Are Bounty reps on maternity wards still a thing?

[PirateWeasel]

I saw a thread on AIBU from 2016 talking about this and how awful it is, and I wondered if it still happens? None of my friends who've had babies recently have mentioned it so perhaps it's dying out or banned now? It flipping should be banned if it isn't - I couldn't get over the cheek of it when I first read about it in that thread!

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/12/companies-emmas-diary-pregnant-women-new-mothers
There is an article about it today in the Guardian.

I had horrific births after late losses. It wasn't a problem to say no thank you. Money goes towards the hospital. I found it much more intrusive having other people's partners hanging round all day in communal wards.

It remains a strong memory 2.5 years later - have never felt preyed upon with my husband and midwives so close by. Horrible.

I can't stand bounty and told the midwives that. In my hospital there is a birthing unit on site so low risk women are encouraged to go there. Quick discharge straight from the Labour ward is also encouraged for mums and babies who have had no complications so the vast majority of women on the postnatal ward have had surgery, forceps or their babies are poorly. Everyone is vulnerable and hormonal, many are traumatised. On no other ward would it be acceptable to do this.

We had one open the curtain without announcing herself just as I was trying very unsuccessfully to breastfeed. It was a really stressful time and I hadn’t slept for 36 hours, so didn’t exactly give a shit about some free nappy cream. We have a professional photographer in the family so didn’t want any photos, yet she kept bugging us, saying she specialised in newborn pictures and we’d be missing out. Bugger off! They really shouldn’t be allowed to do rounds like that. Just give them a stall somewhere and if you want to book a time for photos, you can go to them and arrange it.

Doesn’t surprise me about Emma’s Diary. I deliberately misspelt my name when I signed up with them and for years I had an endless stream of junk mail about life insurance, photos, local baby classes etc. They sell your data to everyone local and national it seems. And the packs are shit.

I had horrific births after late losses. It wasn't a problem to say no thank you

Like I say, you might have had a positive experience but others have been exploited. Your positive review can't outweigh that.

I bought photos from the bounty women in December. I did it on the ward, where I had been for three days. I was so in love with my new baby and high as a kite on meds from my traumatic c/s. The photos are lovely but seriously not worth the £200!!!! I could have taken better ones myself

chocolatecofferaddict they do flog photos like that. I was still in my night dress, in my bed, hardly able to move!

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/jul/12/companies-emmas-diary-pregnant-women-new-mothers

Excellent article on precisely this issue in the Guardian today.

@pinkcrystal- I'm very sorry to hear about your losses.

I think it depends on the particular rep you get, as mine literally would not take no for an answer. I'm pretty assertive but I basically had to tell them to fuck off in order to make them leave. I feel very strongly that a hospital ward is not the place for this kind of service.

I think the negative experiences written here far outweigh the few positive ones PinkCrystal. I think that speaks volumes.
Out of interest, what freebies did you get that were so great? I got a couple of nappies and a tiny pack of wipes, which I would hardly call a worthwhile haul for giving away personal information!

@WhirlingTurkey there was a load of Argos discount vouchers when I signed up. About £200 worth assuming you used them all, then nappies, wipes, cream, washing powder and other random bits. I think most people don't bother looking at the T&Cs though so don't think too much about what happens with their info.

@Hidcat - I guess the content varies over time too. I don't remember if I even looked at the vouchers, but I had a rough few months after my baby was born, so it wasn't high on my priority list. I guess worthwhile if the vouchers are for something you need then! I will still be declining their time around.

@babybrainusedtobesmart The photos cost £200??? Wowzers! That's pure insanity. I'm shocked by some of these stories. So grateful to have found out about it before I go in to give birth soon!

I had the photos taken with both my children, most recently in May this year. She was really nice, didn’t push us to buy anything, I just asked for the card with my reference to get the freebie wallet photo online. I gave my less used email address. Two other ladies on the ward said they didn’t want it and she went.

No sales reps should be allowed on hospital wards regardless of how nice or useful they are.

It's no shock though that new mothers are allowed to be targeted in a way no other patients would be. Imagine the outcry if reps went onto an oncology ward, for example, to get patients having chemo to sign up for free samples

It was a relatively benign thing when I had my two a couple of decades ago - a Bounty Box (think it might actually have been a bag) with nappy samples in different sizes, some mini sudocreme and baby bath bottles etc plus a whole load of discount vouchers that didn’t require you to give any info ( such innocent marketing days). There had been a lot of concern at the time about formula samples so they had discontinued including them.

Sounds like it degenerated into an exploitive hard sell scheme that the NHS should not be party to.