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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

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Original poster

Do they take your baby away at night in the hosp?

47 replies

MillyStar · 05/02/2012 16:50

my mum has just terrified me and said when she had me and my brothers we were Put in the nursery at night and just the mums slept on the ward!

Please tell me they don't do this anymore there's no way I'm being separated from my baby girl ;(

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Dirtydishesmakemesad · 05/02/2012 17:41

They dont take them unless you cannot look after them - even then they try to keep them with you and help at your bed in my experience. The only time I have ever been apart from one of mine was for about 20 mins when she needed to go for tests as she was grunting - If i was more with it i could have gone but at the time they didnt realy have time to faff with me staggering down the corridor so (with my blessing) they whisked her off and brought her back 20 mins later :).

Dirtydishesmakemesad · 05/02/2012 17:42

Oh also maybe just my experience but everyone has always been very respectful of the baby - pretty much everything they do they ask first i.e "is it ok to just take her temp" or " can i just pick her up" I have often wondered what would happen if you said no though lol.

suburbandream · 05/02/2012 17:44

ha ha, no such luck ! MIL was a midwife in the 50s and was horrified when I told her the baby stayed with me and we went home the very next day. In her day they kept mum and baby in for 14 days as a matter of course and the babies stayed in the nursery and were brought to the mums at four hourly intervals for feeding, and for showing them how to bathe them etc!

Abcinthia · 05/02/2012 17:47

They offered with DD because it was the middle of the night, DD was wide awake (she'd been fed and changed) and I was exhaused. I said yes and they took her to the station and bought her back about 5-6 hours later when she was hungry. The rest of the time she'd been in a small cot next to the bed.

cerys74 · 05/02/2012 17:50

They offered to take my DS for settling on the 3rd night I was in hospital, since he was screaming his head off and I think I looked a bit demented from lack of sleep! We were already having to combo feed so he was fine with bottle. I was pretty much unconscious 1 minute later, slept for 3 hours, lurched out of bed in a panic when I couldn't see DS and marched to nurses' station to confirm he was there (of course he was). Got another 3 hours sleep after that, which was very very welcome. Basically they will only take baby off you if you are happy with it, it's certainly not enforced and generally I think mums are grateful for the opportunity to get some lovely sleep :)

PattiMayor · 05/02/2012 17:50

A lovely midwife offered to take DS for a few hours in the night so that I (and the rest of the hospital) could get some sleep. Blissful :o

thegirlwiththehairylegs · 05/02/2012 17:59

If only!

Flibbertyjibbet · 05/02/2012 18:02

A good (older) friend of mine and I were pregnant at the same time in 2004. Her first two were born in 1987 and 88.

I will never forget her shock when she came back from the mw appt after she'd filled in her birth plan. Including, when asked about keeping the baby with her all the time, she'd put 'baby in nursery please to be brought to me for feeds'.

The mw explained that this means that if the hearing test people come or baby has to go for any tests (mine did), do you want to go with baby, or can nursing staff take the baby for tests etc without you. That sort of thing!

Petrean · 05/02/2012 18:06

The baby stays beside you... I have to say though that a midwife took my baby away for a short while because I'd just had a failed induction and an emergency c section and they thought I needed rest. Turns out a young registrar spent an hour walking him up and down the corridor and then he was in a cot near the midwives station. I felt awful in the morning for not batting an eyelid when they took my hours old baby away but I genuinely did need the rest.

GwendolineMaryLacey · 05/02/2012 18:12

I bloody wish. I hadn't slept for three days and they still didn't offer.

eatyourveg · 05/02/2012 18:34

when ds1 was born 18 yrs ago they had a sort of triage of post natal wards. scbu where you are obviously not with your child, the usual post natal ward where your baby stayed with you all the time and then there was a half way house ward where those who weren't poorly enough for scbu but needed an extra eye kept on them went.

I was on the half way house ward and the babies were kept in the nursery next to the nurses room but you could bring them out to be by your bed for a few hours during the day if they were up to it (ds1 wasn't as the temperature on the ward was not warm enough and he was very very small) It was a really good place with high levels of staff who were really supportive but unfortuanetly it was closed by the time ds2 was born 2 yrs later. He went to scbu and ds3 went to the usual post natal so I've experienced all 3 types of ward with my dc. The half way house was by far the loveliest.

Can't imagine many hospitals can afford to run a system like it these days so you'll probably be with your baby.

faintpinkline · 05/02/2012 19:38

They took dd around 3am after she'd refused to sleep. They said I was clearly exhausted and they were taking her to nurses station and had to rest. About 2 hours later they came back with her swaddled and calm and showed me how to feed her while lying down and there we both stayed cuddled up until breakfast. I felt so grateful for those 2 hours sleep. When I argued that if they took her I was failing lovely no nonsense midwife told me not to be ridiculous and that I would have been taken from my mum all night for 10 nights while she was in hospital.

smileyhappymummy · 09/02/2012 22:38

I wish! Well, dd wasn't with me for the first two nights - she was in scbu and I was in itu so didn't exactly get much sleep anyway. After that back on postnatal ward she cried every time I put her down all night. I remember sitting in bed trying to breastfeeding her pinching myself and slapping my face because I was falling asleep and was terrified of smothering my new baby.
Told them that and they still didn't take her.

riamay2011 · 09/02/2012 22:46

I delivered at 35 weeks was in hospital for a week after. DD was feeding every hour and it caught up with me. One day the midwife came to see me and said i looked awful, and offered to take DD for a few hours so i could sleep. Lasted all of 40 mins :(
X

heliumballoon · 09/02/2012 22:55

They definitely didn't take them away in my experience. I remember at one point I was having visual hallucinations as had not slept even 1 hr in days (literally). Plus strong drugs for pain relief of sutures and was not eating. I asked for help to get baby out of fishtank and was asked if I had a problem with my legs, as all mothers were responsible for the care of their babies.
This was 2 weeks ago. I would have paid a princes ransom for someone to change a nappy and jiggle baby for 30 mins so I could sleep.

riamay2011 · 09/02/2012 23:00

Omg i feel like i received royal treatment....has no one experienced this?
My midwifes were great x

UmmOfUmbridge · 09/02/2012 23:06

I've had 5 and with DS (16 years ago) they took him away for me, I was very young (16) and had a 3 day induced labour so I could barely function. They took pity on me and took him for the whole night!! In the morning I remember vividly waking up, feeling alive and asking the midwife 'can I have my baby please' :) I was so grateful and it was probably the last full night's sleep I had for 2 years!

They also took one of my girls, can't remember which but they were quiet and I'd laboured overnight the night before so had no sleep and she was screaming and wouldn't stop. I 'only' got a couple of hours because I was breast feeding but I almost bit their hand off!

ShowOfUmblestAnds · 09/02/2012 23:10

Not only did they not take dd or ds, they stayed in bed with me the entire time. They positively encouraged co-sleeping with the bfing mums, showed you how to do it safely etc. DS is only 23wo and those few days post emcs tucked up with him and feeling all safe and cared for were some of the happiest days of my life. Only downside was desperately, desperately missing my eldest.

Alibabaandthe40nappies · 09/02/2012 23:15

Showy that made me smile :)

DS2 slept on me in a 'baby splat' for his first days while we were in hospital. It was lovely, but yes I missed DS1 so, so horribly. And then when he came to visit us with my Mum he seemed so gigantic!

AuntLucyInPeru · 09/02/2012 23:17

With DS1 on an NHS ward, no, and I didn't want them to. With DD1 on a private ward, yes, and I was extremely grateful to be able to get a couple of night's sleep with her brought in for feeds.

Alligatorpie · 10/02/2012 04:34

In the days that they took your baby away to the nursery, new moms stayed in the hospital for 10 days to adjust to the new baby..... Well my mom did in Canada anyway!

nooka · 10/02/2012 06:12

I had ds on me pretty much permanently in hospital, as I'd had a c-section and was a bit worried that if I put him in the bassinet I'd never be able to fish him out again! Wit dd I put her in the bassinet by my bed because I knew that the more I moved around the quicker I'd be able to leave (I hate hospitals even though I've spent a good few years working in one). No one ever suggested taking either of them away - there isn't really the space or the manpower to be looking after babies separately.

My mother had my brother and sister at home with a maternity nurse for ten days, now that's luxury!

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