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!!!

Our hospital is 6 hours too - as long as everything goes smoothly, I think they are in theory quite happy to chuck you out. Getting all the forms signed will be the problem...

Mine wouldn't have been daylight at 1am either (DD3) .

The 6hrs/daylight thing was around when I had DTDs

DD1 was born 2.34am Wednesday after a 32 hr labour and I was out by noon on the same day.

DD2 was born 5.05 am on Saturday after a 18 hour labour and I was out by 2pm on the same day.

On both occassions I told the midwives that I wanted out ASAP once I had given birth and when they transferred me to the ward they made sure the nurses there knew that.

On both occassions I had three doses of epidural and the labour was not particularly straightforward - the only stipulation they made was that I could walk to the loo unaided and that the paperwork was done, then I could leave. On both occassions I was still dragging one leg about but they still let me go

Good luck with your labour and the great escape

this has all made me feel a little more settled about demanding to go home! I just dont want to be away from the girls for too long, want them to meet their new baby brother as soon as possible, and i want my own bed and to get BF going in peace and quiet, not a hot stuffy noisy hospital!

and dont even get me started on cleanliness of hospitals and the food..... would rather eat my own feet!

good call I planned a homebirth, ended up in hospital, and then kept in overnight due to increased risk of haemorage. Apart from having dd with me it was a bloody crap night - wish I'd just discharged myself and pissed off

hatrick - there's no question of you being 'let' have a homebirth, it's your right. See homebirth.org.uk or yahoo homebirthuk group if you want more details or support

hey JARM how your doing? I'm surprised you haven't started any "am I labour yet" threads this time around I remember your castor oil threads from last time bet you can't wait to meet your little man.

Don't have any experience with fast turnarounds as I had to stay in a day with DD1 as she wouldn't feed, got out for a day then went back in as she had jaundice, DD2 was a homebirth and we had to go see a paed at the hospital the next day, they put us in a room for over an hour with 18 mo DD1, day old DD2, DP and just had a baby the day before me, even though we had an appointment, took ages to get seen.

SK - i know i know, im slacking, but he just doesnt want to move! Other than a few hours of irregular contractions, ive had NOTHING!

Avoiding castor oil like the plague this time, so relying on DH for the natural methods!!!

Next time I am doing nothing to get labour started none of it works, I'm going to just sit on my fat pregnant bum and think I am an elephant and gestate for 3 years or something. Haven't been able to eat pineapple since.

im the same - cant even face the raspberry leaf tea - i was downing it like juice last time (omg was it REALLY over 2yrs ago!) and i bought a box the other week and managed 2 cups! Its gross!

I guess I had better get myself to bed and pray something kicks off soon, and will arm myself with questions for the MW tomorrow!

I think I will mentally say my due date is 2 weeks on from my actual date.

It was the smell of Clary Sage oil that done it for me - minging!

I hope you go soon though

My last one was born at 8.30pm and we left less than 3 hours later.

They did suggest that I should go up to the ward but I declined the offer as they said that dh couldn't come with me.

If they realise you are serious about going home a paediatrician will be found for you.

Good luck, I hope you have a quick and easy birth.

Do you think these messages will apply for a first timer? I'm desperate to not have to stay in hospital as long as all is ok but am first timer so worried it won't happen.

Think it depends where you are. I had DS1 and DD1 in Scotland where they insisted you stay overnight.

Had DD2 in SE England where they basically wanted me shipped out ASAP as they felt with no3 if anything was wrong I would realise pretty quickly myself.

From what I remember of the booklet they gave me, I think the rule is you stay for 6 hours so they can have baby checked, make sure feeding is OK, etc and then let you go.

When will people learn that they have a right to do what they want and not what the hospital rules and regulations declare?

If you want to discharge yourself and your new baby - do it, simple!!

hello,

sorry I haven't read the whole thread but I had 6 hour discharge with 1st - the main key was having a bath, keeping dressed and packing my bag, they laughed at me but could see I was serious.
This time I'm planning a home birth but know if I end up in hosp and everything turns out ok I'll be leaving as I now understand how the newborn checks are carried out if you have baby at home - you can go back to hosp, docs surgery or a mw qualified in newborn checks can do it

good luck with everything x

Our hospital is 6 hours too. DD2 was born at 4:15pm so 6 hours would have taken me to 10:15pm and they were really reluctant to let me out that night. So I bargained with them that I wouldn't insist on going IF they found me an amenity/private room so that I could be on my own. So they did and I stayed overnight. The frustrating thing was that the next day and despite chomping at the bit to get the paperwork done, etc. it was lunchtime by the time I got out!

Boogalooblue, this is why this forum is so great. I'm also desperate not to spend one nanosecond longer in hospital than I have to (I'm 33 weeks with first). But, as a nervous newbie, if they make a fuss about not letting me out, or tell me that I have to stay, then I would believe them as I wouldn't know any better.

But from reading these replies I now know that as long as everything is straightforward and I use my common sense, I can leave when I want to and not when they tell me. I would just be a bit nervous about leaving before they had checked LO out - what if and all that.

i had dd 12:51am tues, didnt sleep at all wanted out they wanted me to stop in show me how to bath her etc told them i could do it (nursery nurse and looked after my sisters ds when he was newborn)
was checked by dr weds and came home weds afternoon!

My DD was born at 6.30pm and I was at home by 3pm the next day. I was asking "when can I go home" from 7am that morning. No sleep, very little food (labour started at 2am, couldn't eat, ketones in urine, on the ward by 11pm so missed all food on offer), strange people sharing the ward (girl in next bed upset about turning down Jeremy Kyle so they could do my DD's hearing test), rude staff. I was desparate. My mum was horrified and blames my leaving early for my failure to establish breastfeeding and my DD's eventual readmission to hospital as a result. I don't think this was the case at all - just one of those things.

Home birth for me next time!

you shouldn;t aim to be out within an hour ! however tempting.. you need to be assessed to make sure uterus contracting down, any bleeding is stopped, stitches are done if neccesary and you are ok.. and baby too. a minimum of 6 hours is usual for multips and you will have just given birth, no medals for hurling yourself out of delivery and back home in the shortest time possible.

you can of course discharge yourself as soon as you want, but why rush it?

thanks for the help with this girls.

Went to midwife today and she has said that I can get out pretty quick, and the docs only do rounds in the mornings at the hospital, so if I have him during the night, im probably best to stay until docs has checked him over, but any time after lunchtime she is happy for me to come home when i want and then take baby back to hospital the following day for the checks. She seemed to understand that I dont want to be in any longer than necessary.

She did annoy me though, because apparently they arent allowed to perform a sweep until 41wks (which i think is utter bollox!) and they wont take me in for induction until bang on 42 weeks..... its making me want to go back to Colchester and my lovely midwife there who would have given me a sweep on Monday at 40 weeks and i would have been taken in for induction at 41 weeks! GRRRR!

Im just getting so impatient now, im sick of hurting 24/7 and not sleeping more than an hour at a time - day or night.

DH is on orders for sex 3 times a day!

i shall annoy you further then !

not a whole lot of point doing a sweep before 41 weeks and induction at 42 weeks is better, as gives you more chance of going into labour spontaneously.. a normal full term pregnancy is anywhere between 37 - 42 weeks.. we need to stop thinking of 40 weeks or the due date as the actual end ! it is an estimate!!

anyhoo, lots of sex and nipple stim will help

The first time I was in hospital 4 torturous days, the 4th day because just sat around waiting for the paperwork to be completed!

2nd time, despite having an epidural pm I left the next day, shortly after breakfast. DH was saying all the way through to anyone and everyone how we wanted to leave asap to get home. In fact I was dressed, packed and sat in chair ready to go in case anyone thought otherwise!

I sw my mw about this and was told to put it in my notes and speak to our docs surgery about getting a doc to check baby over and assuming all goes well there's no reason we can't be out the same day.
I've also spoken to my mum () who said.... "you have to stay there till they say you can go home, what if something goes wrong? How are you going to sleep? I thought you wanted to bf!!"

I think i'll try to get out ASAP BUT i'm not going to if it means endangering my baby. I just hope I can tell if i'm endangering my baby as no doubt the hosp will want to keep me in longer than is really needed.