After reading a few things around the site I was just wondering about peoples experiences when staying in the hospital after the birth of their child -- did your partner/husband stay with you over night? Did they have the option to? Was it not allowed? What sort of facilities were available for them? Meals? Bed? Showers? Was it a public or private hospital?
Thanks in advance to those who share their stories about this.
I was public all 3 times & DH couldn't stay.
Even if he wanted too, he didn't have the choice, he had to work & we were a distance from hospital every time.
They wanted to kick my DF out when I was moved to maternity 2 hours post birth. (1am in the morning). We told them he couldn't get home (not a lie), and he slept in the chair next to me all night.
He spent the most time he could muster there over the next two days and we were so thankful when i went home.
I never want to have to have my partner away so soon post birth again and if I don't get a homebirth, providing everything goes complication free I'll be exiting the hospital on early discharge (I think minimum is 4 hours)
did your partner/husband stay with you over night? Nope. Public hossi here too. We have other children anyway, so he had to mnd them....TBH i couldnt think of anything worse than DH staying with me whilst in hossi...there wasnt much he could do.......i needed him to be fully alert with his 8 hrs sleep of a night anyway for when i eventually did get home....
Public hospital stays with all 3 (and 4 to be) and in a nutshell - no facility provided for Dh to stay unfortunately.
The only one thing was, with DS1 I was already in hospital when I went into early labour, DH was with me and at about 9pm they suggested we get some rest - they made up a camp bed for him next to me on the ward & we slept there until things really got moving early the next morning. So that was pretty cool, but I think it was down to the individuals on at the time rather than hospital policy.
Hi, I also went public and I will go public again (mainly due to the cost of private health!!). DH wasnt allowed to stay, however we found our hospital to be pretty relaxed about it all, he was there during non visiting hrs but always went home to sleep. It can be hard not having your hubby around after such a huge experience, so thats a plus for going private. However I coped ok. Also I had my own room, I stayed for 5 days & had a lot of breastfeeding support. Mind you I couldnt wait to get home, being confinded to hospital sucks hehe. All the best with your decision.
While I was in long labour in the middle of the night with DD1, they did provide a sofa bed/chair thing & told us to get some rest. So DH was allowed to sleep there for a while, but only then. And of course he started snoring just as the contractions got bad enough that I couldn't sleep, but not bad enough to wake him, lol.
DS1 - public, had a doublebed/ensuite birthing room for 3 nights, DH could stay 24/7 while we were in this room. On the fourth night I was in a shared room so he couldnt stay and had reduced visiting hours
DS2 - public, I opted to come home 12 hours after DS2 was born, and in all honestly can say it was a much better option for me, had a uch better/easier recovery, better feeding experience so far too.
did your partner/husband stay with you over night? Yes, 5 night stay. Could have stayed up to 7 nights if I had wanted to, but BF'ing was established and I felt confident I could BF and adequately care for my baby.
Did they have the option to? Yes.
Was it not allowed? Nope.
What sort of facilities were available for them? Foldout bed next to my hospital single although there were double beds available, I preferred to sleep by myself for the sake of us both tossing and turning
Meals? Yes, a small fee extra for DH, beer and wine included. It was like a hotel, the meals were that good.
Bed? Yes, as above.
Showers? Yes, adjoining ensuite to my room.
Was it a public or private hospital? Private (Perth).
I went public as I knew being a small country hosp I would get room to myself etc so wasn't fussed about the rest. Yes DH could stay, though he didn't....the bed was not the best & he wasn't too far away. Came in early each day etc, so I didn't want him there uncomfortable & snoring! DS was born at 5.23am so when we got back to the room the provided breakfast for both of us, after that just me.
We went private and DH could have stayed everynight but he didnt he stayed 1 night in hospital when i got moved to room with double bed and then when moved to park hyatt hotel he stayed with me in king size bed!!!
At park hyatt you can also have other kids stay with you, so hopefully next time we can all stay together!
As a general guide, partners are usually only allowed to stay in private hospitals. Accomodation for them can be anything from a double bed shared with you, to a fold out recliner or sofa bed depending on the hospital.
Many private hospitals provide meals for partners but they are charged for them - usually something around $10 per meal. Partners aren't usually "officially" permitted to use the shower but some hospitals may turn a blind eye if you're not sharing the bathroom with anyone else.
Public hospitals pretty much never supply food for dads, and they aren't allowed to use bathroom facilities because these are usually shared with other mums. They are sometimes allowed to stay if you aren't in a room sharing with someone else.
None of this is to say that private hospitals are necessarily a better choice though - public hospitals have lower rates of intervention and caesarean and usually more supportive of breastfeeding so if those things are a priority for you a public hospital is still a better option. After all your postnatal stay is only a few days. The birth stays with you forever
Public both times. With DS1 - no, DP didn't stay. We only lived 5mins from the hospital anyways. They did give sandwiches and some toast to my DP, and mum who were there with me while I was in labour. As soon as he was born they didn't get anything.
Then with DS2. We had to go to the hospital at the next town cause I went into labour on the weekend that the maternity at our local hospital was closed. DP was allowed to stay with me the first night in a pull out sofa chair thingie. It was nice. He would have slept in the chair besides me either way but it was nice for them to make him welcome. No food or anything this time. When I moved to the local hospital 2 days later, he didn't stay.
As much as I hated the hospital I gave birth in.
It was public and DF could stay with me. (Their rooms were double or single, single meant he could, double he couldnt.) On a mattress on the floor. They even gave him some of their food.
I will miss that when I have my next one.. Different hospital.
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Hospital Stays
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