AIBU to ask how soon you went home after a C-section?

[babyjellyfish]

Posting for traffic.

How soon did you go home after your C-section? Would you have preferred to go home sooner or stay for longer, and why?

Interested to hear from people who had both ELCS and EMCS.

Thanks.

18 months ago so covid might have helped with the quick discharge. But born (unplanned but not emergency section) at 10.30pm and I was home by 4pm the next day. I was only on the ward from 5am and its so noisy, I wanted to be home asap

36 hours with EMCS, 24 hours with ELCS (I was champing at the bit to leave!)

Can I check why you’re asking. The length of time will really depend on how you/ baby are doing so I don’t think finding out about others will necessarily be helpful. If mum and baby are doing well, feeding establishes etc then you can definitely be out in about a day but I think that’s usually relatively uncommon for first births. How soon you want to go home again will really depend on the hospital setup and what you’re going back home to 🤷‍♀️ If you’re lucky enough to get a private room I can imagine that you’d not mind staying for a few nights but if you have other kids at home and are well supported, or if you’re in a ward with other mums/ babies at the hospital (which equates to no sleep) I think most people are glad to get home ASAP.

EMCS almost exactly 48 hours. Was happy to get home, as it was during Covid and partners could only visit 2 hours/day.

Wouldn’t have wanted to go home too much before that though.

EMCS 11 yrs ago. Went home 48hrs later and was more than ready. I begged to go home and was discharged at 9pm. Hated the ward.

First one was emergency c section with sepsis and major haemorrhage, out in 48 hours

Second was planned c section, had major complications after and nearly died, was there for 10 days

EMCS - 5 days. It was awful. A few nights is doable. 5 and you really realise how impossible it is to properly rest in a hospital. And obviously baby and I needed the longer stay, so things a lot more stressful in general so perhaps I am being a little unfair here.
ELCS - Home the next day. Brilliant.

I had planned C-section late Friday morning, was home Saturday afternoon. I had to be able to pass a certain amount of urine after having the catheter removed, and had to be able to get up and move around before being discharged.

Two nights. Had emergency with first and elected with second and two nights with each. Was just right with each. I loved it. That time in the hospital with nothing to do with be with my baby. I was offered the opportunity to stay longer but two nights was enough for me.

I took eye mask, and black cloth to cover my eyes, and foam ear plugs and ear protectors to be able to sleep at night though. Essential! I slept well. Though could still hear baby when cried. I slept with my baby on the bed next to me, so I could reach them when I couldn't move well due to the c-section.

Had c section at 3pm on Tuesday. Went home Thursday about 6 pm. Wish id gone home the evening before. Tuesday night I was well looked after. Wednesday night was hard - trying to feed and wind a day after surgery - midwives great but very short staffed. DH would have helped massively if I’d been home. I would have had more rest.

Two C-sections here. First, emergency, second - elective. With the first one I spent four nights in the hospital (in the States) and was very anxious about getting home, as we had no family or close friends around.
Second time, here, in the UK, 3 nights in the God-awful conditions, with the non-stop stream of visitors during the day to the other women in the room, no privacy, as curtains had to be open, no chance to rest as it was so noisy. Couldn't wait to get back home.

Planned c sections 1st a week he was he wasn’t feeding well - 23 years ago
2nd 3 nights 20 years ago

EMCS 36 hrs. Could not wait to leave. Don’t expect any sleep on a maternity ward.

EMCS, I was in for about 24 hours after surgery. I think I would have been in longer but this was in July during the extreme heat. There was no air conditioning in the hospital so it was deemed safer for me and baby to be at home than in hospital.

I had an EMCS. I was allowed to be discharged 24 hours after because my baby was in NICU and they had a room for me there with her.

I think they wanted me to stay a bit longer as I had preeclampsia but they said I could stay with her, though it meant because I was discharged as their patient I had to give up the morphine unfortunately!

First one Tuesday 06:56 and the other at 11:21 on the Friday.

I was released at 15:00 on the Wednesday, and 17:00 on the Sunday.

Also... I was blissfully happy staying in hospital. Breastfeeding, snuggling and snoozing in peace with lots of maternity toast 😍

I'd like to go back 😂

EmergencyCS at 11.15 Saturday morning released on Sunday evening around 8pm - I was so ready for home! The drive was terrible, but ibuprofen and paracetamol every four hours and it was manageable!

EMCS in 2017 - home on day 3, mainly stayed that long because dd was very poorly.
ELCS in 2020 - 5 days. DTs struggled with feeding
ELCS in 2022 - next day! ELCS at 10am, discharged the following afternoon.

This is so helpful - thanks everyone. My CS is in December and I’d assumed I would be in for about 5 days if everything was fine, longer if not! Didn’t realise I could be out so quickly.

Got to the ward at 3am after an EMCS and was discharged 3pm the next day. They would have discharged me the same day but stayed the night due to low blood pressure.
As soon as the catheter was out I moved about as much as possible as there was very little support in the hospital and I wanted to go home as soon as possible.

ELCS on a Friday afternoon, uterus tore during it so had a massive haemorrhage. Came home on first thing Sunday morning before bloods were back which showed I obviously needed a blood transfusion. Lots of pain at site of tear but stayed in room for 4 days or so.

Emcs 6 days 5 nights. Laboured for 14hrs or so. Had to stay as we were both on antibiotics and had to wait for infection levels to come down in baby. Was torture! Hardly slept a wink with all the babies crying, folk being brought in during the night, lights turned on trying to show mums how to breastfeed. Checking blood pressure and temps on me and baby. Then the nurses not talking very quietly, the fone ringing. Honestly worse than the birth!

2nd meant to be planned section but waters broke 3wks early contractions started right away and 11hrs later finally born via section was technically an emcs but wasn't an emergency as such but to me it was I was in bloody agony waiting with no pain relief! Stayed 1 night but shld have stayed probably another didn't get out until after 8pm and went home with catheter in. They overfilled my bladder (made me drink jugs of water) to get me to go to the toilet and I cldnt. I had to go bk a few days later to get it out and get my bladder scanned to check they hadn't done any lasting damage.

ELCS- 4 nights then I discharged myself (they had said that morning I could go but hadn’t got round to doing the paperwork so at 8pm I’d had enough and left). I had a planned stay on the high dependency unit for the first night (I had Pre eclampsia and my blood pressure went a bit mad after giving birth) then normal ward for the following 3 nights. It was horrendous. My husband couldn’t stay, I got zero rest, there was no care whatsoever, no help with BF (I was a first time mum and they said to me ‘why do you want your DC to go hungry’ when I said I wanted to BF and didn’t want to give her formula), they made you walk to the nurses station to collect your tray of food each meal rather than bringing it to you. It was just an awful experience.

The walking to collect food would have been ok but you had to wheel your baby in the cot with one hand and carry the tray in the other, really hard to do 24 hours after having a c section.