Now some of you are saying, "Big deal.! I spent several nights in the maternity ward and did the real thing! "Others may say, "Ya,visiting?" Others are saying,"Ya , visiting your wife!" Ya, I know . You were born there.
None of these are true. I was admitted overnight twice to a maternity ward.
Two beds in a regional hospital are dedicated to sleep testing. Those two beds just happen to be carved out of a maternity ward.
I was sent twice to sleep overnight for sleep testing. Sleep apnea is when you stop breathing in your sleep. You'll always start breathing again. The problem is that your blood oxygen level gets low. You wake up the next day feeling very fatigued.
I have allergies so sometimes I get nasal drip which irritates my throat. What really sent me to sleep testing is one time when my daughter stayed in the same hotel room as us. The next day she complained about all the noise Mom and Dad made all night. She said, "One of you snores and one of you makes choking noises." I knew who snored , so that left me with the choking noises. That's what prompted me to get some testing done. The test showed that my oxygen level stays above the minimum level.
You check into the hospital about 8:00 PM. About 10:00 PM they put you to bed but not until an awful lot of wiring is done to you. This equipment will keep track of your sleep patterns and your blood oxygen levels all night. Sleep is almost impossible with that much wire on you. You can't roll over without worrying that you pull some wires off. Going to the bathroom is a major event. However, morning comes and they take all the wires off and you're good to go. You make your way to a restaurant for breakfast. The cheapos don't even give you breakfast.
Now getting back to maternity. The first night I was there there were no maternity patients, just one other guy for sleep testing. The second time there was a young couple on the ward and the baby had been born in the afternoon so Mom was staying over night. So the heavy work in the maternity ward is done in the day and everybody is sent home.
So there, I did spend the night admitted to a maternity ward!
