AIBU to think hospitals should offer similar facilities to all women?

[Bellamuerte]

I've read several threads from pregnant ladies whose hospitals have invested in brand new midwife centres with all mod cons - big private rooms, pools, mood lighting, wifi, flat screen tvs, ensuite bathrooms, sofa beds for guests, kitchen facilities, etc. The hospitals offer tours of these facilities and ooh and ahh over how wonderful they are. Then these ladies are upset because for whatever reason (being high risk, being induced, etc) they're being denied the use of these excellent rooms and allocated to a tatty ward or delivery suite which isn't as modern and lacks the same facilities.

AIBU to think that hospitals should be providing a similar standard of facilities to everyone regardless of whether they're high or low risk? It seems unfair that the best facilities are only available for women who are classed as low risk. It's like they're dangling a carrot in front of women and then snatching it away when their bodies fail to perform by giving birth naturally.

I'm sure if the NHS had an endless pot of money they would offer it to everyone. Its about safety of the mum and baby during delivery and whats practical. It would be ideal for every woman to have their own private room before during and after labour but the money is spent on things like life saving drugs and staff to deliver your baby

But the rooms are already available and in many cases sitting empty - the hospital is just preventing women from using them unless they're classed as low risk.

They want to encourage you to have the cheaper midwife led birth so they offer the bonus of a lovely room. They're just trying to save some money.

I have to be consultant led (twins) and have no choice like lots of high risk mums, but I still understand.

I might be wrong but I thought medically if you’re high risk you need to be on a labour ward, so that there are the doctors and medical supplies nearby? It isn’t just the decor that’s different.

If you are at high risk the priority is to have the right equipment/staff/space around you to safely deliver your baby. The last thing the doctors need in an emergency birth is mood lighting and room taken up by a pool when they need emergency equipment in there. It might not seem fair but if you're high risk surely your priority is safely delivering your baby, wifi and flat screen tvs really are irrelevant in the grand scheme of things

I ended up in a regular labour ward, they had sofa beds in there too, the room had an en suite bathroom and did the job.

Yes I’d have loved the all singing all dancing room with the birthing pool but I couldn’t have used the pool.

I didn’t think the room I gave birth in was worse than the midwife lead birthing unit, it had a different focus, to ensure all medical equipment was on hand. It was clean and shiny as the birthing unit rooms.

I was induced and got the use of the midwifery suite, it was lovely. I never knew these rooms existed.

I then had to walk down the corridor to the labour suite as I was very dehydrated and it was messing with mine and baby's HR so i had to get drip and be monitored. All the correct equipment was down there, that was my main concern.

Ps I was able to go back to midwifery suite for the night with my husband.

The NHS’s priority is the health and safety of mothers and babies. ‘Pretty’ and ‘modern’ resources kinda take a back seat.

It would be exactly the same privately by the way - if the baby needs monitoring it needs monitoring.

I think you’re being a bit ridiculous or possibly naive. Do you really think the nhs is being unfair by doing their best to keep people safe? ‘Best’ facilities for one Mum are not the best for another.

I was induced thus in a labour ward, you’re moved to a private room though you don’t stay on a ward to give birth. Id have loved better facilities in theory, but once you’re in labour you really don’t care... I could have been birthing in a muddy tent for all I cared at the time. Managed to get in a bath in my first labour and the second one was still a better experience. Third and last pregnancy right now and I really don’t care as long as everything goes smoothly

I personally was a bit cross that I ended up being induced in a mlu. The lovely room with the sofa bed and purple walls was of no interest to me , I wanted the labour ward with the doctors and the drugs. There was no space there though and I was 14 days overdue.

I think women should stop and think about what is safer for them , nicely painted walls or an old labour ward with doctors.

In my experience you’d only be on a ward at the start of being induced then move to a private room when actually in labour which is mainly because it can take a long time for labour to get going so it’d be a waste of a private room.
I’ve been to 4 different high risk delivery suites in the southwest and they all had all the things you mention apart from the pool, mood lighting and sofa bed which would be useless in those scenarios

The main reason for me choosing an MLU was because I really didn’t want to go on a ward, I wanted my own room. I was lucky and went into labour naturally so I got to use the MLU. If the labour ward and delivery suite (only one flight of stairs from the MLU) had been able to guarantee me my own room I’d have chosen to go there. The problem you have is if both are the same why would people choose an MLU. There needs to be a selling point for it for people to opt for it.

MLU = nice and pretty - designed to be as close to a home birth as possible while in hospital - aimed at keeping mum happy.

Labour ward - functional, bright lights, theatre close by, equipment trolleys with emergency bits, and lots of staff around - aimed at safety and function for staff dealing with emergencies.

Different jobs, different looks.

Having been in both the pretty room and the ugly room, I'd much rather take the delivery suite ugly room thanks. It's where the doctor's and serious equipment is.

I don't care how nice my surroundings are. I care about the level of care.

I think the difference, as others have pointed out, is the equipment etc.

If you are high risk chances are you'll be hooked up to monitoring and not able to move (or may have an epidural with the same effect) and a pool is no longer an option. And why give you a huge room with a sofa if you, the labouring lady, can't use it. As for a kitchen etc, the ward staff can bring you whatever you need so I don't see the point in either a labour ward or MLU. The lighting effects etc are okay for low risk as they're less likely to need bright lights to see things - whereas for high risk pregnancies/inductions, they need to see monitoring equipment etc. Plus the use of music may drown out some equipment alarms which staff would need to hear in case of an emergency.

I think they try to make the birth experience as nice as they can for everyone, but for practical reasons it's just not possible.

Ps at my local hospital there's very little difference between MLU and the delivery suite except for less equipment in MLU.

Was induced with daughter in 2014 on ward and next day I had my own labour room with ensuite and equipment in it. This time round will be same and I'm fine with that.

Wifi available in all hospitals anyway but I was too busy pushing to need YouTube lol

I don’t understand why people are referring to their own rooms. Nobody labours in public Well except super fast car park lsbours

Never understood why people are so concerned with birthing with singing mermaids around them playing violins and sprinkling magical happy dust. It’s labour and birth and who cares?! You can’t see 5cm in front of your face when you’re sweating like a madman and trying to push an actual human out of your vagina - No amount of dipped lighting and birthing balls will change that

Today 10:37BigBaboonBum

Never understood why people are so concerned with birthing with singing mermaids around them playing violins and sprinkling magical happy dust. It’s labour and birth and who cares?! You can’t see 5cm in front of your face when you’re sweating like a madman and trying to push an actual human out of your vagina - No amount of dipped lighting and birthing balls will change that

Haha! Correct

I think the whole Midwife led unit thing is way oversold to the point where people are in genuine distress at the thought of not going into one, saying they’ll refuse induction, defy doctors etc to not go to the hospital. It’s a dangerous narrative. There must be a halfway between promoting that you can have a natural birth without pretending it’s so easy and you don’t want to be around those awful doctors with their snapping forceps. Birth is hard and dangerous and it used to kill a LOT of women. I’m planning on going to a MLU to have DC2 as I did with DS1, but I tell you when he got stuck and his heart rate started dropping, I didn’t care about the doctors who swooped in to take me to theatre and help ventouse him out! I’ll always remember the male doctor who help my hand while I was on the table and told me I was doing so well and this was so normal as I sobbed about my failure. He was nicer to me than any Midwife had been (come on everyone does this it’s easy just push harder etc).

I think the whole Midwife led unit thing is way oversold to the point where people are in genuine distress at the thought of not going into one

It's this whole natural birth / female empowerment / earth mother movement. Women rebelling against interventions and doctors with forceps because they've been sold a rosy picture of natural labour by people like Ina May Gaskin and documentaries like Ricki Lake's "Business of Being Born". How birth can be a spiritual experience and you need pools and candles and low lights because the nasty bright hospital environment will lead to you not releasing the correct hormones etc. Women are in genuine distress because of not having access to the softly lit room with meditative music that they've been told they need.

It's a very odd one.

People in privileged first world countries throw off the modern treatments as unnatural.

You have people in the 3rd world countries dying in pregnancy and child birth from perfectly treatable conditions. Women in the first world moaning they dont want induction, forceps, any intervention that is actually designed to keep them and their baby safe and alive.

Children in the 3rd world dying of preventable illness and I've seen crazy antivaxers on here refusing childhood vaccinations.

People in the third world dying from drinking dirty water and unpasteurised milk. People in the first world developing a trend for raw milk and water.

It is somehow trendy and cool to be throwing off modern technology and intervention whereas in actual fact living without it is a miserable and dangerous existence.

How about the nhs doesnt waste money on violin playing mermaids and people get the care they need rather than want.

I can see both sides of this. I had a deeply shitty first pregnancy that did not result in a baby to take home after terribly traumatic labour. This pregnancy is much better but still high risk. It's a miserable and frightening time as well as being a gift.

There's actually a decent chance of me having a 'natural' delivery this time but needless to say I'll be consultant led, no matter what happens, and after my extremely traumatic birth in a windowless, tatty consultant led 'birth suite' which had a flat birthing ball and broken rocking chair I was hoping to use the midwife led unit where there are lots of things that I would like to have around me (not least my husband at all times to support me with my severe PTSD). The MW led floor also boasts the absence of lots of things that trigger flashbacks and, I'm sure, make lots of other women feel uncomfortable at a vulnerable time. I am disappointed and worried about how I will cope.

I would not change my fist labour for the world because when my premature daughter arrived tens of doctors were there ready and waiting and they did an amazing job of giving her every chance possible. What pisses me off is not the fact that I will, of course, be consultant led this time, but the fact that there is a choice of home away from home, private room complete with DH (overnight with a double bed for us) and one-to-one MW during labour or the shitty (and it was shitty) consultant led birth unit. And then the hot, noisy, dirty post-natal ward to look forward to after.

Surely there is a middle ground to be had here? MW led units in some hospitals are worlds away from the consultant led section (two that I have experienced so far), to the extent that the bit with the doctors and equipment that I want the instant my precious little girl needs them has become all about 'high risk' with not enough thought given to the welfare of women who need, choose or just plain have to use them. I understand only too well that these areas of the hospital have to be properly equipped. But I also think that they could be a lot, lot better and can't help but wondering if it might be better all round to have everyone labour somewhere that is safe and comfortable with whatever mod-cons are affordable and sensible, if that particular trust can genuinely not afford decent facilities for both MW led units and consultant led areas.

I just think that high-risk women and those who choose consultant led care for birth are being let down in some hospitals. If this is happening because the MW led units are cheaper to run, then that is disgusting.

Our cancer survival rates are some of the worst in Europe.

Id rather funding was put into this rather than alternative therapy for labour and birth pools.