40 years ago parents didn't stay with unwell babies?

[UndertheCedartree]

Am I right in thinking that 40 years ago if a baby was taken to the big city hospital (from being born at the local town hospital i.e critically ill/likely to die) that the parents and definitely the dad did not go with them?

Does anyone remember the TV show 'Children's Ward?' Barely a parent to be seen! But then if there had been they would have thwarted the hijinks.

I was in hospital at 8 or 9 with asthma my mother didn’t stay with me. No t sure when the rules changed that parents have to stay.

My dad was born in 1961 at home and needed to be taken to hospital for breathing problems, my granny didn’t see him for a month.

No that's not true. My little brother was born in 1978 and was very premature. My mum stayed with him the whole time. I remember my Nan looking after me because my mum wasn't there and my Dad was working and/ or at the hospital.

My siblings (twins) spent the first few months of their lives in hospital in the early eighties and weren’t expected to do very well because they’d been born so prematurely. The nurses were very put out that my mum couldn’t be there every moment of the day and night. She had really valid reasons, but it was definitely expected.

I had tonsils and adenoids out...the wound got infected, and I had to go to hospital via ambulance from GP's surgery..and was put on a scary adult ward as a 5 yr old , as no room on the children's ward.

The women {Patients} on the ward in the next bed were lovely, as I sobbed.

A poor woman in bed opposite had terrible nose bleeds and made frightening noises.

The Children's ward was much better- it had two beautiful rocking old horses in it, that 'I rode despite painful penicillin jabs in my backside.

Parents were on strict visiting times.

A lovely boy in next bed {Hugh, never forgotten his name} was very kind.

It's much better now, when kids can have Mum or Dad there.

when i worked in PICU we had a Ronald McDonald house for parents in the grounds. i remember one Dad saying it was a cross between feeling like Durham Prison and smelling like Durham Cathedral!
i used to hate to have to call parents over there in the night when their child took a turn for the worse as it was a good ten minute walk in the pitch dark. i would get security to go meet them to escort them when i could.
i started paeds nursing in the early 90's and parents were being actively encouraged to stay with their children on standard wards. i was always taken aback by how many couldn't or those that simply wouldn't and saw it as free childcare.
the average children's ward now would be critically unsafe if parents didn't stay as they are expected to do a lot of care and be the few nurses on duty's eyes and ears.

I had a op 30 years ago. I was a day patient but ended up on the children’s ward for recovery, I would have been 12. I remember 2 things - a mum I knew from primary was a nurse at the hospital and she was there when I woke up, arranged with my guardian so I wouldn’t be alone. The other was that there was an older boy from my school there in traction. No one came to see him that day and I overheard a nurse say he had no one at visiting the day before due to younger siblings. 6 of us on the ward and no adult visitors until 4pm.

She was three at the time. It wasn’t ideal but a distant memory now!

I do think that in UK hospitals parents end up doing a lot of the care - in paeds nurses are mainly administering drugs, in my experience, although that’s not to diminish the excellent job many of them do. In countries where the approach to medical care is different, it’s seen as unnecessary for parents to be there 24/7.

I was in hospital in the 50s and had no visitors.
Also when my son was bone in the 70s he was in intensive care and I could only look at him through the window. after I left hospital without him I was told they would l was to telephone when he moved to the warm nursery. Visiting was 2 to 3. When he left the hospital I had only fed him once.

I was in and out of hospital quite a lot as a kid, I was under the care of GOSH and my mum stayed with me pretty much throughout and definitely overnight. I remember her sleeping on a camp bed next to me.

This one has shocked me.

Not a baby but I broke my femur age 12 in 1992
I was in hospital for 16 weeks and my mum came in for visits which was two hours each afternoon.
I was absolutely terrified- especially when I first arrived, i remember being so scared and in so much pain. The nurses weren't very kind. I'd never been away from home before so on every front, it was awful.

I was in hospital at 7 in the very early 90s and it was visiting hours only. The rest of the time I was in bed or in the playroom.

When I was in with DS3 in 2021 it was 1 parent at all times. To be honest I think that is a bit of a cyclical policy as one of the reasons I wouldn't have left DS is that I'd have left him in a dark room with about 12 random adults and no nurses.

I had my tonsils out on my 6th birthday. In hospital for 2w. No parents stayed on the children's ENT ward in 1980.

I don't think I was terribly bothered that they weren't there.

I'm 46 and was in hospital for several months in traction due to hip dysplasia as a toddler (it was an unusual type that doctors wouldn't believe my mum was a problem, despite me being her 3rd child so she knew something was wrong). My parents couldn't stay with me all the time but my mum was able to stay some nights but not every night.

I was in hospital for nearly a year in the early 1960's when I was about 6.

Parents visited every day but weren't allowed to stay even though I was very seriously ill at one stage.

I was then sent to a convalescent home for 3 months miles away - lucky Dad had a car so they could visit, cos it was in the middle of nowhere!
Must have been so difficult as there were 3 other siblings at home.

I loved it!

I had a squint corrected age 2, early 70s. My parents weren't allowed to stay. It was harrowing for me, I constantly cried for my parents which caused complications with my eye operation. My mum said she could hear me howling all the way to the car park - it broke her heart to have to leave me, bless her. Different times indeed.

I had my (perfectly healthy) baby in the 80s and he spent every night in the hospital nursery away from me.

I had a little note from the nursery nurse each morning to say how he'd been. I was in for 8 days with no complications.

So weird to think of that now

44 years ago my two year old sister was hospitalised for chemical burns and we were not allowed to visit at alll.

Just because I know my parents did not go with me when I was transfered. My mum said she was scared of watching me die alone so she maybe could have gone with me initially but presumably wasn't expected to. They didn't visit me either. I thought it must have been the done thing then.

I thought nowadays if your baby was likely to die the parents would go with them.

Late 70s I stayed in hospital with dd and it was expected I’d stay.
Friend trained as a children’s nurse at Great Ormond Street iirc 1965 and no parents stayed. They were all packed off after visiting hours but not sure how long that was.

That must have been so tough for you and him.

I hope you were able to bond properly when he came home.

Didn't danny dyer make his acting debut In Childrens ward. Just been watching him in riders

I had my tonsils out in 1971 and they didn’t allow parents to stay . I started my nurse training in 1984 and when I did my children’s nursing part most parents stayed , very few were unaccompanied.