OMG! Rupert Lowe: comments on maternity/labour wards

[drummingfingers]

Rupert Lowe* is the MP for Great Yarmouth (controversial enough to get kicked out of Reform, earlier this year and is now sitting as an Independent).

Just hopped on to his Facebook page as I assumed it was a joke, but no its true:

He posted yesterday:
Giving birth is obviously an incredibly challenging experience for the mother - trust me, nobody is denying that. I do think though, that fathers should be shown more respect by the NHS during the whole process.
No food provided, no basic bedding, nothing.
The father is having a child too - potentially staying multiple nights, sleeping on the floor or a chair?
If the NHS can find hundreds of millions for translation/interpretation and the rest of the diversity bullshit, then surely a few campbeds in each ward isn't such an impossible investment? Maybe a bowl of pasta for the dad, who does actually pay for that meal through his own taxes?
I've asked the Department of Health to reconsider their approach.
It would be nice if fathers weren't treated as some awkward afterthought, during the process and often across wider society.
Let's give dads the respect they deserve.

Well, Mumsnetters, should the NHS really be focussing on this.....surely a partner could pop to a hospital snack bar or bring in his own snacks FFS. Does this MP genuinely think its the most pressing thing for the NHS to providing extra hot meals?????????????

• Rupert was the savvy MP who reported to Border Force a dingy he saw off the coast of Yarmouth as he was worried that it was full of illegals.....he proclaimed "I am chasing them now"..... but it was just some charity rowers raising funds for MND.

We experienced the same in our UK hospital to be fair.

I agree.

I also think if there were more help for women after sections then it's actually more use for a man to go home and sleep. DH was a godsend with DC2 in that because he got a good night's sleep he wasn't driving us home sleep deprived, he was able to take over and I went to bed for a few hours once home. However the men on the postnatal ward kept me awake throughout the night going backwards and forwards for food, phone calls and loud chat. I ended up keeping my curtains closed because I felt a little vulnerable trying to establish breastfeeding again with men only feet away.

To add to the OP, why don't men actually sort themselves out at the same time a woman sorts her own hospital bag out? My DH packed himself a rucksack that stayed with my bags. There were plenty of spare snacks, things he could add hot water to, painkillers and spare clothing / deodorant. He never actually needed any of it but it was there if we we weren't discharged quickly.

The man is clearly a fuckwit.

Oh look he's written another letter today to the PM about the train attack

This is what happens when you think translation is woke nonsense

You mentioned hospital canteen vouchers and I was just pointing out that fathers of newborns aren't the only parents in hospital so it wouldn't feel fair just offering it to them.

This all day long.

Exactly. Women are routinely treated like utter shit on maternity wards, and conditions are often actually dangerous. Men can fend for themselves! ( And be as unobtrusive as possible..memories of sitting in bed covered in blood trying to get a latch on the other side of a gappy curtain to multiple space guzzling noisy men..)

But it is connected to your comment. The other poster is pointing out that no other parents in hospitals are offered vouchers so why should Dad's of newborns?

Exactly.

I'd also add that depending on the hospital, canteen vouchers would also be useless for dinner/weekends as some hospital canteens close very early and some aren't open at all at the weekend.

As a tangent, I think that if you leave the party you were supported by in your campaign to be elected, then it should trigger a by-election, and the MP shouldn't just be allowed to continue either as an independent or as a member of a different party.

I mean, he is obviously a twat, and I wouldn't support Reform however much I were bribed, but I'm guessing most people who did vote for him were voting for the party, not for him as an individual.

I didn’t say it would be. But the topic I’m responding to is about fathers of newborns. So.

That’s awful! Hopefully you’ll give birth at 5 am and can go home by 5pm so you don’t have to do this.

Some bloke opposite me on the ward sounded like a juggernaut dragging gravel across a slurry at 900 decibels the poor lamb.

I didn’t have any snoring men on either of my postnatal wards as no one was asleep during to all the screaming babies!!

I recall feeling rage after my second trip where we’d tried and failed to get a private room despite offering to pay. Apparently they were reserved for those whose gender was not aligned to the majority on a maternity ward so that they would not be made to feel uncomfortable being surrounded by women who had just given birth.

Yep, I wasn’t given a private room to be near my 7 weeks prem baby in scbu, rather dumped alone down the ward near said snorey dads whilst I recovered from an emergency c section with such severe pre eclampsia my head has swelled twice its size!

My meal after giving birth was bubble and squeak and chips because I had missed the meal round and that’s all there was in the canteen.

That said, when DD was ill when we were on holiday in Scotland, I was given a bed next to her, and the entire family was fed when we were there at dinner time. In London I got a chair and not so much as a cup of tea, and wasn’t allowed to leave her as they were short staffed.

Considering I didn’t get fed because I was unable to walk to the dining room after a section I’ll save my sympathies

I’m so sorry to hear that. Childbirth can be do traumatic - it’s appalling how women are treated.

I gave birth in February, had a csection.

I was desperate for DH to stay, but he had to go home, which I guess was good as I wouldnt want someone elses strange husband wandering around the wards.

However, there needs to be more support for mums on the wards, especially csection mums.

My baby was born with a birth defect, which meant she required special feeding bottles. I only had 3 until the specialist nurse came to see me the next morning. So i had to steralise them while lugging around a full catheter bag that kept constantly getting stuck on my bed while DD was on the opposite side fussing in her cot. In the end the nurses gave me empty sterile bottles to use. I hurt myself alot constantly getting up (dd fussed all night), ended up with an infection, and decided to just hold DD all night until DH was allowed back on the ward at 8am. It felt really grim.