Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think I’m the only one who is having/had a negative experience at a mother and baby unit?

12 replies

youngmum2000 · 09/06/2025 20:08

Just as the title says really. I am feeling really alone and depressed and I’m not being treated very nicely

OP posts:
MiraculousLadybug · 09/06/2025 20:14

I'm sorry to hear that OP.
Can you tell us a bit more about what's going on for you?

pinkyredrose · 09/06/2025 20:19

What is happening that's unpleasant, are they rude and judgemental?

TipsyRaven247 · 09/06/2025 20:27

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

TwoUnderTwitTwoo · 09/06/2025 20:28

I’m so sorry. It must be an extremely vulnerable time for you if you are in a mother and baby unit. Who is looking after you now? What have they said to you today?

YesHonestly · 09/06/2025 20:29

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

Why be an arsehole to a new mum who is clearly struggling?

TwoUnderTwitTwoo · 09/06/2025 20:31

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

This is incredibly ignorant and crass. OP is in a mother and baby unit, of which there are very few and the threshold for admission is very high. Her doctors/midwife must be deeply concerned about her mental health and well-being and I think would also be concerned that she was reading comments like these.

OP, you’re in a really tough place. Has someone said anything specific that upset you today?

YesHonestly · 09/06/2025 20:31

Do you want to tell us a bit more OP?

They’re not always nice places to be, you can feel like you’re being watched and judged, although I’m sure you’re not. Do you have any support in place just for you?

Yogic · 09/06/2025 20:31

💐sending you an unmumsnetty hug

TheQuietestSpace · 09/06/2025 20:32

MBU for your mental health, or for safeguarding reasons?

youngmum2000 · 09/06/2025 22:10

I put depressed in the description , for my mental health no safeguarding concerns

OP posts:
youngmum2000 · 09/06/2025 22:52

What did that post say? It has been deleted
lots of things really over the last couple of weeks. I told the doctor I need to get baby milk as I’m running out , she knows I’ve had crippling anxiety since I was pregnant with my first child, I haven’t been out anywhere without either my mum or partner in nearly 3 years. She said well today you have to go get the formula without a member of staff coming with you (please don’t anyone come for me for formula feeding, I breastfed for 3 months but baby wasn’t putting on weight due to low supply and my MH couldn’t take it anymore). Putting me in a position where I have to risk either having a panic attack or my baby being hungry. Luckily I had a visitor that morning who said they’d go with me.

I feel very depressed and suicidal , I have been here 4 weeks , they have stopped all my support with baby. They were doing his night feeds but not anymore , I’m exhausted and get about 4 hours sleep at night and no chance to nap in the day as there’s always a group they want you to attend or a 1 to 1 session. I’m constantly getting dizzy spells and nearly falling over. They have stopped my sleep medication today so I am so anxious to try and sleep because I don’t think I’ll be able to and that is when my bad thoughts usually start. I have only been on it two weeks so still getting used to it but was doing the job of getting me to sleep and relaxing me. Today they have stopped it cold turkey and there reasoning is because once last night I didn’t hear him crying (the only time this has ever happened) a member of staff came in swung the door open switched the light on shook me awake and said you need to get up he’s been sobbing for ages, in a really aggressive tone and I feel like the use of the word sobbing was to make me feel guilty.

Ive been experiencing hallucinations at home and on the ward but only in my bedroom because of this I like to spend as much time out of the bedroom as possible, my baby was asleep in their pram so we went and sat in the lounge as it was quiet and empty so I shut the door as the staff are always talking and laughing obnoxiously loud, often waking up my baby. One wall is all glass so you can see in from the corridor and the door has a big window. A member of staff came in and said is there a reason this door is shut? I said yes the babies asleep and I just want a bit of quiet time she told me it’s not allowed and opened the door even though I had it shut the day before and it was fine , also it’s has FIRE DOOR KEEP SHUT on it anyway.

these are just a couple of examples but a lot more has gone on

OP posts:
TheQuietestSpace · 10/06/2025 07:42

I think the process of recovery is difficult and is one that does have to be encouraged along by clinicians, and sometimes that can feel like too much pressure too quickly.

I dont think that anything you've posted is unreasonable, except being shaken awake which is inappropriate. It all sounds like normal steps towards a discharge, working along a care plan. It is very normal and appropriate to be getting off sleep meds for example, and also normal for them to no longer be doing the baby care. Otherwise you risk mothers becoming institutionalised and that transition to home is infinitely harder, because there wont be a team of staff at home for baby then either, as you know!

However, it sounds like they could do with keeping you more informed of their plan, and also of including your thoughts in your plan. Do you attend your weekly reviews? It would be reasonable to ask them to give you fair warning of the changes they are planning to make in that week e.g. if they're reducing or changing medication, it would be good to know how much and when. You could also ask them to explain the goals they have for you in the week - e.g. if they want you to be able to run an errand by yourself, or if they want you to have day leave etc. If you have these things in advance, they probably wont feel any less scary, but at least they wont be such a shock.

I guess also just to say that the aim is not to be entirely healed, cured, panic attack free etc before going home. You'll still be unwell when discharged - the aim of an MBU is not to 'fix' to the point of you skipping down the path into rainbows. I think mental health services perhaps aren't clear enough about their expectations for treatment - it is all about least restrictive practise, so once youre able to be treated in the community again, you'll be sent home to continue the work. I was very poorly perinatally and now work sort of adjacent to the system and its something I try to make sure mums understand, because I remember being so desperate for someone to fix me that I had all my hopes on the team being a magic cure. In reality I still had panic attacks in public and I still had many days when I thought about ending our lives, but the team had done the work with me to make those much less frequent and give me strategies to cope when they did happen.

The battle should be you and the team against your illness, try not to let it become you against them because all you'll do is distance yourself from the support you need to recover.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page