To think it’s inappropriate for labouring women to be in a bay with antenatal women and postnatal women?

[LadyofLaundry88]

Interested to hear from any midwives/HCPs re whether this is common practice/normal?

I have been admitted for weeks pre due date for various reasons that I’d need emergency surgery pronto if I go into labour. So I’m on a bay which currently has x2 labouring (very distressed screamy) women, one like this overnight, x1 new mother & baby & male partner (allowed to stay overnight), and x2 unwell pregnant women. Lights on and off all night, HCPs banging in and out talking really loudly to patients etc. I am going to lose my mind.

AIBU to think this is pretty barbaric? I’m quite shocked that this is ok?

It’s a rock and a hard place though with male partners.

I’ve had three children, with my first, back in the dark ages, it wasn’t a thing to have your partner with you on pre/postnatal wards. With my first, they still had to stick to a few visiting hours a day.

My two children born in the last decade men did stay all the time.

I’ve had 3 sections - I KNOW you get no help, I’ve been the one fainting when I first stood up as no midwife would help, they would only bark from a distance that they were busy, I’ve been told off for ringing the bell for help reaching my crying baby when I couldn’t move after a section . My husband being there would have been such a help (he was always at home with the older child so couldn’t be).

But on the other hand, I was kept awake by men snoring, taking loudly, watching loud things on phones,
coming in and out, badgering staff asking for drinks and food for themselves, using the loos and showers on the ward, walking into the wrong bays when other women were in a state of undress, or trying to breastfeeding or being intimately examined.

Having men you don’t know in that space when you are feeling extremely vulnerable can be very distressing. But like I said, a double edged sword as having your own partner with you is sometimes the only way you can get care as maternity services are so dire.

This happened to me but I was the labouring woman. I went in at 5am and there were no beds in birth centre or labour ward so they stuck me on the antenatal ward. It was dark behind a curtain and no husband (covid times meant he wasn’t allowed in the hospital) I was 5cm and no pain relief as the midwife had 12 women to look after (10 were in for monitoring and me and one other screaming in labour). I really felt for the women trying to slee but also I really couldn’t help all the shouting

I laboured with my 18yo for hours on a ward like this, until they had space on the right ward. It's so wrong that nothing has changed.

Mixed wards like that are absolutely not normal.
The noise and constant interruption, loud partners for the chosen few, lights on and off all night, are absolutely normal. And torturous. My 2nd I was in 3 days, and I was horrendous. I was delighted to be turfed out after 6 hours with #3.

This thread brings back very bad memories. Appalling ‘care’.

10 years ago a woman went into labour and waters broke in our sideroom in the middle of the night, she had walked out of the mat unit, then walked onto our ward as there was no mat bed, this was a cardiac ward. Seems normal now to be in the wrong place and patients are expected to be grateful there is a bed, any bed, anywhere.

I was in a bay of four for a couple of weeks with various women who had had their baby or were labouring while I thought I was going to lose my twins. It was pretty horrific. It was also FUCKING hot, the ward stunk of smoke because the smokers area was right outside the window (this was back in 2010).

When it became apparent I was in fully active labour I was transferred to a different hospital that had an appropriate level NICU for sub 32 weekers, had an EMCS. After recovery I was in a single room whilst they were in NICU. I was so glad for that room. I have heard of women whose babies are in NICU and they are back in the bay / ward set up with women with their babies.

Not the same experience but some unbearable individuals on an induction ward. I looked into it and at the hospital I was in (NHS) you could pay £70 a day for a private room. Not sure of that's an option available to you x

16 years ago I there were 2 of us in the same ward, I was labouring whilst the lady next to me was being told her baby had died.
i felt awful and was literally silent so not to upset her further. She then had to witness several nurses and dr coming to me cos my baby’s heart kept stopping. I often think of her all these years later. :(

I agree.

Sadly, a lot of people have been conditioned to accept these substandard conditions in maternity services. Some even think we should "be grateful", for sub-standard maternity services. I strongly disagree with this.

When a woman is labouring, she's vulnerable. She needs privacy, dignity, and the best standard of care. Anything less is not acceptable.

I remember when I had my first, the lack of privacy and dignity was violating.

Birthing our babies is a memory that stays with us for life, and it's not ok to treat us poorly during this.

I was left on the antenatal ward due to slow progression, a full labour ward but had been given diamorphine and was on a drip. I was basically left there overnight and ignored for 15 hrs until a different shift noticed me and asked why I hadn't been monitored by anyone. This was 14 years ago. I was really uncomfortable and up and down to the toilet due to pressure on my bladder. I felt bad for the other women but was also intensely annoyed by their loud tvs and being in so much pain in public so to speak. It wasn't very nice.

Second labour (10 yrs ago) was fast and while I had my own room, it had a shared bathroom which was loocked so I couldn't go in, when I started having uncontrollable bowel movements I basically had to sit in it as I couldn't waddle out on the corridor to clean up. In my opinion labour and antenatal wards are like cattle markets.

I was the labouring woman in a similar situation, felt bad for the others on the ward but there was nothing I could do to not be noisy. Induced at 3pm and labour started at 9pm ish, no beds on labour ward and I couldn't have gas and air unless on labour ward. eventually was moved to a side room until a space came up on LW. horrendous all over, no pain relief worked except the spinal anesthesic but once that wore off i could still feel contractions through the epidural. 😭 eventually had an emcs at 6pm the following day.

It's bad. They're so understaffed in these wards and the often the buildings are falling to bits. The mw's usually have to prioritise the high dependency cases (I've been the case on several occasions). It's unfair though as they often see many others as an annoyance.

I was left in a busy ward trying to be quiet like the other women but was in so much pain I couldn't cope any longer and had to buzz for pain relief. The midwife looked shocked as I had progressed so quickly and quickly whisked me up to delivery but it was too late for pain relief. No one was checking on me - what if I had fainted? Not like anything you see on 'One born every minute'.

These replies 💔 I feel like we should publish them. I genuinely don’t think most people realise. Certainly not those in control of the purse strings.

I feel like we need a Macmillan equivalent for maternity advocacy.

I had the same experience. A few days/nights on the ward while my baby was in NICU. Hearing all the other mums with their baby’s and being too unwell to go down and see mine, no visitors allowed with covid rules and just feeling empty after my c section and in agony was pretty awful tbh.

As a midwife, yes, unfortunately that is normal. It's shitty and shouldn't be this way. I'm surprised at the male partner being able to stay overnight, though. I've never experienced that.

I was actually given a private room for free as it was wasn’t being used. I think the midwife’s felt bad for me as I’d have 5 failed inductions and been in hospital all week before my c section and then baby was whisked to NICU and I was having to listen to and see all the mums with their babies on the ward 😞. The private room was lovely and I could actually get some sleep! Highly recommend if you can afford it

Yes 3 times, the first time was 29 years ago

These types of stories have been published over and over. It doesn't improve.

I sat on a maternity liaison committee for months, to help with improvements to help women, and every single positive suggestion was batted back by NHS staff with a "no, we can't do that", I was talking simple things like skin-to-skin and delayed cord clamping. This was over a decade ago, and I know things have improved a little in respect of those specific examples.

When my first was born, she was taken away for no medical reason and kept apart from me for 5 hours. It was torture. There was no medical reason to separate mother and baby. It really had a negative impact on me. When I raised this in a complaint, the response was atrocious.

Like others we had one ward with ante- and post-natal bays, and a separate labour ward. Massive shortage of beds and/or staff on labour ward, so there were a load of us stuck in the antenatal bays in active labour, without proper monitoring or any pain relief, alongside women at all earlier stages of pregnancy. I was finally allowed up to labour ward when I had a major haemorrhage after a whole day of not being able to feel the baby move. But not before they'd already booted DH out for the night 👍🏼

(Sorry, OP - agree that it's pretty barbaric. I wish you all the best for the rest of your pregnancy and the safe arrival of your baby 💐)

Yes I was on a ward like this for a whole week. All down to staffing levels. But I can't blame people for not wanting to work in the hospitals

Maternity care in this country was brutal 20 years ago and it's even worse now. Hospital care is generally horrific - I spent 5 nights in a mixed sex ward with men leering and exposing themselves - but maternity has always been the poor relation, for depressingly obvious reasons.

This. Unpleasant maybe but unless you have private healthcare it is how it is unfortunately.

Entirely normal and fucking horrific.