Hundreds of Wellington residents have piled on to social media to call for tea and toast to be put back on the menu of the city's maternity wards.
An email seen by RNZ to Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley staff on Thursday explains its patient food service provider, Spotless, will no longer provide bread and certain other foods on wards.
Hospital services general manager Shane King told staff the patient food services budget had a $1.5 million overspend last financial year.
He said much of the food was being eaten by staff and patient visitors: "In our current fiscal environment, it is untenable for these practices to continue."
King said bread and spreads, traditionally given to women after labour, were also being stopped because of nutritional concerns.
One new father posted on Facebook he had to go out at 3am to buy food for his partner after she had given birth.
He said it was "mind blowing" that his partner could not have a Milo and a piece of toast after her labour.
The post had received 470 comments and around 850 likes 12 hours later.
A midwife (who asked to remain anonymous) told RNZ the removal of bread from the wards was "miserly, cheap and mean cost cutting".
"So toast doesn't meet 'nutritional needs'. What about our cultural and traditional needs? When you're poorly and can't stomach anything else, but you can manage a wee bit of toast and butter.
"Or you've just given birth and it's the best meal you'll ever eat in your life."
On Friday she had a woman who was starving after 36 hours of labour and a "traumatic" C-section, but was unable to give her toast.
"Breakfast was finished and lunch hadn't arrived!! I was so embarrassed.... It's disgraceful."
A hospital employee who received the email said it was "completely devoid of understanding that a cold sandwich is so much more than nutrition, and at 3am is gross after you've given birth."
They said the edict also failed "to understand the comforting nature of the familiarity of warm toast or that we are meeting Te Tiriti obligations through providing manaakitanga when we feed extended whānau after a long day, or feed 'hangry' whānau and de-escalate tricky situations".
Labour's health spokesperson said offering toast to hospital night staff, patients and visitors was fair and far more healthy than eating from vending machines.
Dr Ayesha Verrall said Labour's workforce plan included free food for staff because it was needed.
"The reality of being a night-time shift worker, or someone supporting a patient in hospital - something like toast keeps you going, until the cafeteria opens in the morning."
She said nutrition was not the key issue, and she suspected the cuts were likely being made to claw back costs in the wider health system.
"New Zealand has enough money for us to be able to give women a cup of tea and piece of toast after they've given birth.
"This is a sign of the government's small-minded cost cutting."
Dr Verrall said a piece of toast or an ice block was a small comfort that medical staff can offer women
Toast was a lot healthier than buying in fast food or going to a hospital vending machine, she added.
In a statement on Saturday, Health NZ said it started offering a post-birth meal earlier in August, because it was more nutritious.
"This change was made earlier in the month. We acknowledge there may have been some instances where the change has not been implemented correctly and some women may not have been offered a meal post birth.
"We are working to improve the process to ensure women are offered the choice of a meal.
"While we are working on this process women will continue to be offered toast and spreads post birth."
