How quickly can you get out of hospital?

[mersmam]

I know they say that 6 hours is the minimum stay in hospital, but I'm interested to hear whether anyone has 'got out' quicker than that?!
(this is really a continuation from my thread on yesterday on deciding whether I should have a home birth). My 2nd and 3rd babies were born at home but due to various factors I'm feeling like I should have my 4th (due in early May) in hospital. The hospital is only 5 minutes away so what I'd like to do is give birth, have a quick shower and (assuming all is well with the baby) come home within 2-3 hours.
The midwives only stayed 1-2 hours after the home births so I really don't see why there should be a problem, but I'm worried that the hospital might make a fuss. Does anyone have any relevant experiences they can share with me?

With me, I gave birth in the night so when I woke up knackered and bleeding alot (no stiches though, phew!)I wanted out stright out because there was no privacy, and the food was horrid, although midwife was awesome! The staff was supportive, and didnt want me to leave until they showed me how to bathe, feed my son...however felt comfortable with that so discharged myself early. I was put off by the fact I was induced 3 times and one of the times was in visiting hour....the curtains would not close properly and although the staff closed them would re-open. I could see the visitors!!!!!!!!!!!!could they see me, the view would not be me but my bits!!!! NOOO!!!

I was home less than four hours after dd2's birth. Would have been the same with dd3 but because I'd had a minor pph (was fine in myself though) the hospital policy was for me to stay in overnight. It was then 5am! So I said that no way was I doing that but that I would stay for a few hours and see that everything was ok. Tbh it was good that I did as I had a very heavy episode of blood loss at about 10am and had I been at home it would have been rather scary (and hugely messy) and I'm sure I would have ended up trekking back to the hospital anyway. By 3pm everything had settled and we were out the door.

Thanks Howdie - I really hope my experience will be the same as that woman's

I had my DD at about 3.00pm and I was able to leave before 6.00pm.
Actually we didn't rush thouigh. By chance we had this huge suite to ourselves and DH bought DS1 and DS2 into see DD. The midwife was fab and she brought the children sandwiches and we had music on while DH and DS1 gave Moo a bath and I had a nice shower.

WE wanted it not to be a rush AS DS2 has severe SN and we wanted him to get his head around the whole new baby thing before we moved him on IYSWIM.
As it was it turned out beautifully. As we were gathering all our things together to leave he became really upset and we realised it was because he thought we were leaveing DD at the hosp . We let him carry her car seat to reassure him and all was fine.

That whole birth experience was just so lovely

I had dd at 7pm and was told at 10pm that I could go home if I wanted to. I had stitches and a graze and hadnt showered then!

The only thing was that we would have had go back the next morning for dds checks so we decided it easier for me to stay.

I gave birth at 1:35pm without any complications, stiches or pain relief. I wanted to go asap. But they made me wait until 2pm the following day, as they said I had to wait for a free doctor to fill in paperwork and do hearing and physical checks etc. The ward was full, so suprised I wasn't turfed out sooner? This was my first though, so might be different for you ? Defo planning a home birth next time!

To answer the point about having to go back for a paediatric check. If you do have an early discharge or even a homebirth, many GPs can actually do this initial newborn check, and if you have a REALLY good one, they will come to the house to do it. There are also lots of midwives now trained/training to do the intial newborn examination as an advanced skill so you can ask your community midwife if they do it or if there is a midwife locally who can do it in your home rather than trailing all the way back into the hospital.

With ds2 (after a nightmare 4 days inside with ds1) I was chomping at the bit to go home once the placenta was out. We arrived at 3 am. He was born at 4.30 am and we left at 7 am. We did have the usual oh there are no doctors around to sign you out bit but I made it clear we were leaving at 7 regardless (knowing had been a straightforward birth and he fed straight away) and they miraculously found somebody. We had to bring him back for the 24hr check later on the same day (the same time they would have seen him even if I had gone to the postnatal ward anyway) but as we are 8 mins away it was no problem. I felt so much better having had a shower at home, nap, quiet feeds etc. You have to be firm if middle of night/early morning as they want you to stay put until the day shift to make things easier for them.

You may also get a bit of sarcasm - when we went back later that day for the check they said we'd broken the record for least amount of time spent in an NHS hospital giving birth etc, etc, not helped by DP who, as we were legging it at 7, called back to the 2 midwives at the nurses station "do we need to check out or anything?", respone was, "Where do you think you are, the bloody Portland?" and "Only if you had something from the mini-bar".

dd was born at 9pm and I was home by about midnight/1 and those few hours included the placenta, me getting stitched up, and a bath. I was out of there as soon as I could!