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

12 hours. I wanted to leave sooner but they insisted on feeding support which I wanted to receive in the community but they weren’t happy. There was a heatwave and the room was unbearably hot and I had to sit waiting around. I just remember feeling that part was worse than the actual birth. I’d consider a home birth next time for this reason but id still rather be close to medical staff and equipment for the birth so you can’t have it all.

First DC 5 hours
Second DC 10 hours which included being taken to theatre to have the placenta removed.

I left straight from the delivery suite with both, never went onto the post labour ward.

Kicked out 24 hours after a complicated Caesarian (placenta praevia) and low birth weight baby.

Ward was truly awful bordering neglect and filthy. Asked to pay for a private room but unavailable due to ‘Covid’ apparently in mid 2023. Left sitting on 13 ‘puppy pads’, for 12 hours, no checks post surgery despite losing 1.5 litres of blood and didn’t see a soul for 8 hours through the night. Didn’t get a wink of sleep due to some loud husband 2 feet away behind a paper curtain….added bonus he continued to use the only loo on the ward for patients which had a broken lock….so also had him barge in whilst trying to collect a urine sample as an extra treat.

Baby dropped 12% body weight, jaundice, zero mention of feeding team, no support, finally privately diagnosed tongue tie at 4 weeks.

Still upsets me now, I’d change so much but in the shock of new motherhood it was all just a blur. I naively just assumed you actually got taken care of.

sorry to put a downer on it and really pleased some people had positive experiences.

Was in hospital for a total of twelves hours, four of them in labour. First and only child. Home by 9pm with a takeaway.

4 days/3 nights for each of mine. They were elective c-sections. Private hospital, so own room/ensuite, nice food, own midwife, DH stayed over. If I’d been on a shared ward, I would have left as soon as possible!!

Recently stayed on a children’s ward when one of my DCs was admitted from A&E… I was hallucinating by day 2 of no sleep.

Why have you abandoned your other thread?

DD - 1 hr and 40 minutes. I literally gave birth, waited for post natal checks, had a shower and went. Omg that sounds like a dream!

DC1 - he was born at night, so I slept in hospital (no visitors allowed to stay) and we had all the checks, papers and faff in the morning and afternoon. Lots of waiting around for different doctors and nurses. Got out that evening.

DC2 - she was born around 4am, so slept on the postnatal ward and went home the next night (again lots of faff - I had an IV that time so needed someone to remove it, and waited probably half the day just for that). No help -I hazily remember having to get up to change baby with blood literally running down my legs. A nurse was in my 'cubicle' at the time and just kind of looked over and wrinkled her nose instead of helping me?

DC3 - she was born at night, slept overnight, then in the morning the nurse thought baby had a heart murmur during a check so had to stay another day. Not fun! Got out around 9pm that night.

Nearly a week. Got a private room due to traumatic birth and massive haemorrhage (and also they fucked up a few things and I think were trying to keep me quiet) so DP stayed the whole time, which was great.

Care was shit. Breastfeeding support was shit (like a PP it was much better in the community). The whole thing was awful.

I’m really sorry OP as I’m guessing you’re pregnant and trying to figure it all out. My advice to you if you can is weigh out for the single rooms - it’s a few hundred quid (although obviously you don’t know how long you’ll be in for). I could never, never have coped in a ward with other women.

About 30 hours 1st birthday, born 9am got out middle of the afternoon the following day.
2nd was meant to be 6 hours but was almost 12.
I feel very lucky both births were very straight forward and all was well with me and babies, but honestly the after care in hospital was shocking, mainly because the staff were so busy. With no2 I was in my own room (maternity ward) but think I was only twice checked on and waited almost 6 hours for someone to come and do baby's hearing check which turned out they had been hours ago and missed us. 1st time not much different, the night staff were actually good but the day staff just didn't have time to come near you if you were 'getting on ok' Also waited hours for discharge paperwork

Nearly a week with first (caesarian). Daytime care was OK, I was terribly weak and couldn't even lift a glass of water, and there was no help. Night time staff were not good, made me feel I was a nuisance. And I had no help with breastfeeding and hence gave up after 2 weeks.

Second, also caesarian, about 4 days. I was much stronger, but in so much pain, and they wouldn't give me painkillers "yes, you can have paracetamol but it's only 3 hours and 57 minutes and you have to wait 4 hours" "yes, it's now 4 and a half hours but there's only me on the ward and there has to be two of us".

I didn't have a third.

This was thirty five years ago.

The postnatal ward is awful - get out as soon as you can! All my babies were much happier at home. The longest I stayed was 24 hours and that was after a C-section, my vaginal births were much shorter stays.

Not in the UK but my insurance covered 5 nights so that’s how long I stayed. I almost left after 3 because I was on a semi-private ward as my private room was given to a new mum with Covid. However my baby was a little dehydrated and jaundiced because my milk took 3 days to come in so I stayed because the nurses and midwives were fantastic and I was happy that we were being very well looked after. I got my private room and stayed another two nights. Both my consultant and the paediatrician said they were happy if stayed in, that not many do.

Just over a week in total following a traumatic birth and massive bleed.
Criticised my "D"M for being in hospital when she had been absolutely fine with all hers.
ExH complained that midwives didn't offer him tea. Bought food for himself from the canteen and bought me nothing as they were feeding me.
Made to feel guilty for wanting to BF.
Cried when they said we could go home as I felt that at least the midwives were looking after me.

First timer
3 days. I discharged myself due to shocking post natal care. It was lockdown so husband allowed in for a grand total of 2
hours a day. So I left. I had to go back in 2 days later as I was very unwell

post natal was the worst care out of the entirety of the pregnancy and labour experience

I had a planned c section. I went home 30 hours after my son was born (midday on Wednesday until 6pm on Thursday). So was in hospital about 36 hours total including the time pre-surgery.

I thought it was a fine amount of time. I was bored and more than ready to go home. I'd been up and walking without problems around 24 hours before we left (6 hours after surgery).

Should add my experience of breastfeeding support in hospital was actually really good but I might have just been lucky. I definitely have friends who didn't have great in hospital support but the community support was much better for them than for me. I ended up seeing a lactation consultant privately who was absolutely brilliant - I couldn't speak highly enough of that experience. Definitely the way to go if you and/or baby are struggling.

5 days/ nights with first due to her medical condition rather than mine

1 night with second

Not much care with either for me as the mother - it has slightly improved with dc2 because they’d moved the hospital to a new building, so smaller wards, better equipped, no having to go off somewhere else for breakfast.

But the food itself had gone massively downhill!

Care for very sick dc1 was faultless though.

First baby, I arrived at 5pm on Sunday and gave birth at 7am on a Monday and left around lunchtime on Tuesday. I had an episiotomy and forceps delivery.

Second baby, admitted around 9pm on a Monday, gave birth around 3am and left by Monday lunchtime. Straight-forward birth with two stitches needed.

My care was pretty good on the postnatal ward. I had no issues. I got my own room following by second delivery.

In terms of care in the delivery room, my first experience wasn't great. I had a long back-to-back labour and a consultant strolled in and announced that they would be using forceps. I wasn't asked and I was exhausted. I just went with it and I really wish they had discussed it with me first. Make sure your DP knows to support you in this way and to ask questions on your behalf if needed. I may very well have ended up going ahead anyway but I didn't feel listened to.

The second experience was much better. My midwives were wonderful. A consultant did try to make me feel bad for putting off an induction on the day I went into labour and that did make me upset (and cause my BP to skyrocket) but otherwise it was perfect.

I gave birth in a GP unit, delivered by a midwife and my GP. I was supposed to stay 10 days but went after 8 days. It was lovely. I was shown how to wash the baby, feeding, anything we wanted or needed. There was a little garden to sit in, all baby clothes were in a big chest of drawers for us to help ourselves. Food was good too! This was all NHS. I had feeding problems and eventually decided to formula feed and they gave me loads of bottles to take home. This was 30 years ago! I don’t think GP units exist any more!

Planned a home birth and ended up ten days in hospital. Had the crash team after birth due massive haemorrhage.

Care after birth was rubbish. Did get a side room. Breastfeeding support was non existent. It was dreadful.

First ds - 3 days, issues with feeding. Didn't mind being on the ward but missed DP as he wasn't allowed to visit (covid). Care was good although we didn't see as many people as I would usually expect due to lockdown.

Second ds - home withing 14 hours. Care was fine. Ward story - Me and dp were giggling about something (not being super loud just giddy from lack of sleep) and heard the husband from the next bay (who by the way had been loudly facetiming on the phone all day and being a general arse) proclaim to his wife "thats what happens when kids have kids" 🤣. I took it as a compliment that at 34, shortly after labour with no pain relief as ds came so fast that someone could mistake me as a teenage mother.

Home support is excellent, my dp is am amazing dad. Although he couldn't help with the feeding, he was up at night when I was to make me a coffee or grab me a snack. He does way more than his fair share of the household chores and works full time. Only thing he's not great at is the mental load but he does make a real effort by using calanders etc but I mostly take the lead in that area. We make a good team.

4 days, easy natural birth. No idea why. Think they forgot I was there...

2.5 hours with both of mine. Never made it to the postnatal ward, I had tea, toast and a bath then home to lie on the sofa while my mum looked after me. I feel very lucky to have had straightforward births!

36 hrs with first, 3rd degree tear needed stitches in surgery and then had to wait for all the medicine needed (antibiotics due to tear, iron for blood loss etc). Care was fine but ward was noisy and hot so was pleased to leave

Had second at home as didn't particularly enjoy the overall hospital experience with first. Was lovely

I gave birth on the mlu within an hour of arriving. We stayed there for about 5h waiting for a bed on the ward as my birth plan specified I needed a side room if available and we were waiting on the discharges for the bed.
I was on the maternity ward for 3 days in a side room as my daughter needed monitoring for poor neonatal adaptation syndrome and we had some support with feeding. I had support overnight with feeding. The only issue I had was I arrived on the ward after they had put the meal requests in for the next day so they had to find me some lunch the next day but they had sorted it by the next meal.