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

just curious how long were in you hospital after having your baby?

2 days both times - both babies jaundice and dc2 I had a PPH
What was your experience of care on the postnatal ward?
First time - great. Second time horrific. Never made it to actually PN ward just the recovery ward as they were so busy but one midwife was vile and a abusive. Were you happy with the length of time you were in for? Wanted home earlier esp 2nd time
Did your baby settle on the ward?
Ds didn't settle until he was about 3 years old!!! Dd did.
Did you get support at home if you had a difficult birth or you were a first time mum?
Dh was there....

First DS born at 5am, PPH but discharged about 8pm. Saw the community midwife team for feeding support for about 4 days(only open in the day with about 4 rooms but we could stay as long as we like as women no longer give birth there). DS2 born 8am discharged about 5pm.

12 hours with first child.
8 days with preemie twins
24 hours with last as they were waiting on blood test (never came and home midwife had to bring results next day).

Planned c section - baby born 10.30 on the Thursday, left Friday afternoon at some point. Post natal ward was awful. Private room was busy (was actually one of my NCT group who’d given birth a few days before me). Did not get given any painkillers on the Friday. Kept asking to be discharged so I could go home and take some paracetamol, but it took actual hours of waiting for them to issue me with painkillers to take home (which turned out to be paracetamol 😬). Midwives were varied, some v helpful, others made to feel like a nuisance. Once back home was very very sore and would have preferred to have been in a hospital bed rather than propped up with hundreds of pillows, but only if I’d had a private room.

2 hours. I was outraged... midwife looked at me as if to say what are you still doing here? Then said I must be keen to get home... er not really, I'd actually quite like to sleep and go home later.

3 days with baby number 1 and 15 hours with baby number 2. I was back in time to send baby number 1 to nursery with baby 2 it was that quick 😂 Excellent care all round.

Same here, kicked out with a couple of paracetamol and a poorly baby who had to be resuscitated several times. 12 hours later rushed back in, baby needing resuscitating again, me paralysed with retention and infection. Was at N&N and absolutely horrific.

Ds1- born at 1.25am so in that night and the following night for bf support. postnatal ward alright, a bit meh - I remember being shocked they had skeleton staff overnight. Unfortunately ds1 was the one keeping everyone else awake! I was happy enough with the length of time we stayed, they weren't in a rush to get us out, I remember seeing a few empty beds. Difficult birth, very little support postnatal though which was another shock.

Ds2 - born at 7.17pm so in that night but was keen to get home tbh as I was away from ds1 for 4 nights in total. He needed monitoring for 24h then as soon as that was up we were gone. Postnatal ward good, I didn't need or want much help tbh because the birth was much better and I knew how to bf and change nappies at that point. Ds2 also easier and was on a bay with only 1 other mum so actually managed to get sleep which made a huge difference.

Overnight with my firstborn. Around 4-6 hours with my 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th. I think it was closer to the 4 hour mark but my recollection could be a little out. It certainly wasn't any longer than 6 hours.

Ventouse delivery with number 1 (I had some grazing but no tears). The rest were very quick labours- 1-2 hours long. No tears, no interventions.

I was incredibly lucky. Pregnancies were shit though.

8 days. First baby. Bad birth- forceps, episiotomy, 1.2l blood loss, transfusion, very high blood pressure.

Care was good, we were given a free private room. I became very ill with PND later.

First time with DS just over 24 hours. Mostly for monitoring as baby had some unusual potassium levels which I think was probably due to all the fluids they shoved into me during the induction. And I'd had an epidural so couldn't walk for a bit. Ward was 4 beds and noisy. Kept getting woken to check baby and my temp - never seemed to be at the same time - so neither baby nor I slept, having been through an induction that took 48 hours plus in total. Staff were lovely but I couldn't wait to leave.

DD - she was born at 3am and I was home by 6pm the same day. Would have been sooner but I took ages to pass water. Different, smaller, hospital and I had a private room which was lovely and calm for all of us. She slept beautifully. Still, I wouldn't want to have stayed longer.

First baby (emergency c-section) 4 or 5 days (almost all of OHs pat leave ☹️) Care not great, as they were overrun. But the NOISE 😱OMG I don't think I slept at all when I was there. Maternity wards are all horrendous for this alone, regardless of how the midwives are (unless you get a private room of course).

2nd baby (elected c section) was looking forward to some time alone with him before taking him home, but was only in for 24 hours. I'd forgotten how awfully noisy it was, and couldn't wait to leave!!

First time mom at 22, induced two weeks after due date. Very traumatic but a quick birth, left to my own devices once baby was born. No help when I was struggling to settle her and help her latch for breastfeeding. Born in the afternoon, went home the next day. No real aftercare or support. I was young and didn't know any different. Thinking back, I probably needed more guidance than I received

I am in the US.

First baby 2 nights- he had jaundice
Second baby 2 nights- I was GBS+ and didn't arrive in time for the ABX, so they had to keep him for observation
Third baby- 3 nights. I had a c section and they were trying to get on top of my pain.

Postpartum care was non existent for the first 2 births. Just a quick follow up at 6 weeks.

Postpartum care after my c section was a follow up at 2 weeks to check my stitches and then nothing until 8 weeks.

@NewbieToThis Induced at 39+5 as my pelvis had given up and I literally could not stand up 😳😬 Induction started Sunday morning at 9am and baby born Tuesday morning at 3am.

Arrived on post natal ward at 4am and was put in a single room with my baby and a set of crutches. I could only just walk with the crutches due to the pelvic injury. I was unable to move my legs to the side at all. Was left perched on the edge of the hospital bed with feet on the floor as I couldn’t turn myself to get into bed and there was nobody available to help me 👍🏻 So I sat there for the duration of my stay.

I was there over 2 mealtimes but able to eat anything as meals were served from a trolley at the end of the corridor and you had to go and get your own. I was unable to walk without crutches and couldn’t carry a plate 🙈 and there was nobody that could bring me a meal. I hadn’t eaten for 36 hours as I’d had to stop eating during my induction. And was trying to breastfeed.

I asked for breast feeding support and a volunteer lady arrived and stood at the door to my room holding a knitted boob showing me what to do for 30 seconds then left 😅

I thought all my prayers would be answered when DH got to come for his 30min visit that afternoon (during covid lockdowns) only to be told that as baby had been born at 3am Tues morning, DH had already had his 30 min visit for the day and wouldn’t be allowed to visit again until the Wed afternoon!

They advised that I stayed overnight for no other reason than “you’ve just given birth” so I discharged us and we were home by 4pm.

I had ECS on a Tuesday night and left Friday evening but they would have been happy for me to go home earlier if I wanted to. Had really good care and all staff were so nice and helpful.

4 days with first baby after cesarean. Discharged very anaemic, breathless with a chest infection. Took 6 months to fully get bloods up and start feeling normal again.

12 hours after 2nd baby. 28 hour labour, vaginal birth with ventouse. Abit dizzy when I left but recovered quickly at home after a bloody good dinner!

DS1 I was in around 48 hours (2 nights) because my waters broke but no contractions so admitted on Sunday afternoon & induction started Monday. Gave birth late Monday so stayed another night.

first night in a room with one other woman. Had to shower in cold water-ok not the end of the world but not great. They left my husband downstairs for an hour on the Monday morning, I got so upset as they told me he hadn’t turned up. Went for a shower next morning & there was blood everywhere in bathroom. The room had 5 other mothers none of which could get out of bed. I ended up serving drinks to them all because none had received a drink. I needed Anti-D vaccination & had to wait for it to be sent by a courrier. Then lunch was served while I was breastfeeding & there was none left so I went without food. There’s more but it was shoddy.

DS2 About 4 hours. Got to hospital at 11am & had given birth by 11.40am. Stitched up & taken to ward where I refused to get into bed. I feared they’d make me stay & I was adamant I was going home. I would have been home earlier but had to wait for results to make sure my previous Anti-D vaccination was still effective. It was.

I never felt unsafe but I didn’t feel cared for.
It was 25 & 23 years ago.

Had elective c section abroad - 8 days in hospital due to DS spending days 4-8 in Neonatal. It would have been a 5 day stay normally for c sec. Really positive experience, shared a room and bathroom with 1 other new mum. All nappies, baby clothes and baby stuff provided. Almost 1:1 midwife care and all midwives were attentive, lovely, patient. Food was great too. First meal came with brie and there was a seafood dish (basically what I hadn't been able to eat in pregnancy) I was happy to be there. Day 4 they gave me a private room due to DS going to neonatal.

24 hours after an emergency c section with first baby. I couldn’t fault the care on post-natal ward to be honest. I was taken there in the night so DP had to leave but the staff were adamant that I wasn’t to try and pick up the baby and there was someone there within 30 seconds of pressing my buzzer, plus other staff checking in frequently to see whether I needed help.

TW: Loss

First birth was a failed induction followed by a C-Section. Baby was born with a fatal condition. I was immediately moved from the mother and baby ward to the pre-natal ward to be closer to NICU. Baby died at one day old, I was kept in hospital 3 nights.

2nd was planned c-section. He was taken to NICU as a precaution but returned to me after 10 hours. I was going to be released after 3 nights but developed eclampsia and kept one additional night. It resolved itself.

I think three nights after a c-section is standard where I live.

Went in 1am had baby 1.15am home by 3.30am.

DH said he'd been shopping in Sainsbury's longer!

2nd baby.

1 night. Paid for a private room. Great experience!

Discharged 12 hours after having first and only baby with planned induction, plus epidural and episiotomy. Had a private room before and after (not sure why).

I was ready to leave about 6 hours after the birth but it took them about 8 hours before they removed the catheter and did post-natal checks plus waiting for baby to have the hearing check etc. Then it was hours more for the paperwork. Excellent care, and this was 9 years ago.

Vaginal delivery, stayed four nights due to tearing .