Hospital discharge following childbirth

[ValerieA]

I have just heard from my daughter-in-law that she will be sent home from hospital 4 hours after giving birth with her first baby. She will not see a midwife for a further 2 weeks! I am horrified that there will be no monitoring of her or the baby's welfare. Is this now standard practice?

Are you sure the midwife won't come and see her at home the following day or so? To check on the baby? Then the health visitor normally pops over at least once. Then you go to the doctor to get the baby checked, then finally you go for your check at 6 weeks.

Which country?

Are you sure she has that right? The discharge time is usual provided there's no complications, but midwives or assistants normally visit for two weeks, not after that.

No not standard practice in the UK. The discharge is if the birth was straight forward however she should be visited the day after discharge. They also visit day 3,5 and 10 here. If you're not ready to be discharged on day 10 e.g. baby not up to birth weight they continue visiting. Then you're handed over to the health visitor.

Not in the U.K. then?

Sadly it doesn't sound that unusual to me. Are you in a position to offer any practical help?

To be honest though, hospitals are so hot, noisy and unpleasant, never mind understaffed, it's probably good to get home ASAP if you can (DH got norovirus visiting me).

That was 9 years ago so no Covid restrictions.

At the moment she sees the community midwife every 2 weeks, at her latest appointment last Wednesday, the midwife said baby could be born within the next few days and if so she wouldn't be seeing her until the Wednesday after next - can't believe that a new mum would be sent home with no support and no checks on her or baby's health.

PS this is in the UK in Hertfordshire.

This is the UK in Hertfordshire.

Well the midwife she’s seen during her pregnancy probably won’t see her again no- is that what you mean? Never saw mine again after 36 weeks but saw health visitor and had to go into hospital for 5 and ten day checks. Saw different midwives.

Unfortunately, I live 200 miles away, although hearing this I might ask if they want me to stay over there with them, but then again, I don't want her to think I'm an interfering m-in-law :)

If everything if fine with your daughter in-law and the baby, getting out of the hospital as soon as possible is a good thing.

When I had dd {2.5 years ago) 'my midwife' only saw me 2 weeks after birth because it was a different part of the team that managed the new birth home visits, then I went to her children's centre to have the final midwife check at 2 weeks and be signed off. So it might be that she won't see her midwife, but will see the community team.

Plus she at this point has no idea what her birth will be like, no way to predict she’ll be out in four hours at all! I had an ELCS and was out in less than 24, that was my choice, the ward was a horrible place to be.

'No not standard practice in the UK. The discharge is if the birth was straight forward however she should be visited the day after discharge. They also visit day 3,5 and 10 here. If you're not ready to be discharged on day 10 e.g. baby not up to birth weight they continue visiting. Then you're handed over to the health visitor'

Yes, this is exactly how it worked for us. I think something might have got confused along the way.

Also her midwife might only work part-time so wouldn't be there to do home visits. My community midwife only works Wed-Fri and we were discharged on Sunday so it was a different midwife who came to do the first visit. Perhaps that's what she meant.

The planned appointment is if she hasn’t had the baby yet. Babies are full
term /expected from 37 to 42 week. It’s standard after discharge to be seen on day 1/first full day at home, day 3 and day 10 or day 14 at home with the new baby unless their are complications.

Are you sure there isn’t crossed wires here?

We've public health nurses here in Ireland who do the home visits after a baby is born rather than a midwife, is there a set up like that and one of you is misunderstanding the post natal care?

Could it be that she won't see her community midwife until 2 weeks after birth but a different one will visit? When my assigned midwife was on night shift I had a different one visit.

I'v attached the link from the NHS website. All mine have had a heel prick test at day 5 (youngest is 3 weeks).

www.nhs.uk/pregnancy/labour-and-birth/after-the-birth/early-days/

Or her community midwife maybe on holiday in which case she will be seen by another midwife.

They don't get left for 2 weeks, they get seen at day 3, 5 and 10 for feeding assessment, weight and jaundice.
The next appointment will be arranged once the baby is born.

It just sounds like she’s a bit confused about it to be honest, easily done with no prior experience of having a baby.

Just to clarify, she doesn't have any family of her own as parents are both deceased.

I think it's more likely there's just been crossed wires. Why would a midwife want to see her two weeks after birth? You're usually discharged from midwife to HV by then assuming no complications.

If she's worried about it then suggest she calls her midwife and asks for clarification.

Are you sure you’re not just trying to whip us all up into an NHS childbirth bashing frenzy? Because a few checks on the pages from the hospital she’s due to give birth at probably would have reassured you that she’s certainly not going to be lobbed out of hospital hours after giving birth with no further checks.

Thanks to everyone who has responded, I have passed the information on to her & I think she now feels a little more at ease, I know I do!

No - I am the last person to bash the NHS - at 71 years old I have owed my life to the NHS on two occasions. I have a wonderful local hospital & GP. The NHS has been grossly under-resourced for a while now & staff put under immense pressure. It is this that I would bash.