Baby isn't here yet.
Just got home after being there all day. The missus is having regular pains and her waters have begun flowing but not full on enough to be moved to the labour ward. Bit pee'd off at the way fathers are treated to be honest, they never seem to look you in the eye or even involve you when explaining the whole process of the lead up to giving birth.
It's her first child and she's been in a lot of pain since early afternoon, I'm the one who's given her a bath twice today to help her relax plus I'm the one who's been reattaching the monitor things onto her stomach and resetting that monitor itself which she's been hooked up to on and off all day - we've hardly seen the staff. The restaurant in the hospital closed early as did Costa Coffee and WHSmith wasn't open at all but when they came round with the tea trolley the fathers didn't even get offered one. This is just a for bed ward and two of those were vacated by the afternoon. Surely they could spare a cup of tea?
I did manage to get a breakfast down me this morning and ate sandwiches I'd prepared at home but just being there in support of your missus can be a very tiring ordeal in itself.
When it got to around 11:20pm they told me they don't allow partners to stay overnight which is contrary to what we'd been led to believe. A relative of ours is the Patient Experience Manager at the hospital and will hear about our experience in the morning.
The thing I'm trying to say is that a child has two parents and both should be treated with respect and be kept well informed as a couple from beginning to end. I'm sure it's a management issue and not down to individual nurses and midwives who work there but to be almost totally blanked by staff as if you're somehow a burden to them is not on.
Rant over but I'll let you fine gentlemen know as soon as possible when the little one has finally arrived. Cheers again and I hope you all enjoyed a Boxing Day bevvy today.
