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 had to be induced due to babies heat rate dropping at that point I just wanted the safest possible Labour I could have. I was very glad for all the equipment etc when my dd got distressed and I ended up with an emergency c section. It was a private room cause what hospitals make you give birth in public?? It had a birthing ball and I was encouraged to try and live as much as I could with the monitoring and drip etc. If it's safer for the mother and baby I don't care what colour the walls are. I also got to play music although it wasn't whale music or harps it was heavy metal haha

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.

This is exactly the point. It's like showing women round a 5 star hotel and then telling them they have to stay in a scruffy B&B because their body has failed to be "low risk". I genuinely feel like I'm being punished for my failure to have a low risk birth.

It’s because consultant led units are more long standing as are the usual pn wards......they don’t have the money to change them.

Hospitals are finding they need to build MLUs to meet national recommendations on birthing provisions as per Better Births, etc. Because these are newer they are getting built to modern standards. Hospitals are also getting funding for MLUs and this is from a different pot so couldn’t be used to improve CLUs.

If a hospital is building a new labour ward or pn ward these days they do tend to be better. I certainly know quite a few newer ones with single rooms on the pn ward.

Hospitals are finding they need to build MLUs to meet national recommendations on birthing provisions as per Better Births

So high risk women aren't entitled to those same recommended birthing provisions?

It's like a tour of 'this is what you could have won'

Tbf I was in the brand new maternity HDU last time and it was super New, clean and I had an ensuite room to myself. (All you need to be to access it is to be seriously unwell)! No nice lighting or pictures but all the oxygen I could want.

I know they’d love it if I’d give birth at home this time, although I don’t want to, because it’s cheaper for the NHS and my One to One Midwife would do the birth, and they’ve done the scans too so I could go through this entire thing without setting foot in the hospital or Midwife unit. It’s been mentioned that I am a great candidate for it a few times. But I know how long Ambulences can take around here (hours) and I am actually reassured by the closeness of medical professionals. So MLU it is as I am low risk. With so many births still needing to be in hospital I’d hope they can look at incorporating more of the MLU bells and whistles into the birthing suites. As you say it’s not any woman’s fault that they can’t go to a MLU.

OP I’m sorry you’re disappointed not to be able to use a MLU but you are going to get first rate, free at point of service obstetric care to ensure that despite that risk, you and baby will come through the birth safely. I can’t feel that sorry for you that the decor won’t be to your taste. Where do you propose the NHS cut funding in order to pay to revamp all the labour wards?

The hospital I’m giving birth at the MLU isn’t that nice anyway - nothing like a 5 Star Hotel. A travelodge maybe. I don’t really care.

bellamerte. That’s not what I’m saying at all. Maybe you should read Better Births report?

What I’m saying is that for years hospitals have had CLUs so they’re established, old, creaky wards in many cases. A recent report has come out saying that trusts which don’t have an MLU need to sort this out, so many trusts are very recently building them. If they had to build a new CLU for whatever reason I’m sure it would be nicer.

OP,

Genuine question. Would you rather give birth in a pretty place and risk a disaster to you and/or your beautiful child, or give birth in the safest environment possible for you and/or your child?

I understand your disappointment totally, I was desperate for a water birth both times. I was on track for one for sure with second born, until her reduced movements. I can honestly say at that point I didn't give a flying pig about where I gave birth. I just wanted her to survive. I would've had her in the car park if they had told me it was the safest option.

Not saying the NHS can afford to revamp the wards. But the emphasis on how amazing the new MLUs are and how they meet current Better Birth guidelines etc is making women feel distressed when they are classified as high risk and the facilities are not up to those highly praised standards.

Funding should be split equally between new MLUs and revamping older wards. Perhaps if they can't meet birth provision guidelines for all women then they should aim for equality instead of improving provision for low risk women and offering no improvements for high risk women?

I would be happy if hospitals provided trhe same standard across the country - some others on this board tell of NHS hospitals with individual rooms and en suite bathrooms. My hospital was a shit hole.

I'm also a high risk pregnancy and am under no illusion that I'm being shunted into the birth that's easiest for the NHS staff. The medical condition I have is not of my making but I'm being penalised for it. Can I have a home birth? No Can I go to the nice midwife led unit? No Can I use a birth pool? No. So there is nothing nice available to high risk mothers. Ooh I might get a bath, but only until your waters break then we'll take that off you as well.

"Do whatever they need you to do to get your baby and be grateful" isn't on but it is what high risk mothers get dumped on them. I agree with you OP. It sucks.

I got to experience both the MLU and the labour ward, can't say either was particularly fabulous. In the MLU they kept trying to make me get in the pool (I didn't want) and we could either have no music or an 80s radio station. The labour ward room was tiny and institutional feeling.

However I'd rather they invested money on the postnatal wards personally. Being the only person on a shared ward with no baby was absolute torture and definitely contributed to my massive mental health breakdown (he was in NICU). Due to unfortunate personal circumstances, I can't sleep in environments I don't perceive as safe like shared wards and obviously DH couldn't stay because it was a shared ward. I had very little sleep for a week and it showed.

Bellamuerte the NHS hasn’t spent money to just make the rooms ‘look’ nice - they’re there to encourage and facilitate women to be more active in labour, which produces better outcomes for mother and baby. The fact that they gave them a lick of paint whilst installing the birth pool is a happy bonus!

Paint and a bath isnt expensive. They look better but they arent better.

The older wards contain hundreds of thousands of pounds of equipment which will be replaced and updated. You're getting a more expensive facility with world class care and I am truly sorry you feel you are being punished in having that free at the point of delivery.

The only reason you are in the hospital in the first place is to have your baby. You're not checking into a hotel for the week or paying for a spa retreat, you're going there to deliver your baby safely. There are women on here who can't have babies or have had awful outcomes and others are moaning that they don't get the best room. You are literally there to have your baby and go home. Id give birth in a corridor if there was someone there to make sure my baby was safe. It really doesn't matter what colour your room is or whether you've got a bloody tv, your baby is surely the most important thing? The NHS is under enough strain without people moaning that the decor needs updating or they've not got a top of the range hospital bed.

Our local MW led unit is in an old hospital and really tatty and run down looking. Our local maternity unit is new and custom built.

I think you are generalising from your own personal experience. The NHS doesn't have a bottomless pit of money to make everything look nice. Because they've spent it all playing trains

But the guidelines don’t say there need to be single rooms, WiFi, etc.

Recently many trusts (and some still currently don’t) didn’t have any low risk facilities at all. They’ve been told they really should have them so this is why money is being spent here. It isn’t a case of upgrading one or the other because in many trusts there hasn’t been an other. If they upgraded the CLUs there wouldn’t be money to build the MLUs.

Blame the govt if you wish but in today’s nhs funding crisis I don’t think you can blame the trusts. Many are doing what they can but it will never be as good. I think most CLUs will have stuff like aromatherapy, comfier chairs, bean bags, etc. But it’s doubtful they’re able to improve the actual physical layout of the wards so no single rooms, not as many pools, etc.

I guess if the govt gave them all a few £million they’d love to do it. Our local trust is £65million in debt and we don’t have an MLU at all so at least everyone can be in the shit heap of the CLU together.