Can I go straight home after my (third) birth?

[bobbyswish]

Does anyone know how early i can go home?....

Have the baby at home?

6 hours in a hospital if vaginal delivery, no probs (here anyway)

HB are great, you know

i stayed for a week. dc3 stayed for 5 weeks. i find it's best to stay flexible and see how you feel lol.

If everything is fine you can go home just about as soon as you've got cleaned up! I was home 4 hours after dd2 was born and would have been the same with dd3 except that I lost a fair bit of blood so they wanted me to stay overnight - it was 5 in the morning! We compromised and I stayed till about 3pm so 12 hours after birth.

I came home straight away...and was doing the housework the next morning I think I was still high on adrenalin.

I believe 4 hours is the absolute minimum.

what about the pediatrician tests and stuff (although i don't suppose you get those at home, do you lol)

dd2 (my 3rd) was born around 11pm and I was home before 3am (man, I've forgotten the details 9 months on!!!) and in that time she had both her paeds check and her hearing test.

I was told 6 hours (as that is the time they estimated every check would have been done).

I had a "normal" VB on just G&A so no drugs to wear off etc.

I chose to stay overnight thinking it would give DH a chance to get some sleep - and at 2am regretted it completely! DH could not sleep as he just wanted to be with us so we all ended up in a tearful mess and sleep deprived by the time we did get home the next Morning.

A senior MW will come and visit you 12 hours after the birth to do the paeds checks after a homebirth.

As far as I know its 6 hours after delivery, but it will also depend on the time of day and when there is someone in the hospital to do the checks.

I have to say, IME I have had far better care for my 3 hbs than my 1 hospital birth.

My only word of advice is if you go home soon after, or have a homebirth, stay in bed for 24 hours minimum. You might feel like Wonder Woman, but you won't get those first hours back again. You should be being cared for, not doing the housework

Your GP can do the new baby checks if you go home speedily

In NI its 6 hours, make sure you let them know your intentions so if everything goes well they will be on the ball,
although with dc3 dh still had to go in day after I was discharged to get vit K as it wasn't ready at time, wouldn't have minded but I had to stay an extra night as they were to busy to discharge me the day before

I had dc3 at 6.30pm left hospital at 10.30 pm!