Do I have a choice whether to be admitted onto the post labour ward after giving birth to second child?

[RYJA248]

After I gave birth to my first child I was sent home 4.5 hours after I had given birth. I had a temperature and I hadn't established breastfeeding properly but was still sent home without being admitted up onto the post labour ward. I felt like this wasn't a great start to my parenting journey as I went home with various health anxieties about myself and wasn't aware our breastfeeding latch was poor until poor weight gain was identified and by this point my mental health was suffering from an unhappy and hungry baby. And I also had a really awful chest infection the day after my baby was born. We eventually got help with breastfeeding but can't help but think this would have been avoided if I was kept in hospital for a few hours longer and had feeding assistance and identified I needed antibiotics sooner.

so my question is - when I give birth to my second child (I understand that you get discharged even quicker with second baby) will I get the option to get admitted onto the post labour ward or will I not be given that option? Any advice / experience welcome.

I suspect it depends on where you live and the policies of the individual hospital. Talk to your midwife about your concerns.

I suspect if you express any kind of concern about mental health/breastfeeding/baby etc they’ll keep you in. I thought this was going to be a post going the other way asking if you could decide to go home when they want you to stay! I’m amazed they sent you home with a temperature.

Doesn't sound great that they discharged you while you were ill but that might be an indication of the state of the post natal ward!

To be honest I think most people find they can get better rest and support at home than on the ward.

I would see if you can find some breastfeeding support to come and see you at home and get out of hospital asap unless you or the baby are ill.
At home you'll be able to sleep, eat well and will have a clean bathroom to use.

I will say that I did not find my stay in the post natal ward helpful at all. I was made to stay in due to a complication in birth. I wanted to go as I had amazing support at home but I was told I needed monitoring and tests every hour. Was kept in overnight and most of the next day without a single test done or the doctor ever coming back. Luckily everything was fine but nothing would have been picked up.

Also, no help with breast feeding. It was a lactation consultant and osteopath who saved the day for us.

Individuals on the ward were brilliant. There were women in much worse situations so the midwives and nurses prioritised their time correctly, I didnt make the cut. They need much more systemic support than they have but until then you cannot guarantee what they will be able to help with.

There are free breastfeeding support groups that were great, you can do your research for your area and prep your birth partner to advocate for you post birth. If it were me though, I focus on what I could control and that would be setting up home. Pulling in family, freezer prep meals etc.

It sounds like a busy hospital if they sent you home with a temperature. They must have been happy about the baby though, if they let you go.

We were kept in for 7days because both baby and I had temperature during labour. I felt fine after 24hrs but I think they wanted to do tests on a baby and keep baby on antibiotics that whole week.

Even though I didnt want to be in hospital, It worked out in the end as I was finding it hard to get baby to latch and the midwives helped me get the hang of it which took a few days.

I thought this was going to be the opposite question! I had to be quite forceful about going home with DD2 and it only worked out because she was born in the morning so there was time to do all the checks etc - I definitely didn't want to stay.

I think it will depend on how busy your hospital is. In 2021 DD1 was diagnosed with sepsis at 23hrs old and spent two weeks on NICU / SCBU plus i had to stay in the postnatal ward for 5 days. We were very nearly discharged before it was picked up, literally when some blood results came back as we were packing up all our things. So naturally I was very nervous about something similar happening with DD2 when she was born earlier this year. I told every midwife I came into contact with about what had happened and when they came to discharge us after DD2 was born, I explicitly said how worried I was and could we stay for one extra night if the bed wasn't needed for someone else. They were perfectly happy for us to do so and even arranged for a neonatalogist to give DD2 a check over for my peace of mind. I'll never forget the kindness they showed to me. And this was all in a hospital that was technically rated Inadequate by CQC. So my advice would be just to be open about your experience and see what they say?