled one.

No but both can be incredibly painful and can really limit a persons ability to walk, I was on crutches by the end of my middle pregnancy and a long walk up a big hill wouldn’t have been possible for me.

So not a disability but no one said it was, however, it it a temporary change in physical ability for many women.

For many people it DOES come with disabilities, there are a tonne of physiological issues from pregnancy that effect peoples abilities.

As for OP have you actually asked the hospital?

I can't see how you could possibly know the people parked there are nothing to do with maternity. I know at my hospital doesnt have any 'proper' car parks near maternity. They DO have specific 'labor bays' by the closest entrance to maternity & the birth center (next to A&E). You can only park there if you check in in active labor, they ask you reg as they admit you and the bays are monitored by registration check cameras.

@HuwsLineIsItAnyway is this Jessops by any chance?

lucky you but it's a bit worrying you've had spd and don't realise it can be classed as a disability. no wonder there's no sympathy from anyone else. and you had crutches. imagine dealing with it when no one is listening because the nhs is too stretched, you can't get an appointment and physio don't call you back. then you could be in the position of having spd or pgp and not have, but need a walking aid. but you're alright jack so as you were...

what about a young healthy pregnant woman in early stages v someone elderly with mobility problems (no, they don't all qualify for a blue badge)

Should we have someone manning the carpark to say who is worthy?

The walk from Hallamshire hospital parking to Jessop Maternity Hospital is up a humongous hill with sharp bends.

This

Well I think you'll be hard pushed to prove that's the reason, especially as 4m pregnant often just looks like you've had too many pies.

could be said that wanting extra special treatment iike an entire car park closing down for their sole use simply because they are pregnant might be why we aren't taken seriously when we have genuine difficulties when pregnant.

I can’t get past posters saying “pregnant people” Only women get pregnant.

Or a c section. Or a 3rd/4th degree tear.

I've had all three and the midwives told my mum to just pull the car up so I could get in without having to walk anywhere. If you can't physically walk across the hospital then I'm sure they will help you.

10 years of infertility and I could have the same rant... its wonderful to be going through the hell of infertility in a room with 'ask about abortion' posters everywhere, pregnant women and lots of people bringing along young kids.

Obviously it should be held in two different departments or at least separate the waiting area.

What you are suggesting would only work if the hospital was just a maternity hospital. You'd need bays nearest for those who are disabled, then a bay for women in active labour (how would you police that?), followed by a bay for maternity outpatient appointment and then all other visitors.

In a general hospital there will be people having appointments for a variety of things, they may not have a disabled badge as they are just for example on crutches with a broken leg. They can't park miles away either. Our maternity suite is in the local hospital, it is deep within the building, you have to pass a+e, the cancer centre and fracture clinic to get to it. When I was in labour with my 1st and 2nd child it was pre-pandemic and I arrived very in labour both times, in the middle of the night. We managed to park on the carpark outside and my husband managed to find a wheelchair to wheel me in as I couldn't really walk either time. My third child was post pandemic and they'd built the covid ward on that carpark, I arrived very in labour again but this time 2pm in the afternoon. There was nowhere on the hospital site to park at all, so my husband had to drive to the door to drop me off. I had to walk the very long walk through the hospital labouring away as I couldn't bear to sit by the busy entrance to wait for my husband to park and then help wheel me in. It was a dam struggle let me tell you!

Even in active labour struggling to walk you are way way down the pecking list in a general hospital, only a+e ambulances have parking bays. Good idea in theory but there are too many people who would need priority spaces, it's a hospital afterall!