Going home straight after birth

[whattocallhim]

Hi, second baby due imminently and due to covid I would like to get home as soon as possible without going on a ward. It's been a while since I had my first and I was lucky enough to have a private room that time and stayed in 3 days as feeding wasn't going well. As I said I would like to get home ASAP this time but is there a risk something could go wrong if I'm not in the hospital, or would home visits be OK for picking up any problems? If something went wrong would we be able to go back in or would we have to call 111 /999 like anyone else? Sorry for rambling and probably not making much sense. Thanks in advance.

If you have a straight forward birth and there are no issues then you should be able to go straight home from the delivery ward.

You'll get home visits from the midwife and you can still call them / the hospital if you have any concerns.

I went hope 2 hours after DS (my first) was born. I went in at circa 6.30 and by 12.30pm I was home.

The midwives said it was fine as long as I had 1) fed DS 2) had a cup of tea and toast 3) been to the toilet.

I was told to come back if I had any issues or call my Health Visitor.

It was absolutely fine and as a result I got to have a lovely post-birth bath in my own immaculate bathroom and fluffy towels (a world away from what was on offer that the hospital).

Upshot is assuming you and the baby are ok you can get home pretty quickly.

Good luck

Thank you so much both for replying. A shower in my own house sounds wonderful! Glad to hear we could go straight back in if any problems. Feeding could be a problem as dd had a severe tongue tie and we've been told the next one prob will too, but I feel like I know what I am doing more than last time!

DC2 was born around 8.30am. We were home by 4ish. Like PP they just wanted me to wee etc and then I could go.

DC3 was born at 430pm and for reasons I can't quite remember we decided I would stay in rather than be discharged late at night. Left before breakfast the following morning as it was too noisy!

DC4 was born at 6am, we were home around lunch time. Again as soon as id weed and they got me some medication I needed we were off.

Then MW came to do the checks and stuff the following day.

Dc3 is now 3 weeks old. Had him in the midwifery led unit. Had increased BP after birth so they kept an eye on me for a few hours, we were discharged about 6 hours after he was born x

There’s a minimum 6 hour stay here but as long as no complications that’s my plan!

I had ds1 at home and midwives came back for a visit when he was around 20 hours old, maybe less. At this point they picked up an issue and we had to go into hospital for him to be checked.

In my view, you can still be monitored at home sufficiently

If you're in hospital they'll want you to tick boxes like "has had 3 wees", newborn health check done, hearing test done etc all of which take time. You can leave without doing them and if you have birth at home they would be done at later appointments (not the wees obviously). You would be naive not to expect opposition to leaving before they've done them though and you may have to sign a (meaningless) disclaimer saying you're aware that you are discharging yourself and baby against medical advice. I'd expect to have to be there at least 4 hours post birth and that's with pushing to leave.

Is there a reason you aren't considering a home birth?

My last birth baby was born at 3.30pm and we was home at 8.30pm

@User0ne

If you're in hospital they'll want you to tick boxes like "has had 3 wees", newborn health check done, hearing test done etc all of which take time. You can leave without doing them and if you have birth at home they would be done at later appointments (not the wees obviously). You would be naive not to expect opposition to leaving before they've done them though and you may have to sign a (meaningless) disclaimer saying you're aware that you are discharging yourself and baby against medical advice. I'd expect to have to be there at least 4 hours post birth and that's with pushing to leave.

Is there a reason you aren't considering a home birth?

Would all those checks be done at home then presumably if we went home shortly after birth? Strange as it sounds I'm not keen on a home birth at all, I'm an anxious person generally and would hate to be far from hospital for the actual birth. Also I plan on having an epidural ( last time I was up and walking within an hour) and that's obviously not an option at home.

Thanks a million everyone who's taken the time to reply.

I was allowed to go home a few hours after birth, I was only in hospital for about 4 hours total! They just needed to check I'd had a wee and seen the baby feed. They knew I wanted to go home ASAP so said I could have the NIPE (newborn) check done by my GP the next day and the hearing test wasn't until a week or so later anyway. Think Covid has made a difference here as they don't want people hanging around in hospital for longer than necessary!

I gave birth to my second at 10.30 in the morning and went home at 4.30. Absolute bliss! Went to my own bed, food, bathroom and shower, able to lie topless in bed skin to skin to get feeding going without being exposed to total strangers. I then had a homebirth. Wonderful!

Don't think you'll be allowed to go straight home if you've had an epidural, though.

I left the hospital with 2 of my 3 in under 6 hours, and could have been quicker except our local hospital has a busy and overstretched maternity unit so we had to wait around a while to get final internal signoffs. The third took a bit longer because he'd had a more difficult arrival, but still not that long, once he was clearly coping well. There were very minimal checks, from memory mostly about feeding, overall body check including hips and the meconium poo, nothing about '3 wees' like a pp mentioned, I think that for better or worse most places trust mothers who've had babies before to generally know what they're doing.

Like you I didn't want a home birth even though my midwife raised it a number of times with my 3rd, because my babies come fast - I'm so glad I went with the internal midwife led unit instead though, as he ended up getting suddenly distressed, he is absolutely fine now, but the room suddenly flooded with doctors and midwives who really took the situation in hand, it could have been a very different outcome without all of their amazing help.

Am sure that you'll be great, and even if you do stay longer, it won't be long and there are benefits especially if you are able to get a private room and enjoy some calm early snuggles before getting home to busy life with an older DC who also needs your attention! Just make sure you have plenty of snacks packed in case of that situation, or someone who can come with supplies .Good luck!

Let your midwife know that you'd like to go ASAP. They can absolutely facilitate this if everything was straightforward.

I discharged from the delivery unit. Birth had been very straightforward and DD2 was grand. I had had a horrendous experience on the post natal ward with DD1 and was not going to repeat that.

My midwife visited as usual at home. They would pick up on any issues.

I went in 2 days later for newborn checks and anti-d. Took about an hour.

I had Dd in 2006. Went in at 9pm born at 12:40am, home by 3am. Took her the GPs the next day for her check we were both fine.

@whattocallhim probably a good idea to ask your own MW in case it varies from trust to trust, but with births 2 and 4 they were more than happy to discharge me straight from delivery suite. I think as PP said it was 6hrs ish, I did have to wee and walk about. I didn't have to sign any disclaimers, it was positively encouraged and they were happy to do checks at home/surgery/community MLU. This was 2009 and 2019.

I had epidurals in both of these births, and they were still keen for me to leave. But as I say it may vary by trust.

If Labour is straightforward you'll be able to go home straightaway. DS was a pretty textbook Labour, just gas and air and no stitches and I left about 2 hours later. They just wanted me to shower and go for a wee beforehand. Had to go back a couple of days later for DS to have the routine peadiatrican tests and hearing test which tends to be done on the postnatal wards, but that was okay. Was lovely to sleep in my own bed that first night.

I gave birth at 8pm and they were allowing me to go home at 10pm! First baby too xxx

In may I went straight home from delivery. I was in under 12hours. Baby was born at 1.46am and I stayed in the same room until I left at 9am.

I had to make it clear that was my plan to all midwives as one tried to move me at 7am. I just asked for the doctor to sort discharge papers there and then.

I also had my lift home ready & had told them to be there for 9am & let the midwife know I was leaving when they got there. She made sure I was seen before i left.

My first child was a sbcu baby so had to stay a week.
First and second were home 4 hours later and it was amazing. Much prefer my own space.

I did this with DS1 - it used to be called DOMINO :)

They won't let you go home if they have concerns. They will also give you an idea of what to look out for - any unusual pain, bad-smelling discharge etc. And a midwife will come out to check on you and baby for the first few days and then once they're happy you're settled and feeding is going well they'll discharge you to the HV.

You will also have your 6 week check up with the GP as well.