no tea and toast? seriously??..

[mumatron]

i have just been told that you no longer get tea and toast after giving birth, that can't be right, can it??

surely, thats the best thing about having a baby (apart from actually having the baby iyswim).

apparently it's due to 'health and safety'

please tell me someone is winding me up

I had an epidural, a push of Labetilol (sp.?) via IV, a ventouse delivery, second degree tear and stitches and two lots of that injection to expel the placenta because it wasn't coming out.

As soon as I was sat up I projectile vomitted. Twice.

So I asked them to bring me nothing.

I had also had morphine and I felt stoned, exhausted, sick and wanting to just sleep.

No idea. I slept for eight hours and then had hospital supper, ham and chips and glass of squash. I was offered tea.

My ex ate mine, knobber that he was.

I had tea and toast in dec when I had dd. but then did not get dinner on the ward as I was transfered just after.. dh had to go and get me a sandwich from the hospital shop.

You gave birth at RAH right Expat?

You didn't miss anything by not eating there.
One meal they gave me was macaroni cheese with gravy on, and another one had mashed potato, or so I thought, it turned out to be really overcooked cauliflower
They didn't even manage to drain the tuna for a tuna salad either.

Tea and toast?! Lucky those who go it ... at Kingston i got a "snack bag" with the most vile sandwich i have ever tried to eat. But it did have a milky way

My husband bought me tea from Costa [as well as a better sandwich]

Cold toast and jam for me And the midwife let me drink my lucozade sport during the labour even though apparently you are only allowed water...

I didn't get toast as they are not allowed the toaster any more due to H&S! Had tea and custard creams which I promptly threw up all over.

I threw it all up after DS1 - far more of an H&S risk for the staff having to clean that up than the toaster ever could be! I then refused it after DS2, just in case - they were horrified that anyone had said no, and kept asking until I agreed to have it just before I went home.

do you think there has been a spate of toaster related injuries on maternity wards or something?

anyway, post birth tea and toast is the Best Meal Ever, no contest. Had to wait ages for mine after dd because of my PPH but dp kept hassling the staff and I eventually got a mountain of toast - it was heavenly after 24 hours without food.

I do know that toaster related incidents cost the NHS a fortune in fire engnie call outs....

I had tea and toast with both mine - tea was great, didn't see all the fuss about the toast - I was too engrossed in my babies to eat (quick labours though)

Oh, yes, muggle. I gave birth there and because I had an instrumental delivery, I was forced to stay until the next day, which worked out to be nearly 2 days because DS was born at 4.11AM.

I had been epi'd to the eyeballs, because the birth was in theatre, and if the ventouse failed, I'd need a CS as DS's heartbeat was decelerating with every contraction, and I'd needed the Labetelol as the epidural had failed to bring my blood pressure down from what started to become dangerous levels (he had the cord wrapped round his neck and right shoulder, come to find out).

So when I was finally taken onto the ward, I had a sister barking at me as to why I'd not gotten up to go down the corridor for that pitiful excuse for a meal.

'Um, because I can't feel my legs yet.'

She grudgingly part me that one meal.

I rang and rang for pain meds as had terrible afterbirth pains.

Luckily, due to previous experiences at ERI, I knew to bring me own stuff. I used the core and upper body strength I had from climbing to reach my bag and medicated myself.

Shit excuse for food.

I couldn't wait to get out of there!

Also, the beds were like prison ones and no TV or radio, even to pay for.

It was a shower of shite.

no toast

The TVs are my biggest nightmare, worst on the pre-eclmapsia wards, as everyone has them and the noise was deafening.

The tea was wonderful, in a proper cup with a teapot! The rest of the meals were okay, and having a baby meant your got double helpings. Actually as Tescos is next door, if your got hungry it wasn't far to send DH (its even 24hrs).

That was my birth exactly Expat, epi'd to the armpits, ventouse dellivery in theatre etc, except I had DD at the Vale before they closed the Maternity Unit.

My food experiences at RAH were when I was in for 12 days earlier this year.

I'd rather eat my own shit than eat that food again. I doubt there's much difference anyway, other than my shit is probably tastier and more nutritious.

I said to my GP, if the same thing ever happens again (blue lighted in, in the early hours of the morning), I'll refuse to get out of the ambulance until they take me somewhere else!

At ERI, they gave me a sandwich that was so bad, even DH couldn't eat it. And he eats everything.

I had my own room, so he rang my fav curry house and I had a lovely chicken madras (which I hadn't been able to eat whilst pregnant due to heartburn) with garlic naan.

Oh I asked my Uncle to get me a sandwich from the shop.

The bread made Smartprice stuff look like luxury bread, and I swear the ham was actually a shoe sole, coloured in with fluorescent pink marker.

They couldn't even get the breakfast of cereal and rolls right. The cereal was obviously not stored in an airtight container, so it was soft, and neither were the rolls, as they were stale!

Fucking hell, how hard can it be to provide a decent breakfast of bought in foods?

And they expect really ill patients to recuperate eating this?

No wonder I discharged myself!

The ready made foods I bought from Asda when I was first home were a million times better and even my 8yr old could make them for us.
(Not all ready meals, things such as sliced meats, bagged salads, cheese, bread, as well as ready meals like fish/shepherds pie with oven ready veg)

Who they employ in that hospital kitchen I don't know, but there again having experienced the Doctors and Nurses there, I can't say I'm surprised.

The whole hospital is a crock. I did a tour of 5 different wards when I was in there, and all were shit.

When i had my Daughter last year the catering lady bought round a sandwich trolley and offered me choice of sandwiches she then came running back a few minutes later and took the sandwich of me saying i had have tea and toast first and wasn't allowed the sandwich!

Oh, muggle, the food was so bad at ERI, by the time I had DS, I had a holdall full of things for me to eat - jerky I'd made from steak in a friend's dehydrator, tins of tuna, pittas and tortillas, little sachets of condiments, bars and chocolate, even my own travel kettle with tea, sugar and sachets of UHT milk for when I fancied a cuppa.

I gagged on that first meal and then ate my own stuff.

If I ever end up in RAH again, d'ya fancy visiting and bringing food?

I was on really high doses of steroids so even though I was really ill, I was starving all the time.

I was halfway to eating the bedsheets

I'd be happy to bring you some real food, man! Definitely! It'd be a mission.

I was stocked up. Love my travel kettle. It's the bees knees.

Yeah, that was the other thing. At RAH, you were expected to walk down teh corridor and queue up for the food, then take the tray back. All whilst in pain and/or bleeding like a stuck pig.

Fuck that for a game of soldiers!

And set mealtimes. I fancy eating at times outside of that, or having a cuppa cha. Or both.

Oh a Nurse was rude to me because I was too ill to sit in a chair and asked to eat the pigswill in bed.
It was bad enough she was rude then, but she was awful to me the whole time I was on that ward, because I got her senior to agree to me eating in bed.
I sat up with the bed table , it's not like I lay down and slopped my macaroni cheese with gravy on the sheets.

There were one or two nice nurses, one in HDU made me a cuppa at 4am and came and sat with me when I was upset, and another in Intensive Care held my hand for hours when I was frightened, but generally they were awful.

Nasty and and made me feel like I was in their way. One told me I was probably a terrible mother because I wouldn't do as I was told. I was cross because she took my pen and paper away.
It was the only way I could communicate as I was ventilated at the time.

It was a truly awful experience.

A friend of mine had her fourth baby there 4 years ago and had a horrible time too.

I can believe they made you walk around with a tray like some second rate canteen, it's that type of place-shit beyond belief.

Can you tell I'm not a fan?

I just remember that the portions of food at our hospital were incredibly small! I was in for three days after I had DS, couldn't eat much for the first 24 as I'd had so much morphine I felt sick. Second day the hunger kicked in massively as I'd been without food for the best part of 3 days at that stage. DH ended up going out and getting Dominos pizza and bringing it in for me - it tasted soooo good.