How long did you stay in hospital after giving birth?

[NewbieToThis]

Posting here for traffic.

just curious how long were in you hospital after having your baby? What was your experience of care on the postnatal ward? Were you happy with the length of time you were in for? Did your baby settle on the ward? Did you get support at home if you had a difficult birth or you were a first time mum

26 hours with a 36 weeker (baby was ok) and a first time mum! I was pleased at the time to get out quickly but when I look back now I think surely that wasn't right? They had women waiting for beds which I think contributed to me getting out so quick!

Admitted Sunday about 5am. DD born 2am Monday. Discharged wed lunchtime after emergency section and jaundice for baby. Post natal ward was awful.

Horrendous birth.
First time mum.
I wanted to go home but they insisted I stay the night for monitoring.
4 bed ward, didn’t sleep all night.
DH at home, so some support, but ebf so limit to what he could do.

Sorry to answer other questions, care on the ward average, I never got any pain relief I asked for. As for baby settling they were so new they basically slept the whole time! Worst part was being conned from those ladies who take the photos and sell them to you, can't remember the company name again but I'm totally against that practise.

DS - 3 days (would have been earlier but there was issues with feeding)

DD - 1 hr and 40 minutes. I literally gave birth, waited for post natal checks, had a shower and went.

I'll leave you to work out whether I was happy with the hospital care with DS, or not :)

Less than 24 hrs with my first - had to stay over night because she had a low birth weight, and also something happened to me during birth which later got mentioned in a medical journal.
My overnight stay was ok, think there was just one other person on the ward with me though.

6 hours post birth with my second, would have been quicker but my first wee was just under the required amount so had to chug some more water and go again. Decided to do the hoovering as soon as I got in 🤣

I stayed for 5 days for breastfeeding support. They didn't think to tell me about community feeding support available otherwise I would have gone home. In hindsight, it was a traumatic waste of time and really, of NHS resources. I could have gone home on day 1 and been supported by the infant feeding team and community midwives. Instead I stayed there with every man and his dog giving me different advice and the feeding team weren't in until Friday! I'm still sad about it.
Some other people went home the same day.
Baby settled as much as a newborn can settle in any environment - sometimes sleeping, sometimes awake.
Why do you ask, OP?

Italy -3 days with first ds then 4 days with second ( caesarean )
The care was faultless.
However no painkillers or relief during birth. I still suffer ptsd from the trauma.

1st was a home birth
2nd I was in nearly a week in a private room.

First time: 2 nights - 1 one recovery ward (amazing care, v quiet), 1 one normal ward (loud and minimal care). Was the right time to stay in though - I was a mess.

Second time: 1 night - but baby born around 9am, could absolutely have left same day but paeds were too busy to do baby checks and get us discharged.

Both babes were happier at home than on the ward.
Both times we were well supported once home by HVs and MWs.

About 24hrs but that was only because we were struggling with breastfeeding. In a midwife led unit, no ward - everyone had their own ensuite bedroom. I still barely slept because I couldn't figure out how to turn the light off and midwives kept coming in every 2 hrs.

5 days with first. Had a section. Care was fine. I needdd a lot of help with the pain and with breast feeding. Baby was fine. I hated sharing a room with 3 others and their babies.

10 days with second. 3 days in high dependency ward then 7 in post natal. Had my own en-suite room this time which which was so much better. Baby was in SCBU for 11 nights. Care was poor at first but DH complained and created a stink and it was much improved after that.

DD1 - I was induced and in for a week in total. DD1 and I both had infections, she was in special care, I was hooked up to IV antibiotics. I was in a private room (no maternity wards in that hospital). Not fun.

DD2 - ELCS. In and out in 24 hours. On mat ward but only one other bed occupied. It was all bloody marvellous.

3 whole hours

Two days with DD1, about 36 hours with DD2. Both C-sections.

Two different hospitals. Hospital 1 was smaller and frankly friendlier - I felt very supported while I was in and they were very kind and helpful. They picked up that I was feeling low about DD1's size (she was well under 5lb and it was a shock as no one had realised during the pregnancy that she was so tiny) and worrying that it was my fault and they got my community midwife to come and have a chat with me, which was really helpful as she was so clear it wasn't anything I'd done - I think that thought could have really festered.

Hospital 2 were fine but (I felt) much more impersonal. So everything that needed to be done was done, and the quality of the care was fine from that point of view, but it did really just feel like you were on a bit of a conveyor belt system.

First Over night demanded discharge it was horrible.
Second home birth
Third didn’t believe I was In labour so went in and discharged straight from delivery room.

Ds1 vaginal birth, born at 7pm on the sunday moved to hospital for an operation as they couldn’t get the placenta out, moved from hospital to maternity home at lunchtime on the Monday. Stayed there for 4 further nights as he wouldn’t feed. Eventually released at 6pm on the friday

sorry that was long

dd born at 9 am by c section, on a Thursday, out by the afternoon of the Saturday

ds2 born at 12pm by c section. Home 26 hours later

Ds 5 days at which point I discharged myself against advice as its had enough.
Dd 16 days. It was a living nightmare, a, ward full of noisy, disruptive inconsiderate make partners.

Both babies were 35 weekers and i was unwell both times, dd was in nicu then treated beside me so I couldn't leave. When I was discharged I had to take her back every day for another 2 weeks.
I was so much more tiring than being at home due to the constant disruption with dd.

First one, one and off for the whole pregnancy, one day in labour, ten days after giving birth.

Second one, 5 days being monitored and then in labour, and 12 days after.

I didn’t mind with the first, the care was fab, and one of my closest friends was on the same small ward as me, so that was a bonus. Because there were lots of us who’d had shit births and pregnancies, and were kept for a good while, I made some life-long friends there.

The second one, despite the care still being great, and the same close friend being in the same ward again (I was overdue, she was early), was way more stressful because I had a 21 month old at home who didn’t understand what was keeping me away.

it was a long time ago, and I think you’d have to be at death’s door to be kept in that long these days.

Both mine were born on the birth suite (amazing postnatal care), unfortunately not the same experience on the postnatal ward due to staffing, I say this as someone who’s worked on postnatal ward.

both births ‘quick’ and after birth

• in 48 hours with first due to difficulty breastfeeding - still syringe feeding when got home. Was really difficult few weeks/months feeding
• in just over 24 hours with second due to monitoring gurgling breathing

ifs so variable - you may be in hours, days (due to baby or a post c-section minor complication) or weeks (eg a complicated infection)

limited but helpful midwife and breastfeeding support at home which I think would be case most places

Your OP reads like a survey.

In my case, one night on the ward, noisy/stressful and found the care was rushed and slapdash. Transferred to a local maternity unit for night 2 for help with breastfeeding and the midwives and care were amazing. Surprise, surprise - said unit was closed down in 2019.

I was admitted at 7.30am on the Monday for a scheduled section and was discharged at 2pm on the Tuesday. I couldn't wait to get home personally as we were on a ward and it was very loud so I didn't sleep a wink in hospital plus ds wanted to be held all night and hospital beds aren't great for safe co sleeping so I was terrified of falling asleep. I didn't feel I could relax until I got home and having dh on hand to really support me on call was miles better for me. I found the care to be really good, everyone (bar one awful nurse who appeared the Tuesday morning) were so lovely and honestly couldn't have done enough for you even though they were really busy and there were a few very poorly mums and babies on our ward so i knew they were flat out. I really couldn't fault them but I did feel bad asking for help getting ds in and out of the cot until I could feel my legs again so i probably pushed myself a bit harder overnight than I should have and got extremely dizzy a number of times. I felt really positively about my birth so didn't feel I needed any additional support but we were massively let down in terms of support to breastfeed by the community midwives. If it hadn't been for LLL and my HVs support we'd never have made it as far as we have. I wouldn't say ds settled on the ward but he'd had a big day, everything was new and overstimulating and I can't imagine what it must have been like for him so I think that's totally understandable that he just wanted skin to skin contact the entire time. I was more than happy to oblige with cuddles!

2 nights for each, was in aocu 1st night with first baby which was excellent care, wanted to go home the next night when they moved me to a standard 4 bed maternity ward/room, they didn't want me to go home just yet, to make sure I was definitely okay so they offered me a free private room and for my husband to stay too, we accepted. Left the next day as fast as we could after newborn checks were done.

With 2nd I was in a 2 bed room, but my room mate was very noisy and inconsiderate, they wanted me to stay 3 nights but I needed to be home so they let me go after 2 and I got newborn checks finished via pediatrician visit to our home instead (this was in a different country however, first born was in England).

Both times baby slept great the first night, then would barely settle the 2nd night (I was awake until 5 am holding 2nd baby so he would sleep on me and not daring to sleep myself, waiting for the nurses to come take him for the night checks they do in that country so I could grab an hour or so myself, hence being desperate to go home so my husband could give me some help/relief).

DD around 24 hours but I'd had an epidural. Had virtually no sleep on the ward but as a first time mum felt some comfort being around the midwives.

DS about 6 hours, but I literally gave birth 2 minutes after arriving at the hospital (very nearly in the car park!)

DC1 was around 3 days I think. I had a lovely room to myself and I really enjoyed not having exP snoring in my ear.

DC2 I was home the same day. Gave birth around 11.30am and I was home around 7/8pm. Would have been earlier but I had been taken from one hospital to another and they expected me to be brought back so all my clothes etc were left at the first hospital so my dad had to drive to one hospital to get my stuff then drive the 20 miles to come get me. ExP couldn't drive at the time so we had to wait for my dad to finish work too. First hospital had kept a room for me if I wanted to go back there but I just wanted my own bed after how horribly I had been treated at hospital two.