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?

Exactly and alot aren't entitled to blue badges, yet being pregnant is practically a disability according to some on here 😂

I dunno why people are doubting hospitals built on hilly sites...

Worcester Royal is a pain in the arse - its built on one side of a hill, with much of the parking down the valley and up the other side, and even the parking on the same side as the hospital is on a steep slope - not do-able in a manual wheelchair, extremely uncomfortable in a power chair for many - dangerous to reverse a powerchair down a rear ramp pointing downhill (and thats the only way you can do it as you can't reverse park and unload into a bush!) - drop off points all full with people parked in them...

I don't think there is a practical and efficient way of organising parking though, it would cost so much to enforce it, it would be really complicated and confusing as well.

You'd have been shocked by me walking to hospital to have DS, including up a hill. It's a hospital, some of those cars are driven by people who have difficulty walking, others are dropping or collecting someone who has difficulty walking, others should have taken a bus. They all have the same right as you to a parking space. If you genuinely can't walk then you need to ask for a wheelchair.

How do you know the small car park is full
of visitors?

I'd assume OP means situations where she goes into the waiting room wanting a seat, and there a men sitting down who don't offer her theirs. That happened to me on a few occasions.

Yabu. Most pregnant women can still walk and it's good for you anyway.

One of the (US) hospitals near where I live has a few spaces near the ER entrance (also the maternity entrance) marked 'mothers in labour only' or something similar in the same row but further down than the disabled placard slots. I don't think that's a bad idea.

But wholesale 'mothers only'? Nope. There weren't even disabled slots for those who needed them let alone parent/child slots when I was pregnant/had small DC and we managed to survive.

Unless one has a 2ndary condition making mobility difficult then walking is good for a pregnant woman. And if one does have a 2ndary condition in the US one can get a temp placard, does the UK not have that?

When my dad was a cancer patient we'd provide car reg to the receptionist so the barrier would rise without payment.

My local hospital is a short walk from a railway station and commuters to the local city would park at the hospital as it was free. I was thrilled to bits when they started charging and I could park. Commuters using a space from say 8 am to 6 pm was a real cheek.

When people want free parking at hospitals because people are ill I always wonder if the bus to the hospital should be free as well, the bus user might be poorer than the car owner. How about petrol should the local garage give us some free because we are going to a hospital?

yabu
unless you mean New Parents.

Do women drive themselves to hospital when they are in labour? The car could end up being in the reserved space for days. If someone has driven them to hospital they could drop them off and go and park somewhere else.

I view dads sitting in the waiting rooms and leaving pregnant women to stand. - OP

Maybe the standing pregnant women are more comfortable standing up. - Gilead Central

Just when you've think you've seen it all on MN. YANBU, @HuwsLineIsItAnyway

Yabu - I’m only saying that because it’s a hospital and have had to stop because of parking in the past when running in with a child for accident and emergency. A pregnant lady having to walk further is no way more important then what could possibly be something life threatening

I agree OP to an extent. My hospital is similar in that the maternity has a small car park in front of it. The rest of the hospital/car parks are around opposite sides that can be a good 10/15 minute walk. I do think there should atleast be allocated parking for women who are actually in labour. Every time I visited during the day we had issues parking. I was worried I was going to have to do a full tour of the hospital whilst in labour. Luckily both times I went into labour it was in the middle of the night!

When people want free parking at hospitals because people are ill I always wonder if the bus to the hospital should be free as well, the bus user might be poorer than the car owner.
Went to a private hospital the other day with my son. Payed 250€ for a five minute consultation in a place that was like a palace, then told my other son to wander into the cafe and see if he could get anything as we’d rushed out. He came back and said a ham and cheese sandwich was €8! Then parking was €2.50 for less than an hour. Scary stuff!

It would make a lot of sense to have visitor and patient parking spaces.

Not sure specific privileges for mother is the best idea. Other patients could have mobility issues, intense pain etc. as well. Why shouldn`t they get one of these spots (if available)?

Yabu. I appreciate there are conditions that make mobility difficult in pregnancy, or mean pregnant women are ill (eg hyperemesis) but if you are health and pregnant then keeping moving is a good thing. I carried on walking miles a day right up till I went into labour in both pregnancies. I certainly didn't deserve a close space more than someone who was ill or disabled or just transporting lots of stuff for an ill relative.

Exactly! Logic fail.

YABU OP.

Some do, unfortunately but I expect that happens the world over. But those spots are for the mother herself and her partner/support person to get her to admissions and settled in and then re-park. I suppose if she drove herself and parked there they'd see if she could get someone to come move the car or they'd have one of the valets from valet parking move it for her.

Although when we arrived at the hospital for DS2's birth 'way back when' DH wouldn't have had time to repark, at least not for a few hours. And he wouldn't have been able to just 'drop me off' either as I needed help to get out of the car and in the door.

I was very ill in the first few months - I just politely asked people if they minded giving me a seat. Someone was always happy to.

Every man/woman for themselves at visiting time OP. Most pregnant women are just as capable as walking as the next person.

Wow we have park and rides to get to
our hospital because it's so expensive/impossible to park. It's also appalling so if it's an a&e job I drive 30min past it to a minor injuries in the next town which is significantly better and cheaper/easier to park.

Surely the idea is the woman in labour gets dropped off then the partner/family member/friend finds a parking space? I mean that's what we did . That's why there's a drop off zone for women in labour outside our maternity unit. It's not going to be sensible to be the driver while in active labour

Yes I can see the sense for dropping off but then the driver should go back and move the car. I mean you couldn't have enough spaces for all the women who arrived in labour and then maybe stayed for a few days. A big maternity hospital would probably need hundreds of spaces.

Unless you arrive at hospital ready to push I think the driver would have time to move the car.

So you'd be happy to have no visitors (or a partner with you who might need to park) if you were being long term monitored, induced or in labour? And obviously if you had a baby in scbu you'd have no need to visit as apparently visitors don't need to be there .