Gyne ward

[Skyeway]

Over the weekend I was on a gyne ward getting rehydration for HG. I asked the student nurse who wheeled me into my bed if it was a pregnancy ward and she said 'yes, well I think so'. Turned out to be a gyne ward and I was sharing a room with 3 other women, one of which had a miscarriage at 16 weeks earlier in the day. I was so out of it when I was first in, but as I slowly got rehydrated I started joining in their conversations, and told them why i was there. I was somewhat embarrassed to be pregnant and knew that just my presence could be so hurtful to them.
I wrote an email to the hospital just saying thank you for my care and how fantastic the nurses are, but also mentioning how I thought this was innapropriate.

Surely the NHS should have a protocol saying women who have recently experienced a loss shouldn't be sharing a room with pregnant patients. What does everyone else think?

 

[Belfa]

Oh what a shame! You'd think that but when I went in for a reassurance scan there was a lady in who was clearly having a miscarriage and her husband came round to the waiting room and burst in to tears that she was sitting with all of these pregnant women, so sad x

 

[Wednesday]

Oh it's awful isn't it, but unfortunately that's the result of the NHS cuts and lack of beds. They just don't have room x

 

[KEW]

Not a nice situation. I can think of many situations where this kind of thing happens though. It's no where near as bad as your situation but I did find it really hard having to attend a fertility clinic in a maternity hospital. Going past all those heavily pregnant women walking the corridors in early Labour to get to the clinic made me so sad. Thankfully now they've seen sense and made a dedicated entrance for the clinic. On the other hand I can't praise my local hospital enough for the understanding they show. They always make sure I don't have fertility scans that clash with antenatal clinics.
Was it just a small hospital where they couldn't separate the patients.?

 

[Skyeway]

No it wasn't a small hospital, I wont say which one, but on their website it says they deliver 24 full term babies and 3 premies everyday! And they can't have been that full because their was 5 spare beds in the room overnight when I was the only one not discharged. The nurses were really struggling for time though because they were short on staff, no healthcare assistant on my ward on the day shift and nobody covering breaks. So possibly it was just because they were so understaffed that they didn't think to separate patients based on pregnancy and loss.

 

[Browneyed Girl]

I suspect this happens quite a lot but in my opinion it shouldn't as it's adding to an already very traumatic situation. I had ivf for my first son and had an ultrasound in the department that does the pregnancy scans as part of investigations so was surrounded by pregnant women having baby scans and also had a pre-op for a hysteroscopy in a unit mainly serving pregnant women (I felt faint having blood taken and the nurse commented about me having morning sickness - I had to put her right and say I was there as I was having fertility treatment i.e. because I couldn't get pregnant). Both experiences were very uncomfortable for someone having treatment and obviously if you're having a loss would be even worse x

 

[TORino]

As someone who recently spent an extended amount of time on an antenatal Ward for an ectopic pregnancy and resulting surgery this is common practice. I got excellent care, the midwives and Doctor's were superb. In my situation, they have 3 areas on the ward and they are sensitively managed. One for women who were like me, one for women who were ill but likely to have a baby and an area for women with who had delivered but had no baby or baby was in neonates etc. There simply is not enough resource to locate this service anywhere else in other parts of the hospital as it would mean a new rota to staff the beds for what wouldn't be enough demand.

 

[mylullaby]

Yeah as awful as it sounds, I really don't think the NHS is in a position to be selective about how the women with the conditions you describe are allocated beds. I'm sure you wouldn't exactly have come across as gloating about being the pregnant one, so hopefully the other women would understand that there wasn't a lot you could do about being there! Honestly, and I really hope this doesn't come across as snippy because im not always great with finding the right words, but I would just be thankful that we actually still have the NHS and the care that it offers. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be funding hospital stays and gyne treatment privately (or having insurance premiums increase because I needed to claim). I feel like that's the way things are going unfortunately and our children might not be so fortunate

 

[megsmeadow]

Unfortunately I had some terrible experiences too through poor layout of the hospital.
Our ultrasound is one shared room with three cubicles and only one door in/out. Hearing at 20 week scan that there's no heartbeat, trying to preserve some dignity and exit to lots of concerned but staring faces was just horrendous.
Then our rainbow arrived and was taken in to special care for the night, they found me a bed in the postnatal ward but I couldn't use the joining doors to get to my son when they called me to breastfeed as the room I gave birth to my little girl in was right beside the doors and I almost had a panic attack when I realised.
In an ideal world these things would never happen but hospitals change and develop over time. At least the staff experiences are good on the whole.

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[ts2573]

Bit late to this but honestly the NHS can be so thoughtless on these circumstances.

A few years ago I was with a friend when a scan revealed no heartbeat at 10 weeks. She was heartbroken and sobbing, naturally. Yet the sonographer sent her back to the waiting room to wait with pregnant women who were excitedly chatting about their scans.

The midwife who came to discuss her options was disgusted and couldn't stop apologising, eventually letting us leave through a fire door instead of going back through the waiting area. The ward had 2 vacant family rooms for this exact reason so there was no excuse. The sonographer simply didn't think .

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[mylullaby]

I don't think you can outright blame the NHS though for that? It's like blaming the entire police force for one wrongful arrest. Of course it shouldn't have happened and I'm sure it was a horrendous time for your friend, but it was a problem with that specific sonographer - perhaps the training she was given or whatever - not "the NHS" - you said yourself there were family rooms for that specific purpose, so not the facilities weren't there in that case.

Anyway, I'm a bit defensive when it comes to the NHS, so I'll shut up now and leave everyone in peace xx

 

[JulyBug]

I agree, i think that was more an individuals mistakes rather then the NHS.. I have met some lovely sonographers and midwifes etc since being pregnant and some not so lovely, some are always more helpful then others but I think that's more to do with their personal character not 'the NHS'...

At my 20 week scan the sonographer I had was to put it bluntly a right d*ck!.. He was rude and rushed through my scan like he was going to be late for his lunch!.. But again this isn't the 'NHS' this is just a someone with a crappy attitude.

xx

 

[_GG_]

At my 14 week D&C I was in a bed for 4 hours waiting to go in, surrounded be either pregnant women or women with newborn babies. I went back to the same bed afterwards.

I won't blame the NHS as I am so grateful we have it, but if I ever had to go through that again, I would find the money and go private without doubt.