How long did you stay in hospital after having DC1?

[ThePinkParker]

I'm due early September but I've started to think about labour and the after effects of this. I'm giving birth at St Marys in Manchester which has a midwife led unit and a hospital unit in one building on a different floor (not sure if that makes a difference) so I assume ill be in the midwife led section as I am a FTM but no problems so far!
Anyway, to cut to the chase, how long were you in hospital after giving birth & why?
I want to be in & out ASAP as I can't stand the thought of being in the postnatal ward without DP!

Two nights with DS1 - live overseas so private hospital and DH stayed too. Was lovely to just spend the few days nursing, watching TV, having visitors, eating and being fussed over by nurses.

One night with DS2 although should probably have stayed two days - he was tiny and jaundiced but fed well from the minute he was born. I also had no qualms letting the midwives take him with them when I was trying to catch up on sleep. He wasn't crying, just kept me awake with all his grunting and farting the noisy little bugger.

If I have a third I'm going to stay as long as I can!

Just over 24 hours because I was 18 at the time. One mw wanted me to stay another night but the doctor was happy to discharge me. I was ready for home after a couple of hours tbh!

I was in 2 nights, from Saturday night to Monday morning, Saturday night was labouring then discharged at 11 on Monday morning

I also wanted to be in and out ASAP i gave birth at 1am in the morning. I had an epidural and forceps delivery and they let me go home at 8pm that night after i begged the Anesthetist (sp?) I was also BF.

5 days. DS was born last Sunday 12:48am, 4 weeks early. Due to him being back to back, after a 24 hour labour and me getting an infection forceps were used to turn him.
So with him being early and me catching infection we were in from Sunday to Thursday

3-4 nights (a bit of a blur...) as I needed a transfusion after long and traumatic labour. Hoping to have a c-section this time.

2 nights purely to help establish breastfeeding. Probably should have stayed longer as 8 weeks later we are still working on that!!

I was really lucky as I was the only one in the postnatal ward on my first night, so we got all the attention!

4 days post DC1. Had an emergency section. They would have let me out after 2 days, but I was struggling to establish breastfeeding.

My friends who had complication-free vaginal births have been home within 24 hours.

Two nights. Section at 9pm on Thursday. Discharged late morning on Saturday. The standard is 48 hours but I was recovering well and my prem baby was being moved to another hospital so they were happy to let me go early.

DS was born on Wednesday and I came home on Sunday but had been in for 7 weeks in total with pre eclampsia. I was so glad to be home

DD born at 22.42 so stayed until lunch time the next day.

I went in 11.30pm on the Tuesday night, gave birth just after 7am on Wednesday, and left on Friday afternoon. I thought I wanted to leave ASAP too, but I'm so glad I stayed those two nights. I stayed the first cos I'd had pethedine and we hadn't sorted the breastfeeding yet, and the second because he still wasn't feeding. I think it's marvellous that there was no real medical need as such to stay, they just let me so that they could help. We're still BFing at 9 weeks so it was well worth it! I had a lovely time in hospital (although that might be the raging post-partum hormones colouring my memory) and wished I was back there a lot in the hard times in the subsequent few weeks.

Went in at 2:30 am, DD born at 5am, meconium in waters so had to wait 12 hours. Home by 7:30pm. Having been in labour for 5 days and not slept in that time in the build up I regret not staying the night as she cried for 14 hours non stop when we got her home...

Two nights afterwards. I spent a week in hospital in total being induced for PE, then giving birth, then on the brink of a blood transfusion as my iron had dropped seriously low.

1 night, so DS could have 3 hourly obs for GBS.

Thought I'd want to be in and out, but really appreciated having so many MWs around to ask questions to!! Also DH stayed the night with me, everyone's partners were allowed to stay. Wouldn't have fancied doing DS's first night without him!

A week, DC1 was severly jaundiced and unable to feed properly so wasn't discharged until his 7th day, and we had to return every morning for another ten days after that.

I stayed in for five days through choice, to get breastfeeding established with plenty of round-the-clock help.

I was out within 8 hours with my second child though, wanted to get home to show DC1 his new baby brother!

I could have gone home a couple hours after I believe but my mum and sister said they didn't have the baby car seat so I unfortunately got stuck in hospital for 34 hours! Then it took them ages to realise I was still there to then discharge me. (I probably had to stay in for some other reason, but I don't know!)

6 hours - waters broke 4.48am, went to first hospital, no room at the inn (DD was born at 34 weeks), blue lighted to another hospital 40 miles away. Gave birth at 2.26am, DD was born in poor condition, she was blue lighted to another hospital for NICU at 4 hours old. I only had to have a wee and walk out unaided, however DD was home after 8 weeks. We were probably an unusual case.

I had an epidural and ventouse (not the plan, started in the birth pool with just gas and air). I stayed in for two nights. Baby was fine but the midwives thought I looked too pale and not quite right after the first night. Also I wanted to stay as I couldn't get DD to latch at most feeds so needed the midwives help each time. Had just about got the hang of it after the six hour cluster feed that was the second night; quite glad I was in hospital for that as midwives kept reassuring it was just to get my milk to come in quicker. Next time I hope I'll have my planned natural birth and I now know how to breastfeed so I would be happy to I go home quickly.

12 hours - as soon as the epidural had worn off enough for me to walk I was out of there!

2 and a half nights after emcs - the half because dd was born at 00.45. I felt fine to go after one but my bp was slightly high. In retrospect I wish I'd discharged myself after the one as it was impossible to sleep there and after a very long slow labour I'd not slept properly in 7 nights by the time I got back home. Like a pp said, I was pretty much hallucinating when I got back home but felt so much better away from the awful postnatal ward and with proper food and a clean bathroom!

5 nights - 1st night in labour baby born at 5am then 4 more nights with baby who would not feed!

C Section after induction...

In Wednesday afternoon for induction
DD born Friday night
Home Monday morning

DC1 - gave birth 10pm, stayed until about 5pm the next day. Would have liked to go sooner (didn't want to be in hospital in the first place!) but they wanted me to stay and get some rest after an exhausting birth, which with hindsight was probably the right thing.

DC2 - gave birth 10am, was a much shorter and easier birth so was out by 2pm and home by 3pm, having stopped at the toy shop on the way home to buy DC1 a gift from DC2...

DS, went into labour Friday night, EMCS Sunday morning, we both caught an infection during labour so home on the next Friday.