When did newborn nurseries stop being a thing?

[Al991]

Just a question stemming from a conversation with my mum, who said she slept all night after birthing my sister while she was cared for in a newborn nursery in hospital. I’ve only seen this on American TV shows.

I was in labour for 48 hours then had a 1.5L postpartum haemorrhage, a 3rd degree tear and moderately serious surgery but I had the baby with me the whole time and thereafter.

just curious as to when we stopped having newborn nurseries and what the history of this is! Was it part of the push for breastfeeding? My sister was born in 2000.

Must be a where you live thing. I had my first in 1992 and he was wheeled away so I could sleep. Brought back a while later for feeding.

I had my children in 1997 and 1998, and I've never heard of this.

I agree @Vettrianofan I had my first in 2016...long labour, forceps delivery with shoulder dystocia, 3rd degree tear and 4l pph. I was in high dependency unit for 24hours. As soon as I was conscious I was expected to keep baby with me at all times, breastfeed on demand. Even though I was really unwell and barely able to sit up/keep my eyes open. When I was transferred to the post natal ward it was hell. I hadn't slept for 36 hours and I had to literally beg someone to take my baby so I could sleep...think they gave me an hour. When home I had severe anaemia and had to go back in for transfusion. I had PND for about 2 years after. Breastfeeding failed miserably. Having a nursery would have made so much difference...I know I could have recovered well with some rest, potentially kept Breastfeeding and had a much better bond with my little girl.

Let’s not be dramatic. It’s optimal for a baby to be with mother. It’s not barbaric if the mother needs care that means baby can’t be.

When we decided that mums don't really matter. Their role is to pick up the pieces for everyone else's failings in society - shit dads, inadequate social structures - so they may as well learn early on that their wellbeing isn't important. They're just support human beings, after all.

But is is your job to pick up the pieces for your own child. You've literally made that commitment when you decided to create them. It's both the most gravely serious responsibility and the most glorious privledge but nobody forces anyone to choose it.

I gave birth in 2021 and post-natal is as expected, baby with you at all times. However, we got readmitted due to DC losing too much of their birth weight. We didn’t go into postnatal but instead a baby ward. Mums were not the patient but given a hospital bed as most problems were related to feeding so they needed to be there. They took the babies overnight into the hallway to be watched by the nursery nurses and wheeled the baby very quietly into your bay when it was time for a feed. Most of the staff were lovely there and when I was apprehensive about it, they said that baby needed to feed and to do that I needed to rest. However, I had a nurse wheel baby in at 3am and very gently wake me, DC still needed waking for feeds and I was so tired that I didn’t wake fully enough, DC slept through and they missed that feed. When the nurse collected DC at 6am and I explained she berated me for not feeding my child and making them sicker.

That doesn't mean that immediately after giving birth and/or going through a major operation, that a woman is being unreasonable for needing to sleep. We are actual human beings, not robots. Your body suddenly doesn't stop needing to rest or recover because you have a child.

I find it bizarre that a newborn nursery should be needed when its the father that should be doing this. My DH was pretty useless, but even he stepped up for the first couple of weeks

Mothers can put their baby down before falling asleep, just like at home later that day when discharged.

That relies on you being mobile. Otherwise there's no way to reach the crib. If you have extensive tearing, placenta retention and a catheter, as I did, any movement is very difficult.

I had my two in a clinic (private healthcare in Switzerland) and both babies were taken to nursery for the night so I could rest. My first DC was born by an emergency CS and I almost died from hemorrhaging so was only given DD by demand. With DS, born three years later, I had a planned CS and kept him with me all day and then brought to me for his feeds during the night. I was privileged and am grateful for that.

My mum says similar. No newborn nurseries, but they midwives/nurses took care of the mother for a week, teaching them the basics of newborn care as you say. And when she really needed to sleep, they took over looking after me for the night.

It's absolutely essential and should be the goal for maternity wards.

I'd have loved a night nursery! It should be reinstated.

2009 DD1, 24hr labour, no pain relief, forceps, 3rd degree tear followed by surgery. I was in for 1 night following birth. Because of timings in labour and then surgery I didn't get a proper meal for another 24hrs. No tea and toast for me, nor breakfast or lunch (by which time I was on the ward) and just a single egg sized plain jacket potato at tea time.

I was utterly traumatised by the whole thing. The nurses took her for a few hours in the night, but I couldn't rest.

Following an elective C-section in 2011 it was better.
Firstly they knew I'd be there so I was able to order my lunch and dinner and got fed properly! I kept DD2 with me - tucked under my arm in my bed, day and night, no arguments.
And emotionally I wasn't completely battered and exhausted, I was much more prepared.

By contrast my DM in 1979 gave birth at 5am and was given bacon and eggs on the ward at breakfast time. She had a 7 day stay, was taught how to look after baby and had access to a night nursery.

DM was utterly horrified by my experience and thankfully came to stay whilst I recovered both times.
(Own business back then, so DH had to be back at work within a day or two.)

I had ds1 in 1993, and it was settled practice then for the babies to sleep by the mums' beds.

The only reason ds1 ended up in a nursery by himself was that he had neonatal jaundice, and needed phototherapy, and there wasn't room by the beds for the phototherapy unit, plus the lights would have kept everyone awake. He was definitely the exception, not the rule.

I didn't do my midwifery, but I did do 8 weeks of Obstetrics during my nurse training (83-87), and I am sure that the babies slept by their mums' beds then too - though it is a long time ago, and my memory could be playing tricks on me.

I had mine in 2014 and 2016 and there was always around 10 babies left by the nurses station. I assume they were there to allow the mums to sleep or shower.

I think the only version of this now is the NICU. Unfortunately both my babies ended up in NICU after birth but it meant I got a lot of sleep and they would call down to the postnatal ward to wake me up when they needed feeding. Some nights I did just sleep on the reclining chairs, but otherwise I would get a few hours in bed before they called me. Babies sleep very well in incubators too so they both slept well when in them and with my second I had the incubator even once he was allowed in my room as he was jaundiced and so needed the blue light still.

Yeah, um no.

If I'm torn to shreds, medicated up to the eyeballs and I've just come out of having my placenta surgically removed and being stitched up, then I'm afraid I need a bit of help at that point. Especially if I'm shaking with shock to the extent that I'm almost dropping my baby.

Just for a couple of days, mind, I've got the next 18 years covered.

Doesn't feel like an unreasonable ask.

With my DC1, I was in hospital for 2 nights and didn't sleep at all. Literally didn't shut my eyes.

Womens needs seem to magically fit what everyone else in society wants.

NHS can't afford to provide nurserie....oh it's so important that mum and baby are never separated...

Surrogacy....oh it's not problem if a baby is removed immediately

I had my first in 1992. I had a cesarean. He was with me all day but then in the nursery for the first 2 nights. I was in for 4 days.Had second baby in 1994. He was a vaginal delivery and was with me all the time.

My mum said that when I was born in the late 80s it had been in the news that people's babies had been taken while they were separated from their mothers, so she had to bring me with her to all scans etc. before being discharged

I would take a night nursery over the current system of the post natal ward any day of the week.

I’ve always thought it sounds incredibly civilised.

In 2000 I had to keep my baby with me.

What do they do when the mother had a C-section? One PP said she had to look after C-section baby for another mother but please dont tell me it a common thing?

My sister -not in the UK - had to fight to have her baby brought to her after C-section and it took two before they allowed her to have the baby with her. It still makes my blook boil.

Did it depend on an individual hospital's policy, I wonder.

DD was born in 1988, DS1 was born in 1990. Both were born in Milton Keynes Hospital. DD was in SCBU for a few days, but DS1 was with me all the time. DD stayed with me once she was out of SCBU.

DS2 was born in 1992 in The Barratt in Northampton. I was given morphine the first night, and he was taken to the nursery, so I could get a full night's sleep. After that he was with me all the time.

All three were delivered by C-section.

My granddaughter was born in 2011, by emergency c-section and was in NICU for over a week, but when she was released from there, was with her mum all the time.

I had my 1st in 1992. The room that had been the nursery was in the process of being gutted. The midwives were a bit apologetic, especially to the mothers who'd been expecting it.

Yes this is a common thing. I.never had a c section and was sent straight home but I've heard from lots of women I know that they have had to help other women in the ward