Midwife gifts

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I've just had my baby and my stay in hospital has been longer than expected, more complicated (now on 3rd ward) and the care has been much better than I anticipated. My tub of Quality Street seems a bit inadequate now. Any suggestions on other gifts for midwives? Do I give individually or to a team (they seem to move between departments). Are there any rules on what can be accepted?

Congratulations on your new baby Testing !
Sorry to hear you've been in hospital for a while though .
I Hope you will be home with your new baby soon !
How about adding to your chocolates with some nice biscuits & cakes etc? Things that can be kept in the staff room for when they have break ?
Depending how much you want to spend you could make up a sort of mini hamper with nice tea bags etc ?

I second the biscuits and tea idea. Choose some fancy tea and coffee and decent biscuits. They'll make a change from the chocolates and make a good breaktime.

We did exactly as suggested, after a longish hospital stay with DC1. A hamper with teas, hot chocolate, coffees, biscuits and nibbles. I figured that the midwives could either use it at work, or split it up and take it home if that suited them better.

Writing as a nurse, you will probably find that the midwives aren't allowed to accept gifts on an individual basis. However in my experience food gifts and a thank you card for the team as a whole are always much appreciated. Hope you get out of hospital soon. xx

Thanks everyone!

Yes there are rules, they can not accept anything over the value of £10. I would buy for the team rather than individually as this keeps team moral high and benefits every one in the long run. Very occasionally people would buy one gift for every member of the team, but this could run into the £hundreds, and be sure to speak to the lead midwife to make sure she gives you an accurate number of staff as leaving some one out would be awful.

Personally I think the tea/coffee/sugar/biscuits hamper is a great idea, if you wanted to spend more than the £10 you'd get away with it this way as each item is individually low value, it would be easy to get around the value thing if there's a jobs worth 'gift value watcher' as you could tongue in cheek give an item to each midwife and they'd understand what you were trying to do.

:)

It's a shame there's so much politics/rules involved but I'm not very surprised.

This is my 3rd baby and with the previous 2 I always pyt in a gift box of L'Occitane Hand creams (usually from qvc) always VERY well received because their hands get soo dry andall the staff on the ward can benefit.

I would write a detailed thank you note as well with particular things that you have appreciated. I did this for my MW for my home birth and she said it was wonderful, partly because it is nice to be appreciated but also because it could go into her folder for appraisals, etc. I got a bunch of flowers too.

My labour ward is opposite a Costa and all the MW and docs go in there... would a voucher for the whole team be OK or breaking the rules? It would be 1 item but we'll over £10 but intended for a coffee "run" for all?

A personal note with picture of your baby is a great one to keep. A goodie hamper for the team is also a really nice idea, even better with some healthier stuff like rice or oat cakes and hummus and different cheeses rather than chocolate. I have never heard of anyone being 'done' for accepting an expensive gift but the rules are there and money and alcohol in particular can have your colleagues raising their eyebrows.

Forgot to add, I took in a box of Krispy Kremes and wrote an official thank you and commendation regarding the junior nurses who cared for me when I had a difficult miscarriage in the past. Having it written down is what really makes a difference especially for more junior staff (the old battle axes they already know inside out).

I like the hand cream idea, I think I've had L'Occitane anti bacterial hand gel in the past. I was in hospital for quite a few days, will have to see if I can identify midwives from my notes.