Worried due date near a bank holiday

[heartmoonshadow]

Hi I am currently nearly 33 weeks pregnant and due 03 May which is close to the bank holiday of 07 May. This being the case I am worried about the staffing levels in our local hospital. Has anybody else found themselves giving birth over a holiday period and if so what was your experience? I ask because I want an epidural but with this requiring 1-2-1 care from a midwife I am concerned that they will procrastinate over giving it to me or flatly refuse due to staffing levels.

Hey OP, I gave birth to my DD on Easter Monday 2010. The labour ward was very quiet, I had an epidural immediately as was on for Waters breaking and GBS - didn't seem effected by bank holiday at all.

I had been in with a bleed on the good Friday before and there did appear to be more 'bank' nurses on the wards at that point but my birth was not effected. I tore badly enough to require a repair under GA on the bank holiday Monday, if I am honest it did seem to take ages for this to be put into action (8 hours after birth) but when it did happen I was repaired by the top consultant. DD was early so just a fluke that it was on bank holiday- it's so rare to deliver on your due date too remember.

I am sure it will be all good

Sorry...had epidural immediately as was on syntocin immediately for waters breaking and GBS.

i gave birth near xmas, dec 23rd to be precise and it was fine, my sister had her baby this xmas just gone, on xmas day! and i think staffing levels were ok, she had no complaints :)

I can assure you that bank holidays are staffed no differently to other days from a midwife/nursing point of view in a hospital. I work as a nurse in an acute care area and infact as you get good pay for working a bank holiday there are often people fighting over the shift! The staffing numbers are the same in all acute areas no matter what day it is. Hope this helps put your mind at rest.

I had DD3 just before August BH. I think no-one wants a late August birthday so the maternity unit was really quite quiet. To be honest I did not notice a lack of key staff- there seemed to be plenty of midwives kicking about. But then I didn't really need a midwife as it turned out although my midwife was in theatre during the subsequent crash CS.

Due dates are not exactly accurate, so I really wouldn't be stressing over it. Is it your first, because if so statistically you are far more likely to go overdue anyway.

I wouldn't worry. If DC2 goes overdue I could be in labour over Easter weekend, but I'm not worried by that. Besides its just the one day; there will still be staff working!

Its not quite the same thing, but I had an ERPC on April 29th, the Royal wedding. The staffing levels were totally normal and the one good thing about it was that we were all allotted 4 hours of free telly to watch the wedding, which certainly was something to do to take my mind off it.