Health QM

There will be many family members, friends and neighbors who want to ‘drop in’ to meet your new baby, but it can be extremely tiring (and noisy) to have a constant stream of people visiting you in the hospital or birth unit, or at home, however well-meaning they are. This can have a ‘knock on’ effect on the whole family, making everyone irritable and your baby and other children fractious. Towards the end of pregnancy, it is useful to devise a strategy with your partner for dealing with telephone calls and visitors.

In UK maternity units, visiting is usually restricted, with only the partner and the mother’s own children permitted unrestricted visiting, and limited visiting hours for others; there is usually also a maximum of two visitors allowed at any one time. These restrictions are designed to enable new parents to concentrate on caring for their babies and to rest or sleep when possible. In many maternity units mothers will be in small wards, perhaps with four beds, so it is not just about your needs but also those of the other mothers near you. (Imagine how annoyed you would be if you wanted to sleep and the mother in the next bed had four or five visitors with her for several hours). If your own parents, in-laws and friends live locally, you may decide to ask them not to visit you in the hospital and to wait until you return home. Obviously it is more difficult if they have traveled from far away and their availability is limited, but perhaps these individuals should be given priority over others who live within easy reach.