hospital and other stuff

right firstly I just got a letter welcooming me to the Maternity service(lucky me) anyway it goes on about leaving after three hours etc..but it also says that's partners cannot stay overnight unless I or baby are seriously unwell..now call my ignorant but I just assumed as we have no other children that my DH could stay overnight..:( so I'm a little bummed about that (it says this counts all birthing units in this group so assumbably that's rangiora, burwood, lincoln and st georges..according to letter..

Hmmm..and during routine tests which turned out fine it turns out I have a probable strep b infection.. now she said it's fine that I just have antibiotics during labour etc..but isn't that what Tama's baby on Shortland street died of? I assume it's mostly risky to the baby if they don't know and that's why they have the test at 36 weeks? (obviously got mine early) so anyway..can I still have a natural birth(not that I am against C section) ?any experience would be great? I've read stuff that mostly says as long as they know about it it's fine ??

during the routine tests she found uro(or urea) plasmic cells which she said is fine as lots of women get it when pregnant and nethier that or the strep are STD related..lol..which is good to know:)

..but i have massive pills(erythromycin) to take 4 times a day with food for that ..and I have to go to get tooth fixed tomorrow..so hopefully everything will be ok.. :( any experience with any of this would be great.. *sigh* 13/14 weeks to go..

Edited by kawwww

Hi Kawww, no partners can't stay at the hospital but I now for a fact that they let them stay at burwood (unless things have changed since june). To be fair you probably won't be that bothered about him not being at night, as far as I'm aware visiting hours for dads are till 10pm, there is plenty of support from midwifes at the hospital you won't feel abandoned or on your own. If you labour at night then obviously he gets to stay. On the delivery ward they even made my DH breakfast and they also offered to get a mattress for him to sleep on while I was in labour.

I don't know about the strep etc but after my waters broke I had to take the Erythromicin right up until he was born (definately take with food otherwise they can make you chunder)
If I had laboured naturally I would of had IV antibiotics because of the increased risk of infection because of my ruptured membranes, doesn't mean that I would or he would have got an infection but is purely a precautionary measure. I didn't have to have them with the c/s (had a whole other truck load of drugs for that lol)

Hope that helps a little.

That thing about the three hours has been added because of all the crap that has been going on at Christchurch Womens, doesn't mean you will be transferred within 3 hours it is just warning you that that could happen. I think they were also gonna start giving people lists of what clothes to bring for baby cos some women were being a bit dumb about it and babies were turning up at the birthing clinics v.cold etc.
At burwood they offered for DH to stay the night and we hadn't been transferred there till day 4....I think that you will find the birthing clinics don't run anything like the hospital they are a lot more friendly etc. If I was you I would look to transfer out ASAP to one of the clinics then your DH could probably stay the night with you (depending on what time you birth and whether everything is ok etc.)

That's great you got told about the hospital policy, we didn't know about it and because I had DD late at night (around 10pm) and had to stay at the hospital because of complications, by the time we got up to the ward it was close to midnight and DH was bustled out the door - so two hours after giving birth I was alone in a room with DD and three other mothers and DH was driving home in shock! It was really hard that the timing worked out like that for us and unfortunately we didn't strike a very sympathetic staff. The next couple of days were fine, the staff were lovely and DH was able to stay as long as he liked. And true, he wouldn't have been able to stay anyway in that room (he snores too!) but the realisation was a bit of a shock for us.
Sounds like Chch hospital has all the information sussed!

mazzy what a shock..yes I'm glad they tell me rather than spring it on me later.. so there is that at least.. :) i guess i assumed you could get private rooms..I've only ever been to visit people who had c-sections (3 of them) who had private rooms and all of them had other children so their DH stayed at home with the other child..

You'll get told a lot more about the Chch womens stuff if you do AN classes there. We just got all the info from the lady about how you will pretty much definitely be transferred within 3 hours. If you think about it, there's only 17 beds at Chch womens, so they're pretty limited. But you make that choice when you decide where to birth I guess.

If you transfer to St Georges and want to stay more than 48 hours, apparently the price is higher than a motel for the night.

Re the strep thing, taking antibiotics isn't a biggy, it's quite common and I wouldn't go stressing yourself out or comparing what you have to a character on SS! They wouldn't prescribe it to you if it would harm the baby.

And the partners thing, when I was admitted to womens for a day a few weeks ago my DH was so uncomfortable the whole time (I obviously didn't have the baby!) when he was trying to have a nap. He would be more use to you going home and having a good night's sleep. Apparently you have enough endorphins etc running around in your body for the first day or so to not care, but DH's don't get that so it can be quite hard on them.

Christchurch womens is all private rooms with ensuite...very nice and new. Is only shared if you are in there ante natally and then it is only twin rooms. Burwood is also private rooms, they have one shared room which I was in but I was in it on my own, it holds six but they try to never have more than one woman in there and at max 2. Is shared showers etc though.
Also at CWH you are provided with tea etc but your visitors aren't so make sure DH has change for cafe and vending machines, he will get tea etc on labour ward but not on maternity ward. Burwood visitors can help themselves to tea and biscuits etc.

as far as SS...just that was the only thing id heard of it but now have learnt a friend of mine had it.. and we are doing AN classes there but this info is pretty through...there 's a schedule about classes on the fridge and they seem pretty through at the classes too.:) as far as only 17 beds..they just made a big hospital but only put 17 beds in it...freaking crazy if you ask me:)

yeah 2 days is long enough i guess....my mum was saying oh but we had 7 days and that wasn't long enough...stay in as long as you can..I'm like..no thanks..two nights is enough:) I'm just surprised about some of the info that's all!

awesome thanks cuppatea..we are going to Burwood if at all possible at the moment..

Emz, St G's is $460 a night to stay on after your allocated time, you could hire a cleaner etc at home for that!

You will be fine, Kaww and as you say at least you have all the info now and its not sprung on you. AN classes are really good and once your have done the tour etc you will be feeling 10 x more confident with the situation.

Yeah I'm not sure if its 17 beds i.e. birthing suites or 17 beds for the maternity ward. I guess when they don't keep many women there it's not surprising. The other places don't have too much capacity either (I was told lincoln would be lucky to get 5 out of the 7 or 8 beds filled at a busy time).