Honestly, how bad are postnatal wards?

[Floopyandtired]

I’m due to have a planned section with my second DS on Friday. With my first birth I was lucky enough to get (I.e. paid an arm and a leg for!) a private room so I never experienced the postnatal ward. However my midwife says the hospital is really busy at the moment and there aren’t many private postnatal rooms available so I’ll likely be spending my time on the ward after the c section. To be honest I’m really nervous. I don’t mind sharing space with others but I do worry about my baby screaming and disturbing others. I’ve also developed a horrible snore during pregnancy and don’t want to keep others up by snoring like a jumbo jet. I’m also anxious that with partners not being able to stay I’ll find it mentally really tough.

My last birth was pre Covid, but it was fine. Yes it’s warm and yes, sleep isn’t great... but that’s the same of absolutely every hospital ward to be honest.
Partners were allowed to stay on our ward - and we just had 4 beds in the bay. I would say, it all depends on the other people in the bay to what your experience will be like... but at the end of the day, it’s only a very short period of time and everyone just wants to get home, so usually there is some bonding over shared imprisonment 😉🤣

I had my son 6 months pre covid and it was pretty grim. I was in three nights as baby refused to feed luckily husband was allowed to stay which I'm so grateful for, but had one night at home to catch up on sleep. I honestly don't know how I'll cope staying on one without my husband if rules don't change, the night without him was absolutely awful. As my baby wasn't feeding, he spent most the night screaming and the midwives really didn't care. I felt awful for the other parents! Lots of other parents snoring too and personal lamps on all night due to night feeds.
We kept the curtains shut most of the time as we were trying to breastfeed and I found the midwives would walk in and leave the curtains wide open even though I was topless.
On another note, I'm due in September and still plan on staying until we establish breastfeeding, there is no way I'd have managed to breastfeed if we hadn't stayed. Some of the midwives were absolutely fantastic and although you often had to wait a few hours for help, it was worth it.

Bad bad bad in my experience. Hospitals around me don't have rooms u can pay for.

I had an emcs with my first born and stayed 6 days 5 nights due to infection. We had to wait for her for levels to come down and I wasn't very unwell myself. They wld wake us both up every few hrs for temp and blood pressure checks not that I was sleeping anyway. Often my baby wld finally be sleeping and someone else's would be awake crying. Well there's a chance with 4 women and 4 babies in a ward! U wld often just finally drift off and they'd come wake u up for BP check.

They also used to bring folk in to the ward in the middle of the night and then put the lights on to start showing them how to breastfeed at 4am. I was just a sleep deprived mess. Maybe it's ok for a night but oh it was hard going for 5 bloody nights!

Honestly it's like a fucking circus! The midwives also make no attempt to keep their voices down at night and u can hear the phones ringing too.

I had to beg and cry for pain relief as they told me after my emcs all I was allowed was paracetamol and ibuprofen. By day 3 I was crying with the pain and suddenly they said they wld call doctor for pain relief 😮

There were a couple of nice midwives who wld take baby away for an hour or 2 to let me get a little sleep. One in particular was so nice and it was so much better if she was on the night shift. One time she took my dd away and gave her a bath to calm her down as she wldnt stop crying.

The one positive thing I will say though is that I got a lot of breast feeding support while in hospital.

Second time around I stayed 1 night after yet another emcs even went home with a catheter in as I was that desperate to get out of there!

DS was born around 7pm. Had another bahy in the room that was crying all night. When the midwife took her out for a bit the mum passed out and was snoring like crazy. I packed my bags before 7am and had DH pick me up. They wanted to keep me for a paediatrician exam? But i just made an appointment and went back with DS later that day. Luckily it was a normal birth with no complications and i had no reason to stay.
With DD i was by myself until the next day. When they put someone in my room by lunch time i packed my stuff so quickly and left :)
I only stayed one night with each of them.

Awful! Constant babies crying (not mine of course 🤪). I wanted to discharge myself after 1 night as I couldn't cope but they wanted me to stay (baby was fine but I had a few bladder issues) and they offered me a private room and it was bliss for 2 nights!

I had a private room first time round but the second time round couldn't really justify the cost. I actually preferred being on the ward, it was easier to get the midwives attention and I didn't feel so isolated. Partners couldn't stay but mine needed to be with my eldest. I snore,no one complained directly to me!

Thanks everyone, I appreciate the honesty - both good and bad! I think I’ve bigged up the experience in my head to be so awful that I’m hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Hopefully all being well I can go home the next day as it sounds like one night is manageable but any more than that can be tricky

I liked it, during non visiting times. Having people's entire families crowding in and practically sitting on my bed through the curtain and being loud and annoying was the worst. Also FaceTime should be banned. Other than that it's nice to be around other women in the same situation.

I’m dreading it - have a planned CS coming up soon, though I’m actually glad there is no 24/7 visiting as I’d hate other people’s partners being there all night adding to the noise.

My stay was fine, except being in the corner bay so having barely any room to move. I didn't find it loud at all. I came onto the ward at 3am and me and baby both slept fine till being woken up about 7am by the midwife. Found there was someone about if I needed them and my partner was able to come to the ward from 10am till we left at 5pm the same day. I did want to get out of there ASAP and luckily I could but that was because I just wanted to get home with baby and settled not because of anything specifically to do with the ward experience. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Wasn't great. As others have said, so bloody hot. I didn't get any sleep due to crying babies and my own DC cluster feeding the night away. Not all of the midwives were very nice. I was in for a few nights and considered discharging myself a few times but my BP was a bit insane.

Hideous

Take light/thin pyjamas. The wards are HOT.
It was manageable but I still wanted to leave as soon as I could.

I had DC2 a few weeks ago- DH wasn't allowed to visit me at all and I was dreading it but it was completely fine- I even asked to stay a second night! I also had the thought it would be hell on earth and it really wasn't!

Mine was terrible. I stayed one night and insisted on discharge. It wasn't the hospitals fault though, 3 other people in my room were all constantly on the phone even in the night and two of the babies were really noisy. I've come home to recover as I don't think I'd be getting well anytime soon in there. I'm 5 days post partum and feel OK now

I spent a couple of nights on the ward. Honestly don't worry about baby screaming and crying it's to be expected.

I remember myself and the lady opposite me laughing as our children seemed to be in tandem - hers would start crying and once settled, mine would then start. Nothing you can do about it really & you'll be so focused on your new baby to be thinking of anything else.

Midwives in my hospital were great & as my partner was not allowed to stay overnight would come and watch baby while I showered/brushed teeth :)