Discharge Times......... WANT OUT ASAP!

[JARM]

Hi guys

Im 39+1 today, and am having baby in local hospital.

Anyone know how soon you can get out of hospital after birth? Ideally, I want to have baby, get cleaned up and come home providing all goes to plan.

Is there a need to go to the ward? Can I come home straight from delivery room?

Arghhh, so many questions - and ive left it SO late!

Seeing midwife tomorrow anyway, but wanted MN opinions/experiences!

Ta!!!

I think that if all goes well, you can get out pretty quick. I had dd2 9 months ago by c/s and got out next day!

JARM
the policy may vary depending on the hospital and how well the birth went but where i had my 2 DS's the minimum stay was 6 hours and the baby needed to see a paediatrican before leaving. So if your baby was born in the morning you have a good chance of getting out that day but if born later in the day it might be too late for the docs and you would need to stay in overnight and see the docs in the morning.

DS1 was born at 5.45am and i was home for lunch.
DS2 was born (thurs last week) at 7.30am and i was home at 3pm.
Both times i stayed in the delivery room and never made it to the ward.

Hope this helps and good luck with your immenent arrival!!

Our unit requests that multips stay a minimum 6 hours after the birth, but this does sometimes mean they can be discharged from delivery suite if it's not too busy. Providing everything is ok there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do the same, imo.

Or...homebirth?

Just leave when you are ready! They can't do much.

thank you!

DD1 was born at 2.45am after 2 days of induction so didnt get out til tea time, was on the ward by 5am

DD2 was born at 12.15am, was shoved up to the ward at 12.55am and DH sent home and didnt get home til tea time again.

Im really hoping just to pop him out and get home within an hour but doubt ill be that lucky!

Will have to ask MW what the hospital here does as we moved in september!

With ds I was home by 11pm, having had him at 9pm. Was a planned homebirth, but had to go on because no midwives.
Agpars of 9 and 10. Me fine, stitched and showered.
I persisted, and was very definite that would be going home. Think my position was helped because was supposed to have delivery at home, where there wouldn't have been a check by a paediatrician anyway. So they let me go.

Even with dd, my first, had her at 1pm and was home by 9am the next day.

Re paed: we often have mums bring baby back the next day to be seen by the paed if there's no concern and they are really gagging to leave! It does depend a bit on what time you deliver though - more likely to get an early discharge if you don't deliver in the middle of the night, etc.

But ultimately it's up to you anyway when you go (theoretically, at least!)

Jarm after having dd2 I got home 6hrs later as had to wait for her to be checked by paediatrician.

you see, i would love a homebirth, but DH is having none of it!

Oh, with ds wasn't moved from the delivery room. Basically had about 30mins of stitching, then a shower, and then off we went.
They were rather keen for us to stay because the system is that you get the baby checked by a paed before you can go, and they don't seem to work at night. But my argument was that he would be checked earlier than otherwise the following day, at home, by a midwife trained to do the neo-natal checks.
Perhaps if you ask your team of midwives about whether they would do that, you'd have more ammo when it comes to being able to pretty much insist on going home.

I had my dd at about 5.20 am and was home for 3pm x
Good luck x

just discharge yourself and threaten to leave the baby behind if they don't let you go, worked for me

Oh next time (if that happens) will stay put at home and actually get my homebirth (fingers crossed).
Why is your dh so anti? As it was, was fantastic feeling to only be in hospital for the pushing, stitching and then a shower. Think would have been cross as anything if hadn't been able to go though. Did NOT want to spend a night in the hospital.

pooka - thats great thank you, will ask midwife tomorrow.

honestly, i hate hospitals with a passion, and the less time spent in one the better, and what i would give to avoid a ward with everyone elses crying annoying babies!!!

DH is scared that something will go wrong.

DD1 had cord wrapped tightly around her neck at birth and needed oxygen to get going, and i think it has scared him slightly.

he just wants us to be in the best place should something go wrong.

its his baby too, and i need him to feel comfortable too.

My husband is a GP and regularly does baby checks on baby that have left the hospital before they had a chance to be seen by a paed. He visits at lunchtimes with the rest of his visits.

If you have an uncomplicated delivery I don't see why that shouldn't be an option for you?

Maybe mention it if you're at the GPs tomorrow to see your midwife.

Of course you'll have to rely on a midweek labour as very few GPs work the weekends for their own patients these days!

thank you elf - thats very helpful too.

The more I can go armed with tomorrow the better!!!

That's fair enough JARM, can see why it might be scary from his point of view.
Honestly, can't recommend making a quick getaway enough.
Was hilarious (though helped by the copious gas and air) seeing the security guard at the main doors doing a double take as we left with ds. ONly 2 hours earlier he'd tried to get me a wheelchair on our way in.

6 hours here in our hospital "officially" as well.

I stayed overnight with dd2, reluctantly but I felt it wise due to medical reasons which I won't go into here. (for me and for her). If you end up choosing/needing to stay overnight, I'd strongly advise mentioning very loudly and frequently during the evening and night that you want to leave FIRST thing. Otherwise you may end up waiting half the day (like us with dd1) while they mess about trying to get all the paperwork done! (I know, should have just walked out!)

Incidentally most of the GPs where I am no longer do home visits for new baby checks, even the home birth ones. (disgraceful that they have stopped this imo) New mums are expected to get up to the hospital instead for baby to be checked. No idea what would happen if you refused?

I'm 38+6 and want to be home asap too
I've been told 6 hours if everything ok
Health visitor and Community Midwives do the home checks in North Notts area

I had a birth on Midwife lead unit where their aim is to ship you out ASAP!!!

Used to be a 6hr rule - provided it was daylight round here.

I was told that one woman went home as soon as the paperwork was done....she hadn't even had a shower!!!

I would have been allowed home at 1am - but was advised to see pead for a specific problem

The only proviso is that your GP will do the 24hr check (which most do)

My teeny midwife-led unit is supposedly 6hrs. I had 2 miserable days & nights there with DD1.
With DS1, I went in at 8.30am, gave birth at 8.59am and came home at 4pm. I could have been out earlier but had to wait for senior midwife to OK it.

I didn't go to the ward (actually they're little rooms with max 3 beds) but stayed in the delivery suite - only because they weren't busy, I'd had a straight-forward birth and they knew I was leaving the same day and we didn't think it was worth messing up another bed! The midwives all thanked me for 'popping in' as I left.

With DD2 I didn't bother going to hospital at all. It was utterly fabulous! Planning homebirth again with no. 4.