"Why would the women and children's unit deny a young girl the chance to see her mummy and meet her new brother?"

My daughter in law went into the labour ward on Saturday evening at around 10pm. I work at the hospital as a Staff Nurse and was working nights over the weekend at the time. I contacted the ward to ask how she was and quite rightly was given no information ..not even if she was there or not! I was told to ring their mobiles which were switched off. I was told I could not visit even if they were there. so I waited for news from my son.

On Sunday evening My daughter in law had her baby by c section and My Son advised me, she was not transferred to the post natal ward until after visiting time so once again I was told I could not visit. His phone had been dead so he was unable to contact me until he went home

My Grandaughter who is 5 years old had been staying at home with my other son as I was working and they had no one available to look after her, she had not seen her Mummy since going to bed on sat evening.

I finished my shift yesterday morning and was once again told I could not visit until the afternoon so I went home to bed, grumpy but understanding the rules are there for a reason.

In the morning I got a call from my son to say he had taken his little girl to the hospital to see her new brother and her mummy and that the ward refused her entry to the ward so he was stuck outside the ward with a distressed 5 year old and could not even go in to comfort his wife or see his son.

My son was told of the visiting hours when he took his wife to the ward but was not told that his daughter could only go for an hour after 3pm.

After only a couple of hours sleep I went to collect my grandaughter to bring her back to my house. I was told by my son that as they waited outside the ward that another dad had come with a child and they stated 'her step sister is going on holida' so the midwife said she can come in and they allowed her to visit.

If the rule is no children then why did it have to be my grandchild left outside who had not seen her Mummy for two days in favour of someones step sister?

I had to console my grandaughter who was distressed asking 'why did they put my mummy in a room where I can't go?"

I took her back to visit her mum and her new baby brother in the afternoon after no sleep working a night shift.

What do parents do who do not have this support?

How can you explain to a 5 year old she cannot see her Mummy?

As a paediatric nurse I know the importance of family centred care and bonding. How can you expect a 5 year old to bond with a new baby that took her mummy away from her for 2 days?

Luckily My grandaughter is intelligent enough to understand explanations but to be honest the explanations I gave were lies used to help her cope with the situation. I have never had to lie to a child before and I feel I am going against every principle I have.

When children are admitted to hospital the parents have access 24 hours a day. If this is so important to promote family centred care then why are the same principles not applied to the post natal wards?