Because everyone I’ve spoken to has received shocking care, if you can even call it that. Following on from my other thread about labour I thought I was share my experience of the post natal ward. I hope that’s okay. It’s very long!
So after the delivery I was wheeled to the recovery ward to recover. The recovery ward was actually lovely. There was no one there except one nurse. It would have been a great time for me to finally sleep except someone decide it was time to clatter a bucket around outside.
I was pretty much in shock. I suddenly had a baby. A nurse came in and showed us things. I don’t remember, I was too tired to do anything. I still had the cannula in my arm which was extremely painful, my whole hand and wrist had swollen up from the constant iv. I still have staining now from iv leakage.
I had an idea that once I was up and about I could go home. So I fought to stand up and walk around, even though I felt like I had been hit by a train. I was in the recovery ward all day although thinking back it only felt like an hour? Anyway as the day wore on they wheeled me into the post natal ward.
As I was wheeled in, a pig faced woman with her boyfriend glared at me. Like really scowled, like I had farted on her birthday cake or something. The boyfriend gawped at me. I was exhausted and baffled. It was 8pm and DH was told he had to leave. He wasn’t allowed to stay with me. I broke down in tears. I have never felt such despair as I did in that moment. A nice nurse asked me why I was crying. She reassured me that the staff were there to help and not to worry. Ha! DH left.
The day staff left and the night staff came. The scowling woman in the bed opposite started groaning and crying out, saying she was in pain. She did this at regular intervals. I found out later she had a uterus infection. I don’t know where her baby was.
A couple of hours passed. The baby and I looked at each other. He did a poo. I had never changed a nappy in my life. Perhaps one of the nurses could just show me..? I went to have a look for the nice nurse. Oh silly me she had left. The night staff were all sitting in the office and looked at me like I had two heads when I peered in. I managed to change a nappy, and feed him. I later found out the nappy was backwards.
An assistant came to check the babies temperature. She said it was too low. I was suddenly terrified that somehow they would take him away from me.
The baby started crying. The huffing woman opposite started shouting at me saying she wasn’t going to listen to THAT all night. She started an angry call to her boyfriend, complaining about her pain and the noise my baby was making. I felt flustered and embarrassed and was trying not to cry. Let me tell you I am a gobby cow usually. In usual circumstances I would have offered to knock her out. But I’d lost three litres of blood. There were thirty stitches in my vagina. I could barely walk. I felt scared and vulnerable. None of the midwives were around.
The woman started aggressively chomping bbq flavoured crisps. I was so tired. I hadn’t slept since Tuesday night & it was now Friday. I lay down and finally started to go to sleep when the woman opposite started snoring and grunting like a pig. Then I heard music which gradually got louder. Had the woman got a radio on? The baby cried again, the woman woke up and started shouting at me again.
I picked up the baby and staggered to the nurses station. The door was shut. I knocked. No one answered so I opened it anyway. They all glared at me. THEY were playing the radio. Playing a loud radio! At 12am! On a post natal ward! I told them that I wanted to be moved. They argued with me saying they couldn’t move people wherever they wanted. I insisted, tears streaming down my face. One nurse agreed to help me.
I was moved into another room. It was freezing cold. I realised that all the windows were open! I went around shutting them but some I couldn’t reach. I asked a nurse if she could shut them and she just looked at me and walked away. During the night a woman who had had a c section asked if a nurse might pick up the baby for her. The nurse said do it yourself. Another loudly gossiped about her 50th birthday plans. It was 4am at this point. I managed to sleep for 45 minutes. The nurse then came and banged an empty plate on my tray waking me up. An hour later breakfast was served which was brown bread toast. I opened my mouth to tell her I was celiac but she had already fucked off.
At this point I text my husband. I had left him alone all night as I knew he was sleeping but I told him to come get me. I was leaving and if they didn’t let me go I would call the police.
Finally the day staff came, and the ward manager came to talk to me. She said I could go home. Unfortunately I had to have a transfusion and the baby various tests.
We finally escaped at 6pm on Saturday. I had been admitted at 12pm on Wednesday. During that time I had slept approximately 2 hours and eaten nothing.
What was your experience of the post natal ward?