Hospital Stays

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.

Public.
Nothing.

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)

Hi Jitterbug :)

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.

HTH :)

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....

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.

Did your partner/husband stay with you over night? Yep

Did they have the option to? Yes.

Was it not allowed? Nope.

What sort of facilities were available for them? Longish, narrow day bed type thing. It was pretty hard and not at all comfy. Add to that, DH is over 6 feet tall, so his feet were dangling.

Meals? Yes, but we had to pay extra for him. I don't think it cost much per meal though.

Bed? Yep - see above.

Showers? Yep, adjoining ensuite to my room.

Was it a public or private hospital? Private - Mater Mothers.

I loved having him there for nearly the whole time. He only slept at home once, I think, and that was because he needed to be at work early the next day for some meetings. He also went home for a few hours every couple of days (I was in hospital for a week) to feed our kitties and to spend time with them.

I loved staying at the Mater Mothers. They were constantly feeding me so I never went hungry! The facilities were fantastic and the midwives were excellent (some more than others - there was one particular one who I was quite put out by, but she was only looking after me once).

public hospital - in 7 very loooong nights! first two was induction with prostin gels - DH could have stayed but i was getting contractions every 5-10 mins so i sent him home so he could rest. third night we had a newborn and still in the room with double bed so he stayed (which was good seeing i'd had epidural that morning and c/s - the back up was good!). moved to a single room the next day and DH went home for the next couple of nights. the last night before discharge i was copping some grief re E's weight loss since birth so DH stayed to give me some help with making sure we fed every couple of hours - i would feed, he would settle her.

they gave him a camp cot to sleep on that night. meals - we were told to order everything we might eat off the menu - there was usually enough for us to share dinner so nope didn't have to pay much. he would go to the cafeteria a bit later and get us a snack to share. was no more exxy than if he'd been cooking at home...

both rooms we were in had an ensuite...

Thanks for the responses. It is interesting, I didn't know that it was not common in the public system to have your partner/husband remain with you overnight.

We went through the Mater Mothers Private with our DD's birth so had a similar experience to AnnaChas.

did your partner/husband stay with you over night? Yep, I was in for 6 nights and he stayed for all of them.

Did they have the option to? Yep

Was it not allowed? Nope

What sort of facilities were available for them? Meals? Bed? Showers? I had a room with a big double bed, but as I had a c/s I was in my normal single hospital bed the first night in the same room, then the rest of the week we both slept in the double bed. My room had an ensuite with a shower which I used but DF went home every morning to have his showers and get ready for work. They offered meals for him too but we had to pay for those, was about $10 a meal I think. He was at work during the day so we just ordered him breakfast and dinner.

Was it a public or private hospital? Private hospital

with DD1- nope he couldnt stay. she was born at 8.30pm, and DP left to go home around 11pm. i told him to go stay at mum and dads plac which was just around the corner (they were also at the hosp with us) but he preferred to go home (45 mins away) so i told him to have some decent sleep, and come back in the next day when he was ready. i was in for 3 nights.

With DD2 we are using (well, as long as everything goes to plan!) a birth centre- they have double beds, and DP is more than welcome to stay with us- BUT my DP is 6'3, and i doubt he will fit in the bed with me! but at least he can have a sleep if he needs it. we're half an hour away, but SIL is around the corner, so he could always go there if he needs. As for food, no idea what they supply in regards to partners!

Public hospital both times. Booked into the birth centre but both girls came early so went to regualr labour and postnatal ward both times. BC DH couls stay no cost in the queen bed. Regular ward he could stay but it was $10 a night for bed and breakfast (I thought it was reasonable) however he chose not to as it suited us better for him to get some sleep and clean the house before we got home lol.


I only stayed 24hrs with dd2 even though she was 4 weeks early so no need to stay overnight.

I have private health insurance but chose public as I wanted midwife led care. The public hospital I birthed at has a postnatal ward that is all single bed rooms with ensuite. The bc rooms have a queen or double bed (cant remember), ensuite, lounge and kitchenette.

Was meant to be in a public birth centre in Perth and DH was allowed to share the double bed for 24 hours. I think one meal provided and the rest at cost. Ended up being transferred but that's another story.