Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Childbirth

Share experiences and get support around labour, birth and recovery.

Original poster

How long did you stay in hospital after giving birth?

109 replies

LouB1990 · 13/04/2019 22:01

Hi I’m having my first baby I just wanted to know on average how long people stay in hospital. I would love to be in and out in the same day. How likely is this?x

OP posts:
Rarotonga · 15/04/2019 23:19

A week. Ds was poorly. It was a long week!

LordPickle · 15/04/2019 23:24

I was in for 1 night because I ran a fever (due to the epidural) and they wanted to keep me in for another night but I cried so they let me go home.

Nothing worse than staying in the hospital overnight after childbirth. No support and your DH can't stay so it's just you (after having gone through labour!) and a tiny newborn baby.

Do everything you can to go home.

applesbananasgrapes · 15/04/2019 23:25

A few hours. They wanted me to stay overnight but I declined :)

darnsarf · 15/04/2019 23:27

Dc1 within 24 hours
Dc2 within 24 hours even though I was told I'd be in a few days due to induction, GD and group b strep

applesbananasgrapes · 15/04/2019 23:44

was in for 1 night because I ran a fever (due to the epidural) and they wanted to keep me in for another night but I cried so they let me go home.

It was always your own decision to stay in or not, they can’t not ‘let’ you go home in this type of scenario. They wanted to keep me in overnight because I was a little pale and dizzy but I declined.

onedream · 16/04/2019 07:17

Lilo was born 22:57 and I went home next day around 7pm..it was my second baby and I had a 3rd degree tear but still was happy to go next day..it will depend on your delivery and also how well you coping, how are you feeling and how is the baby, feeding, etc.

DonnaDarko · 16/04/2019 07:21

A day and a half. They wanted us to stay longer for some reason but we pushed to get discharged as I wanted to go home. The place was too damn hot ( I swear the thermostat was on 30) so I couldn't sleep and the food was awful. At least I knew at home i'd be comfortable and well fed!

MrBobLoblaw · 16/04/2019 07:46

DS was born at 10pm so that night and then the following night. All was well but the hospital is a really busy city hospital so it took ages for us to be seen by the people who check baby's hearing.

It was soo frustrating and I just wanted to be home with my baby, especially as DP didn't have anywhere to sleep so had to go home but I wish now I'd made the most of having experts to hand WRT breastfeeding and tongue tie etc.

elliejjtiny · 17/04/2019 10:48

Dc1 born at home
Dc2 and Dc3 3 hours
Dc4 was born at 35 weeks via elcs. I was in for 3 days and he was in for 4 weeks
Dc5 was born at almost 37 weeks via emcs and we were both in for a week.

CIT80 · 17/04/2019 10:51

DS1 was born midday and I went home midday the next day - I wanted to go home same day but my Nan insisted I stay in - I wish I had gone home - my following two children were born at home

PBobs · 20/04/2019 02:20

Country I'm giving birth in has a 3 night stay policy as standard for all births. They do it to enable all baby checks, establish feeding etc. I'll be ready to go home after that but pleased to have 3 days with DH and baby with support if we need it. Plus we'll be "living" in an AirBnB at the time so not really "at home".

NorthernRunner · 20/04/2019 08:56

Dd was born early hours on a Friday morning, but we had been in since 8pm on the previous Wednesday, I had to be induced and it took ages. By the time it got to 9am I was ready to leave and never go back! Dd had all her checks and she was feeding, they just wanted to keep an eye on me because I had lost a lot of blood. It got to about 2pm and still no sign of doctor, so I said to the nurse on the ward that I would like to leave as i know I am fine, they had no concerns about baby, so I just didn’t see need to hang around. Anyway about 5pm the doctor came and my husband and I left.
I’m just grateful we had a side room, but this time round I think we are going to either go for a water birth in midwife led unit or home birth, mostly to avoid the faff afterwards!

FluffySocks123 · 20/04/2019 09:42

Had dd at 1am went home at 5pm - would have been home earlier except they couldn't find a consultant ....

GirlOfTudor · 22/07/2022 14:46

5 days.

Son was born at 6am and outside of the 24 hours safe window after waters breaking, so we were kept in for monitoring for 12 hours. Then staff were late doing checks so we were still there at 9pm. I'm grateful they were, as my son was too sleepy to feed. He ended up in the neonatal unit being tube fed and on antibiotics. If we'd left earlier, we'd have ended up back at the hospital and our story might have been different.
I was allowed to stay on the contingency ward as I was breastfeeding.
Whilst there, he also had the hearing re-test done and an additional vaccine, so we didn't have to attend appointments for these when home.

Loved my stay there. The staff were great and I loved being made 3 meals a day plus snacks and drinks 🙏🏻

IDontDrinkTea · 22/07/2022 14:51

Both times about 12 hours. I could have gone home earlier, but didn’t want to leave in the middle of the night (children born in the evening)

Sunnyshoeshine · 22/07/2022 14:54

5 days + 1 day in antenatal before labour started.

DD had sepsis at 23hrs old - she was in NICU for 2 weeks. I was kept in for monitoring of my infection risk - i developed a UTI at 48hrs post partum so they kept me until that was under control. Then i was discharged from postnatal to go and stay in the parent rooms on neonatal until DD could come home.

WhenDovesFly · 22/07/2022 14:55

First DD I stayed one night. We'd booked and paid for a separate room which was peaceful but lonely a lot of the time (23yrs ago when they stuck to set visiting hours).

Second DD I was on the general ward. I left after about 6 hours because I couldn't stand all the noise from other people's visitors, and it was stressing me out.

Both DDs born around 8/9am.

Sunnyshoeshine · 22/07/2022 14:55

I should add that once DD was taken to NICU i was given a private side room away from all the other mums with their babies, so it actually wasn't too bad and meant i could go and see DD whenever i wanted.

HorribleHerstory · 22/07/2022 14:56

0 hours. Didn’t go to hospital/make it to hospital.

I had a midwife with me for 30 minutes after my first baby was born, 1 and a half hours after my second baby was born, 2 hours after my third baby was born.

i wonder why it’s OK to leave people at home sooner postpartum than it is to leave a hospital - ie why 6 hours when you aren’t going to get a midwife with you for 6 hours after the birth if you give birth elsewhere.

brokengoalposts · 22/07/2022 15:03

Zombie!!

GG1986 · 22/07/2022 15:08

Had baby at 3pm on a Friday, discharged at 1pm on the Sunday. They kept me longer as I was trying to establish breastfeeding and had a fast heart rate, they wanted it under 100 before letting me go.

Sunnysideup999 · 22/07/2022 15:09

2 days with my first but it was a horrific birth (sorry if you’d rather not know that!) and we were discharged far to soon. We had lots of following complications because of it.
4 nights with my second . Fortunately no subsequent issues or infection afterwards.
if you’re not ready to be discharged / feel unwell or like you haven’t established breast feeding then don’t let them push you out too soon.

MamaBear1022 · 22/07/2022 15:10

Induced on Friday and sent home to labour. Came back Saturday morning and had DS on Sunday evening by CS and went home Monday night! Couldn't wait to get home!!

McConkeysPlate · 22/07/2022 15:12

I had a 4 hour discharge as it was very straight forward.

Mommabear20 · 22/07/2022 15:17

Has 2 natural and uncomplicated births, stayed in 36 hours after DD was born as was attempting BF and they were making sure the patch was right before discharge. With DS he was Bottle fed so discharged 15 hours after delivery, would have been alot less but there was only 1 doctor across all 3 maternity units that day and they kept getting called to deliveries so discharges were getting delayed.

Swipe left for the next trending thread