Not so sure that's the place for me.
The tour was supposed to start at 2pm. Of course Bunny and I arrived at 1:45.
At 2pm the health care assistant who was running the tour rounded us all up in the foyer of the maternity ward. As she was about to begin she somehow realized one of the partners of a pregnant lady on the tour was still parking their car. Stupidly (and in my opinion selfishly), she made us all stand there and wait for TEN minutes until this meathead showed up. Not sure why she had to make 8 heavily pregnant women stand around uncomfortably and wait rather than begin the tour and have him join us when he was ready.
When Mr. Meathead finally showed up Mrs. Health Care Assistant started a looooong spiel which could have been started ten minutes earlier, consequently leaving us to uncomfortably stand ANOTHER ten minutes. At this point my back was aching, i was sweating and wanted to go home.
Health Care Assistant FINALLY stopped yapping and brought us to the first part of the tour; a wing off the foyer where women in labor were sent if they were not far enough along to stay in the hospital yet too far along to go back home.
Each room here consisted of four beds with TV's in them, separated by curtains. Of course you had to pay to watch TV.
She than brought us to a little room and informed us that in the past, you were allowed to frequent this room and prepare yourselves coffee, tea and toast. Unfortunately, Health and Safety (guidelines created by the government on, you guessed it, health and safety) have declared pregnant women and women in labor incapable of preparing their own tea and toast, claiming they will burn themselves or heavens forbid even worse.
Why she brought us to that empty, unused room to tell us this is beyond me. Probably just to torture us.
From there we went upstairs to the delivery ward. Before entering each ward we had to sanitize our hands with the hand sanitizer dispenser on the wall. That got old and redundant very quickly for me. I'm not sure I understood the point of continuously sanitizing your hands? Wasn't once enough?
First room we were shown was a standard, delivery room where we would most likely be delivering our little ones. I'm pretty sure I had a walk in-closet in my condominium in Illinois that was bigger. Talk about small. How in the world was a woman in labor, along with all of her crap, a mid-wife, a birthing partner, a health care assistant, AND an anesthesiologist (since i'm having an epidural there damn well better be one there) able to fit in that closet is a mystery to me. And I don't know that I want to find out.
There is a bathroom for the delivery closet but you have to share it with the room next door. We were advised to please make sure we unlock the bathroom door that goes to the other room so as not to lock out the person in labor we share the bathroom with. How convenient.
There is a bigger delivery room, health care lady announced. But don't get your hopes up b/c there is no guarantee you will get it.
The "bigger" room was smaller than the room I delivered Emily in in the United States.
"From here", health care horror lady explained, "you will be able to go straight home within two to six hours after delivering your baby".
That's right. TWO TO SIX HOURS after giving birth they want your ass out of the hospital.
After snickering out loud I raised my hand and asked, "Call me crazy but what if I'm not ready to go home two to six hours after giving birth?"
"Well, you really will be more comfortable at home" she told me, "you'll see what I mean in a moment".
I think it was her attitude that really pissed me off, and the condescending way she spoke to me. If she had said, "well if you are not comfortable leaving we won't force you to go", or, "we would be more than happy to give you some more time" I would have felt more reassured.
Who is she to tell me or anyone else that I will be more comfortable at home? Anything a little more positive to help a crazy, hormonal pregnant woman would have been appreciated.
Dumbfounded, i followed the crowd to the next part of the tour.
Health care assistant from hell leads us to the next ward which is called, "Wheal Fortune Ward". I dubbed it the "Wheel of Fortune".
Here, there were about 3-4 single, private rooms smaller than the closets we had just seen in the delivery ward and 2 or 3 more bigger rooms with four beds separated by curtains.
Every single private room was empty and the shared rooms were only 50% occupied.
Health Care lady from hell informs us that in the Wheel of Fortune ward there are always 3-4 midwives on duty and two health care workers. There is also a maximum capacity of 24 patients. Therefore, it's very difficult for them to take care of so many patients.
After doing the math (and I'm no mathematician) 24 patients divided by 6 people equals four patients each. This brought me to my next conclusion: health care lady doesn't want to be bothered with SO many patients therefore encouraging, or bullying (depending on how you see things) women to go home TWO to SIX HOURS after giving birth.
Call me cynical or negative, but that's how I interpreted things.
After finishing with the Wheel I asked lady from Hell, (at this point I realize I'm the ONLY person asking questions. The rest appeared like a bunch of zombies, not interested in anything at all)
"Can our partners spend the night with us if we have a private room?"
"No" she replied, "It's not fair to the rest of the women on the ward".
As I stared at her giving her the evil eye wondering in my head, "what are you talking about he would be in MY room?" she continued on, "We can't have him wandering the halls at night when other women may have short pyjamas on. It would make them feel uncomfortable. It's not fair to them."
Oh sorry. I forgot my husband was a PERVERT who would only be with me to wander aimlessly throughout Wheel of Fortune like a peeping tom to catch a glimpse of some random woman's legs in her short nighty. My bad.
The tour ended after Wheel of Fortune with Health Care Lady telling us all of the ice machines have been removed from the Wheel of Fortune ward b/c Health and Safety said it was too dangerous for women in labor to suck on ice b/c they may choke.
Yippee. More good news.
Oh and I almost forgot; if you pull up to maternity and leave your car parked outside rather than parking it 7000 miles away in the pay and park area, you will most certainly get a ticket and your tire may even be clamped.
I was so distraught afterwards I couldn't even take the 30 minute nap I was planning in the car ride home.
I'm currently investigating home births.
2 comments:
I am sorry that was such a negative experience for you. Are there any alternatives? Both times I was pregnant, I had 2 hospitals to choose from, though I know you probably live somewhere a bit more rural?
I remember both rooms I was in labour in as reasonably spacious, and I did manage to give birth in an NHS bath (not birthing pool, bath) with the first kid too.
The 2-6 hr thing is becoming increasingly common I have heard if delivery is straightforward. I stayed 48hrs with first kid, 2nd kid was a home birth but that was 1998 and 2003, even in 2003 if I had had a hospital birth, they were talking 6hrs. To be honest, I slept better at home after #2 than in a shared ward after #1.
Hi, thanks i'm sure it will be ok. I think it was that woman and the way she presented things. I'll see how I feel and who knows, maybe i'll feel like going home in a few hours!
We do live in quite a rural area. There is a birthing unit literally across the street from where we live with a birthing pool so I still need to check that out. They definitely make you leave though right after as they are a small unit. I'll keep you posted!
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