Never visit a woman in hospital right after she gives birth. Unless you’re her partner. Or she’s your mum. Everyone else? Step down. Even if she says, “Sure, come and meet the baby!” you must ignore her. She’s either hormonal or full of drugs or both. By the time you arrive with flowers she’ll have changed her mind. Instead, just send cake and your love. No flowers because they’re useless in a cramped hospital room. And if it’s her first baby? Times all this by a thousand.
I’ve always lived by this no-visit rule until recently when I not only broke my rule, I blew it up and made all the little pieces into a party hat. Really though, it wasn’t my fault. I was powerless in the face of fate. You see, two of my close girlfriends had babies on the same day. In the same hospital. Mere hours and metres apart. What are the chances of that?
So when the joyous texts arrived almost simultaneously, something came over me and I felt drawn to that hospital by some primal force. I just needed to go and…have a sniff. Absorb some newborn aura. I know. It’s a sickness this baby-sniffing thing and it seems to be getting worse. If only someone could turn it into a fragrance for nutbags like me. Estee Lauder? Anyone?
Newborns are my crack. I’m going to look for a support group.
When I was pregnant with my first child, I vividly remember the evening our birth class was taken on a tour of the hospital. Like frightened, bloated sheep, we followed the midwife-teacher silently down the halls and into the maternity ward where she gave us some information about visiting hours. Then she pointed out that ‘if you are of European background, particularly Italian or Greek, you will have approximately a million visitors and they will ignore all the rules about visiting hours. This will not only be a nightmare for you but also for the poor woman sharing your room. If you’re both European? Well, you’re stuffed. There will be a queue of visitors down the hall all day and your room will resemble a wedding reception.”
Top Comments
I think the family should have priority in hospital, then friends should ask before visiting and can only come when family have viisited first, or wait until the mother is at home,especially when the mother is not in for long - just my opinion...
When my partner and I had our first baby, we had agreed that only our parents could visit straight after the baby was bron, they all had a cuddle and were so excited to have their first grandchild and then they left so my partner and i could spend time with our son, We text the rest of our family and freinds to let them know that our bundle of joy had arrived and told them they were welcome to visit the next day but just to txt or phone first to check that we were up for it. I think it's always a nice to check before you visit.