Discharging myself from postnatal ward

[Moancup]

The threads on postnatal wards make them seem like utter hell, and there are always a few posters who remind people that they are allowed to discharge themselves.

The idea is appealing, given the horror stories. But I wouldn’t want to do anything that could compromise recovery.

I’ve never given birth before so I’m interested in what people’s criteria would be for when it’s safe to discharge yourself early. No stitches? No excessive bleeding? Toast not dark enough?

I personally wouldn’t leave until they allowed me. With ds I was in 4 days due to a bad tear where I needed to go to the toilet before they let me go home and ds was being monitored as he had to be resuscitated at birth.

with dd I was in 3 days as she badly ripped me and I could hardly walk never mind go home and care for 2 children.

best advice is to be patient,

For all those with awful postnatal wars experiences.

I truly believe the hospital experience can have a massive impact on Mums developing PND. The lack of help to breastfeed, get some bloody sleep, get pain relief, get food

midwives wanted to keep me in a 3rd night to make sure that in had feeding established. I had stayed a second night for support only to discover they were far too busy to really be much help and between other babies crying and someone's husband snoring I didn't get any sleep.

When I reminded them that I didn't actually need their permission to go home and I was perfectly happy tonsepf discharge they relented and chucked me out pretty quick.

The midwives and care from the local team I had once home was amazing.

Hospital i went to for DC1 birth said no earlier than 6hrs post birth.
There was meconium when she was born so they wanted to observe for 24hrs. also helped me establish breastfeeding.

DC2 I thought about staying 1 night as me and DH were both exhausted. The ward was going like a fair and I begged to be released as soon as the hearing test was done. Took them a further 4hrs to get paperwork done to discharge me.

Basically, you can go home if no medical reason to keep you in eg baby needs care or if you have had c section iirc. Stitches don't necessarily mean overnight stay.

Gonna be the weird person who says PN wards arent all that bad. My DS was in SCBU and believe me I didnt enjoy being there but there was some positives

• baby appointments come to you- no running out for hearing tests/ feeding clinics/ weigh ins etc
• not much to do ( i was in during covid so limited visitors) meant more time with baby.
• no cooking ( granted the food is grim)
• no cleaning
• you get sympathy coffees/ pastries/ chocolates from the OH.

So if you do end up having a PN stay try and look on the bright side if you cant discharge yourself 😂

Postnatal wards are not always hell. I had an amazing experience. Kind friendly staff who were attentive and helpful but not overbearing. Great communication and amazing feeding support. I stayed 2 days because of heavy bleeding post c section. We had to wait ages for the hearing screen test but it was busy so I was patient. They came eventually. I was so grateful for their care

If everything goes okay they won't normally want to keep you in anyway. With my first baby I had to stay in for 12 hours as DD was born more than 24 hours after my waters had gone. I was given the option of staying overnight or being discharged at 11pm, I chose to go home. With my second baby we were discharged within 6 hours of giving birth - I wasn't given an option of staying longer this time!

None of our local maternity hospitals would keep you in a minute longer than they had to. They don’t have the beds or the staff. I thought it was the same in most places in the UK these days. With a straightforward birth in the morning you could be discharged the same day.

I discharged myself on day two. I had a cat 1 section, the reg made a mess of my stitches and was being kept in because I had a massive hematoma that the consultant thought the community midwife would send me back in for. Once DH went home on a night I was struggling to lift DS which was making it worse. I will caveat that with we are both HCP so new what to look out for.

I would discuss it with your midwife and see what they recommend

I had a baby a few weeks ago, born at 10-45 Pm I was on the way home at 2am. They asked if I wanted to go to the ward for the night, I didn’t see a reason too so they let me go home. Think it depends on the birth.

My experience (last summer) was that they were keen to get you out as soon as possible! We were due to be discharged before lunchtime the day after giving birth. As it was, as they were finalising the paperwork (and around 20mins after we'd been told we were going home so to get ready), they discovered DD had an infection which turned into sepsis very quickly. She was moved to NICU (3 days) and then SCBU (7 days). At that point it was decided they wouldn't discharge me either, but they did move me to a private side room so i didn't have the experience of the post natal ward in full. I then also developed the worst UTI of my life so i was very glad to be being looked after, wheeled down to see DD once i was well enough, able to send colostrum down for her every couple of hours etc.

I didn’t discharge myself but I insisted I be discharged same day. Baby was born at 6am and baby was fine, I was fine (although I had a few stitches) and Covid-19 was rife so I just wanted to go home.

Twice, in two different hospitals, in two different countrys - both within about 24hrs of an emergency (but totally smooth) C-section, I've been promised morning discharge, and with no sign of it by about 1pm, I've picked up my baby and announced I'm leaving. Paperwork has been found (I was chased out of the hospital the second time with a ridiculous leaflet that included crunches within days of c-section), and I've signed and left rather than hang around for no reason for another evening.

Both times it's just been that I was ready, that I wanted a proper shower, in my own flat, with my perfectly healthy baby, and I would follow up later.

I was begging to go home after DD1 the second the catheter came out from spinal block!

DD2 was born EMCS and spent a week on the NNU, midwife tried to discharge me on day 3 and I absolutely refused as I was shuffling onto the ward every 2 hours to feed her. It was utter hell, I was on the postnatal ward for the first night, babyless and left to it but they took pity on me the next day and put me into a side room where I was forgotten about (apart from when they were trying to evict me.)

It really does depend on how things go, with DD2 I wouldn’t have left without her (campervans were discussed for a while!) but with a smooth delivery and all being well, home is definitely the best place to recover in peace.

I was in for one night there’s no way I could of left and I had a relatively straight forward birth.

there was four of us in my ward, it was lovely and quiet, no complaints here!

With DD1 I gave birth at 1:33 am, had a lot of stitches and went home about 11 am.

DD2, no stitches, no drugs, had her mid day and I was home by 7pm

DD3 was born 12:34am and no beds so we literally went home immediately, no docs checks etc!! This was11 years ago.

That is what I thought and why I was so surprised to be stuck there after a textbook delivery and baby happily taking a first feed. I genuinely thought I was only going up to the ward because I'd has a 3am delivery and I'd be out come mid-morning. It was the total lack of communication I found hardest - I had no idea why I was still there!

They don't keep you in long anyway. I had a horrendous and traumatic first birth. I was out 24hrs later - I had a private room and my DP was allowed to stay the whole time so it wouldn't have been too bad to have stayed a couple of extra days. This was 2020. I was in labour 4 days and wasn't offered any food at all as nil by mouth just in case of c-section. Then they didn't give me any food until I was discharged - I'd have killed for some wrongly coloured toast.

I gave birth in February this year at a different hospital. C-section. Post natal ward was a chuffing nightmare and I couldn't wait to get out.

Posted too early - second birth I was out just over 24hrs later but I really had to push for someone to discharge me. They seemed to be dragging out the discharge and were going to keep me another night but I said I'd go anyway so they told me to watch a discharge video and I was allowed to leave. No toast at all on the post natal ward - it wasn't allowed, apparently. Jam on bread only - who even eats jammy bread? I was very pissed off (and starving) as I hate jam.