OK, please prepare me for a night on the ward!

[Duggeeismysaviour]

Expecting dc2 any day now

Was unbelievably lucky with dc1, that we got to stay the night on the MLU, all together in a private room, because it was quiet and the ward across the hall was full

Well I have no such expectations this time, that was just pure luck. And I know I will have to stay for 24h at least as gbs +ve. I won't make dh stay overnight of course. But tell me, will I get any rest? Or will it be the stories I hear over and over of people having loud conversations at 3am, not caring who is behind the curtain next to them etc...?! I don't mean to sound precious, I'm just dreading it a bit, knowing I will HAVE to stay, when I know I will want to be home with my toddler ds1 (I know, if gbs is the only thing keeping me and baby there, we are very lucky).

For example, I keep hearing advice to take ear plugs and eye mask, but surely you cannot use either after your baby is born?!

I know, I feel like a total wally writing this.

Hit me up with your experiences please!

Ask if you can pay for a single room, many hospitals allow this, otherwise just remember it is only 1 night & you should be going home the next day. Take your earplugs, eye mask, tablet or phone & headphones & don't be afraid to complain about noisy visitors.

When I stayed overnight I had the room to myself until about 3am when they prepped the bed next to me for someone who’d just given birth, they did seem to keep quite quiet however it didn’t really matter as my baby didn’t sleep at all that night unless she was in my arms and that meant I didn’t get any sleep that night.

If someone’s being noisy, don’t be afraid to tell them to keep it down, just say your baby’s going to sleep so can they be more quiet.

It wasn't that bad. Hotter than the centre of the Earth but I found it alright. It's not perfect silence and dark but it short term and you're hardly gonna sleep much anyway.

Yes the heat!!!! Was absolutely boiling when I was there. If you’re worried about noise etc then probably best to see if you can pay for a private room as others have suggested. In my experience the ward was noisy, just being honest.

To be honest I found it miserable, but it was extremely busy with all beds taken and extended families bringing curry/McD's/Dominoes until late at night. Lights on all night and call bells keeping everyone awake. I did ask for a private room (happy to pay) but no luck. My advice? Take earplugs, eye mask, headphones and your own pillow. It's not for long but it can be tough. Do tell inconsiderate women to shut up if you can't stand their ineffably dull chat any longer. I wish I had!!!

I used the ear plugs and eye mask.
My earplugs just muffle sounds and I can still hear and would definitely have heard baby.
I stayed for 6 nights and it wasn’t too bad.
It was mostly people Skyping family on loud speaker (ffs) and I complained to the midwives every time.
Unfortunately now my ward allows dads to stay overnight so I am not looking forward to it. Particularly when they will be using the same toilet too.

Sorry but I’d prepared for the worst.

With my first I spent 5 nights in hospital and it was pretty much horrific. All the bad things you’ve mentioned and more. 4 years later and people know not to set me off or I’ll rant for hours about it (plus it was totally pointless as they never explained why I was in (despite repeated requests), the things I was meant to be getting help with I didn’t get help with and they discharged me in the end because they needed the bed rather than because anything was dealt with).

It was hard too as I didn’t know why I was there and therefore what had to happen for us to go home - btw we were both well although a pre-term birth but they just wanted us to establish feeding, which didn’t happen for 6-8 weeks anyway !

Not sure I could have done anything to make it better really other than be more assertive, but that’s difficult when the ward is busy and you know how overstretched the poor staff are.

However with my second I was demanding to be discharged before i’d even given birth. I stayed in one night due to timings but I must have mentioned it a million times as the night team did all my discharge stuff at the end of the night shift - still didn’t get home till 7pm as it needed dr sign off etc...

That night was a bit better as there was only one woman in there but she had issues.

The days are better than nights to cope with as you can have visitors, go for little walks, read a book etc... your baby will be right next to you so you’ll see if they need you, so earphones are ok.

Its the nights that are hard as you are more limited in what you can do. If it’s only one night, psyche yourself up for no sleep / rest. If you get any it’s a bonus. Try to get an idea of how long you’ll be there and what needs to happen for you to go home - I think having an end point would help mentally.

Also request to be discharged ASAP to anyone that will listen and do it often. They prob won’t want to keep you in longer than necessary particularly if you don’t want to be there.

Good luck.

The heat was too much, I stripped off to shorts and vest top. Baby wouldn't sleep so I think I had about an hours sleep in total. It was noisy and busy and too bright - I was counting down the seconds till I got to go home!

It’s a classic case of ‘sleep when the baby sleeps’. Forget ideas of a distinction between night and day and just catch snatches of sleep whenever you can. For 24 hours it is bearable.

Rather than things to help me sleep, I needed things to keep me awake. DD screamed blue murder in the cot and I was in a full six bay ward so, trying to not be that postnatal patient, I held her all night and slept when DH arrived in the morning. I had my ear plugs and eye mask but I could have really done with some rubbish games on my phone and a long charger to keep my eyes open in the early hours whilst DD snoozed on my chest. As it was I stared at the curtains, near hallucinating with exhaustion, for hours on end and then was dead to the world all morning. It was only on discharge when I queried her newborn checks that DH said I'd just slept through them all happening about a foot from my head

Thank you all for your responses, and diet to hear about the bad experiences. I'm a huge fan of the NHS, and very grateful, but I feel like it didn't take much to eliminate some of these terrible issues

My main issue was babies crying. When my son was sleeping I was still kept up by other babies.

Sorry, not diet!

For me the nights wasnt as bad as baby was awake most of it. During the day when everyone has visitors in and talking loudly after you just got baby to sleep or when the cleaners come in the bloody hoover and wakes everyone up. I couldn't sleep when baby was asleep during the day because of it all.

Oh yeah - take your own food too. The hospital stuff is inedible.

The hospital stay for me was the worst experience of the whole thing , ask for private room I wish I knew it was an option would have paid limitless amounts !

I transferred out of hospital into the local MLU after 24 hours which was total bliss as we were the only ones there! Prior to that I didn't sleep as I was bleeding and felt like every time I moved my pad was leaking. They came and poked either me or the baby every hour to check for infection. And every so often the midwife would stick her head in and patronisingly tell me to go to sleep. I wouldn't say it was awful, just noisy. It's hard being in hospital when you are essentially well.

My main advice is to get rid of the Bounty rep pronto.