How much help should I expect overnight in hospital after a C-Section?

[NoseyHelen]

I'm due my second c-section soon. My memory of the night in hospital with DS is awful. It was 35 degrees, I had a drip in one side and a catheter in the other so I could not reach out to my child. It took forever for the midwives (2 for 23 mothers) to answer the call button and I don't remember my baby's nappy being changed. I do remember one mw wedging lo in a blanket next to me so that I wouldn't press the call button again.

So, what help have other people had - perhaps I'm expecting too much?

How often was your baby changed over night?
How long did it take midwives to come when you called?
Did they insist on putting the strip lighting on everytime they popped in?
Was baby in bed with you or in it's own crib? Is it safe to have baby in bed with you after surgery?
Did they help you have a shower or bath (28 hrs after op, I gave up waiting and did it myself against orders)?

Any other tips would be gratefully received.

I have had three, two in 1 hospital and 1 in another. My experiences haven't been bad and I really wanted to let you know this as you'll be terrified reading some of these posts.

With my first , they were great, I did have self administered pain relief and I did buzz when I needed them to get the baby for me. Whilst they were not there instantaneously and this caused me some anxietey to hear my newborn crying, they fed, changed and bathed her when needed.

With my other 2, one an emergency and the next an elective, they were also very good although they did seem run off their feet. If my baby was crying they were quicker.
When I panicked at blood in the shower, they were great, clearing up and reassuring me at same time. Was slightly concerned at being discharged barely 48 hours after birth when my first stay had been 5 days.

On the whole though, great with the limited resources they have.

Try not to worry. Hope all goes well for you.

nosyhelen

If you want to be discharged the day after your section make sure that you tell them this when you get to the postnatal ward.
At my hospital there are certain things that they want you to have done before you can be discharged, like peeing a certain volume once the catheter is out, give baby a bath, so if you know what those targets are then you can make sure that you meet them. I remember gulping down loads of water so that I could be sure of peeing enough to satisfy them.
The other reason to tell them early on is so they get your name on the list for the baby checks that day, and if they need to order drugs from pharmacy for you they can get that done too.

I had a great experiance with post natal care - 5 days in hopsital, 1st 2 nights in my own room (husband was allowed to sleep over the first night), nurse generally came within 2-3 minutes of me buzzing,top quote from the night nurse "it's my job to make sure you leave here with your milk come through and your baby feeding well, if you even think there's a chance she might want to feed, ring and I'll come and help) was
helped to shower on first day (was desparate to as had been in labour for 36 hours prior to c-section...) pain refleif adequate, baby was a mixture of own crib and in my bed (when I asked if that was safe, the nurse grinned at me and pointed out that as I couldn't move without pain I was unlikely to roll on top of my baby!). Nappies regularly changed by nurses.

I had c-section in May in RAH. Post natal care much improved from previous one in 2006, at which time it was similar to all lot of the posts on here ie. left without much help, not allowed to buzz unless "emergency" etc, not to mention general uncleanliness. However, wards are currently being done up so was much improved. Also, didn't come across the midwives who made my stay pretty miserable first time round - maybe I just got lucky on that one though - was certainly looking out for them!

lahdida....in case there are more than one, which RAH did you have your section in? I had dd in RAH Paisley, Scotland 4 years ago and just wondered if it were the same hospital?

Hey NoseyHelen!

i had my ds by emergency section in the RAH in June. he was born at 0136. i found the care utterly fantastic! i went in on the Friday night and had Ds on the Sunday am. i had problems with bloods during ante-natal period and i found i was very well informed abut what to expect. also being a nurse i was super anxious about various things, such as having a section! i found the midwives in the labour suite a great support. i was in wd 31 post natal and the staff were very friendly and helpful when in came to BF. one night it was very quiet and the staff took our babies for a couple of hours so we could rest!! that was fab!!

i couldn't recommend the RAH highly enough, it has such a lovely feel to it, and it was VERY clean.

Who is your consultant?

just totally mis read your post NoseyHelen! obvioulsy your not having your baby in the RAH! mummy brain has taken over!!! ;-)

Mum2Taylor - it was the RAH in Paisley.

Hi Lib76, I am having mine in RAH in 2 weeks, under Dr Quinn.

So lovely to hear you had a good experience

did post briefly below and would hate anyone to be totally scared-and do not feel am in competition with other mums to see who had worst time. just wish we had been more prepared, ie what would happen exactly (or not) wish we had had a doula now as she would have been able to steer us through the cs and choices offered. additional to post below, the registrar advised we went for a particular procedure which the mw checked with another consultant- he was not on duty and we were lucky he was about. he was furious about the advice and said i would die if this went ahead he took over.
i did complain about the mw treatment before and after cs -taking baby away for instance and not coming back -other mums having to find her. being unable to walk and your newborn baby whisked off is terrifying.
response was not helpful and considering pnd very badly written. acas told me that was standard to stop complaints going further. i did write back and say was disgusted that they did not offer meeting with head mw or any birth truama groups. they did reply after that and offer.
medical negligence claim still in progress- not for me as didn;t die-cannot claim if no phyiscal injury- but for my son who was cut during surgery. it was NOT a panicked cs and hearing a surgeon say oops isn;t helpful.

however, some mw were great-3- and feel it is luck of draw. another time would have doula experienced in cs just in case and would be easier as know what might happen.

Some of these stories are so, so sad. I wish to God I had made an official complaint to the Royal Free at the time, but I didn't have the strength as I became quite ill after returning home from the hospital and eventually developed full blown PND to boot .

"So, what help have other people had?" Llareggub, as Dylan Thomas might say.

How often was your baby changed over night?
Once, by DH, before they asked him to go home!

How long did it take midwives to come when you called?
Ages!

Did they insist on putting the strip lighting on everytime they popped in?
Yes - though they didn't do much popping in - they only came (eventually) when I buzzed for them ...

Was baby in bed with you or in it's own crib?

In her crib at night. I had to buzz for a mw when she was crying; the mw told me to get up and fetch her myself as walking would be good for the wound (it didn't feel good 10 hours after surgery, believe me). That did make me cross!

Is it safe to have baby in bed with you after surgery?

My elective cs was mid-morning, and I spent the whole day with DD in bed. DH put her in the crib before he left in the evening.

Did they help you have a shower or bath (28 hrs after op.

No. They came in for the first time towards evening, and told me off for not having had a shower to remove the dressing. Yet following the operation, I had been told not to move until otherwise instructed!

Not a great experience, and particularly bad compared to the excellent care I received after the v nasty delivery of my first baby. My sense was that they had no time for elective sections, and particularly little time for people who were in the private rooms in the (NHS) hospital. They did come to help me, but only very reluctantly!

Fortunately I was not really bothered as it was baby number 2, and I felt better overall and more able to cope than I felt after number 1!

I had emergency c-section 7 mths ago the ward was so busy that I was put in the corner of the room with 5 other women where the wasn't even meant to be a bed. I had no curtains the only reason I had any kind of privacy was because of the curtains around the beds nex to mine. I have since been told that this is against regulations due to infection control. My visitors literally had to walk sideways around the bed there was so little room.
I was given no help with changing DS - managed to do it myself while still bed bound. Luckily I had been around babies before and just got on with this.

During the night the MWs came after about 5 mins of pressing the button but were so unhelpful - ended up in tears during the middle of the night as DS wouldn't latch on and was told by the MW that he could get jaundice if he didn't feed and felt pressurised into giving him formual which I felt so quilty about. DS was also crying a lot during the first night and it took me a long time to get him to sleep - which was with me in the bed. The MW came along and told me not to let him sleep in the bed as it was dangerous, picked him up and just plonked him straight back into the crib and of course he woke up. So had to ring the buzzer straight away so they could pick him back up fpr me!
I was lucky that the next day I had a really helpful midwife and managed to BF DS.

I think that the care during the day is better than at night. For me an emergency c-section knocked me for six - I found it so hard to get out of bed and needed a lot of help from my mum and DP. I was given a wash by an auxilary on the first day but after that it was down to me with lots of help from my mum.

I imagine that the lack of care is slighly easier to deal with after an elective c-section as you're not already completely exhausted and traumatised as I felt. But in any case the lack of care that so many people have experienced is completely unaceptable. Luckily they only keep you in for 48 hrs where I was - I was so glad to go home.

I had two babies by c-section in 2002 and 2004 at Chase Farm Hospital, and help was minimal. They took both away for a few hours overnight the first night, but after that you were on your own. I discharged myself after 48 hours the second time round because I knew I would have more help at home with DH there too. They called themselves a pro-breastfeeding unit too, which amounted to refusing to hold any truck with bottlefeeding (no facilities for sterilising etc.), but not helping with breastfeeding either - when I couldn't get DS to latch on the day after he was delivered (a Thursday) they reluctantly produced the breastfeeding specialist some hours later (after the paediatrician had insisted he had some formula meanwhile). The breastfeeding specialist looked at the sleeping baby, said, "Well, what do you expect me to do now?", and told me that the breastfeeding support group meets on a Wednesday and I could go to that if I wanted. Then she walked off. At that moment I realised I would have to bottlefeed as I had no clue what I was doing, and no-one to show me....and as if I could wait 6 days for the support group!!

Their other brilliant scheme there was to bring all the meals to some table miles away at the other end of the large ward, which I had no hope of being able to walk to just after major surgery. I couldn't work out what to do with the baby at mealtimes either, and wasn't up to pushing his cot that far. If DH hadn't brought me in cheese rolls I wouldn't have eaten anything at all in 2 days. It was a horrible experience. Never again!

WTH is wrong with postnatal wards? Reading this thread makes me really angry all over again. I thought I'd just been unlucky, but plainly not.

IT's very sad to hear all these bad reports. I thought the place I had my emcs was just bad luck, but it seems my second, elcs experience was actually a lucky break from the norm.

By meglet on Tue 05-Aug-08 13:29:40
Can this thread be sent to the NHS director of maternity services or something?

Really, a copy of this thread should also be sent to Lord Darzi and Allan Bennett wot with the politicking they have been up to on the MN Live Chat not so long ago.

I am not tempted to type 'wankers' but I won't.

I am now tempted...

hey Sherbetdipdap!

yeh RAH great! apart from food!! it's awful, take in your supplies! i was under Dr Hair he was just fantastic! although it was Dr Thompson who was oncall when i went into labour, he was also good. i have heard good things about Dr Quinn too. are you having a planned section?

Hi, yes I'm having an elective in 2 weeks, unless the contractions I've been having the past few days amount to anything.........

Can't remember much after 1st CS, but had mixed experiences after the 2nd one. First night, everything seemed fine so was moved to a low-maintenance ward away from the maternity unit. Had a CRAP MW who popped in once every few hours stinking of fags! I had to change my own catheter bag twice in middle of night!. And she missed that the baby was making breathing noises that meant he wasn't well... Can't remember what it's called now -- grunting?

A senior MW came in in the morning and sent DS2 straight up to SCBU, then I had to wait by myself for someone to push me in a wheelchair up there.

However, once back in the proper maternity ward it was fabulous - was in a tiny room with only 3 beds, MWs everywhere, loads of help, all very positive and reassuring and helpful and fab.

sherbetdipdab.

hope you have a positive experience like i did, despite it being an emergency.

keep an eye on those contractions!!! ;-)

if you want any other info about RAH, just let me know.

I had emcs in 2006 with ds1, got to the ward about 5am and was just left.
Dp came back at 8am and its lucky he was there as there was very little help with anything. I asked for help with getting a shower...i'm still waiting
I had to get up through the night for milk as i'd buzzed and asked for some and was told someone would come along with some...after 20 mins ds1 was screaming for some so i carried him to the nurses station and said i'd asked for milk 20 mins previous...i was shown where the milk was kept so i filled my pocket up with bottles so i didnt have 2 go back.
Slightly better in 2007 with ds2. I buzzed for the mw about 3 hours after cs to ask for some clean things out my bag 'you are allowed out of bed' was her response, which would have been fine had my legs not been numb