How long did you stay in hospital?

[sweetkitty]

Following Springchickens thread on hospital bags I was wondering how long people stayed in hospital, I know for a C-section you stay days but I thought you could go home after a normal vaginal delivery after 6 hours. I hate hospitals and am only having the baby in one cos DP is scared and I live in a small flat with hardly any space right now. Will I be allowed to leave after 6 hours with a first baby?

3 hours by the time I got to ds3!

born at 3pm ( just as rugby started) and home at 6pm

I think I was a bit shell shocked by the experience the first time round, and having had very little sleep over the preceding 60 hours, I wsa quite happy just to lie in bed and sleep for the first couple of days, waking only to attempt to feed dd1 and then go back to sleep again.

On the other extreme, I was Mrs Very Assertive on dd2, had her at 12, and was home at 4.30. Sort of "I know what I'm doing now get out of the way of the exit" mode. Poor midwives!

lol gd - I remeber sitting ont eh bed all packed up ready drumming my fingers whislt she wrote up notes.

what do they wrtie about?

My first baby (following 26 wk still birth) was born within 3 hours at 2.31am and I was out of the hospital by 6pm the same day. I was told that I could go home at noon but we had to wait for the paediatrician on his rounds, who took an additional 6 hours - GRRRRRRR !

I was discharged out so soon because I had a very straightforward short labour with no pain relief and no stitches, DD was almost term and was fine health-wise. I was b/f and it started well so I was allowed home.

It all depends on your delivery, your baby, hospital policy and your main carer (mw/consultant etc)

wsm dont you think when you want go you want ot go NOW!?

ds born at 4.30 pm, left at noon next day, and dd born at 2.10 am, left at 9.30 next morning, but had to go back next day for her newborn check up as the doctors don't do home visits(even though the surgery is 5 mins away walking).

Same as Codswallop for number 2. She was born 20 minutes after I arrived in the birthing unit, and I was ready to go almost straightaway but had to go through about an hours worth of stitching. Was sitting on the bed waiting for dh to arrive back with car seat and ds. I think I was in hospital for a total of 3 hours (including the birth). First time round was a completely different story though

I wanted to be one of the 'out in six hours' ones, couldn't stand the idea of staying in and dh not being there at night-time...ended up staying 4 days because we had trouble establishing breastfeeding. The care I got for the first two days was awful, and we nearly left 'cos I though my community midwives would be more help (if we'd said we'd decided to bottlefeed we would have been discharged and were sorely tempted, obviously could have left anyway but were persuaded to stay in the end) but then two lovely midwives really helped me and we got dd feeding properly in the end.

I wanted to be one of the 'out in six hours' ones, couldn't stand the idea of staying in and dh not being there at night-time...ended up staying 4 days because we had trouble establishing breastfeeding. The care I got for the first two days was awful, and we nearly left 'cos I though my community midwives would be more help (if we'd said we'd decided to bottlefeed we would have been discharged and were sorely tempted, obviously could have left anyway but were persuaded to stay in the end) but then two lovely midwives really helped me and we got dd feeding properly in the end.

Had dd at 9.30 pm on Sunday after 13 hour labour and very little sleep the previous night. By the time they'd finished stitching and cleaning me up it was about 1 in the morning and I was completely knackered. I stayed in the next day and on Tuesday morning they sent me home. I wasn't really ready to go - hadn't established feeding at all and was pretty clueless about everything else too. All worked out fine in the end although I never did manage to establish feeding and she ended up bottle fed as losing so much weight.
I'd say play it by ear. You might find you're pretty exhausted after giving birth and welcome the opportunity to stay put for a day or two.

DS1 was born at 1 am ... had to hang around in hospital all next day waiting for doctors to discharge me. Didn't get released til about 4 pm. (So 15 hrs).

I wanted a 6 hr discharge from hospital, direct from the labour suite, but ds2 was born during the night (c.11 pm), and they said it wasn't possible, and I had to go up to the ward, but woudl be able to leave at 9 am. Come 9 am I had to really fight to be allowed out, they were extremely reluctant for me to leave without being signed off by paeds and obs. Eventually they agreed if we stopped off at the GP's on the way for the GP to check the baby! (What utter rubbish - the midwives in the hospital were a lot more used to seeing a newborn baby and checking it was OK than the GP who rarely gets to see a baby that young Anyway it was a treat for clinic and GP to see him, especially as I had been in there 18 hrs previously moaning about how fed up I was that I was overdue and nothing was happening!)

I completely understand your pov re hospitals - I loathe them, and just wanted to leave as soon as possible.

So my advice would be check the hospital's policy on 6 hr discharges direct from labour ward, and if they are allowed even for first time deliveries, then try and be assertive (or get dp to be assertive for you), and decline to leave the delivery suite and go up to the ward if it isn't necessary.

Of course there are many and varied medical reasons why they might want you to stay in a bit longer for monitoring, and I wouldn't counsel ignoring that advice. But if you're both healthy and fine and it's not against their policies, then you may still need to be determined to get what you want.

HTH

I planned a homebirth and ended up with an elective cs for footling breech, and stayed in a week cos dd didn't want to feed. In retrospect I think she'd have fed when she was ready if we'd left her alone.

Wait and see how it goes, but if you want to go home at any point, they cannot make you stay (except during transition ). They can tell you that the hospital policy is that you stay for x hours. And they can request that you stay until they've done your notes. BUT you don't have to. To keep you in hospital they have to section you and contact social services about your baby which is unlikely isn't it?!

It took them nearly 12 hours to complete my notes and discharge me - was ready to go after breakfast and didn't get out till 7pm. Which was bad enough, and I didn't have a toddler at home or anything. A nurse friend suggested that I could have told them I was going, and given permission for them to phone me to ask all the questions they're supposed to fill in on their forms, and just gone. Then they can do the notes in their own time.

And if the midwives in hospital are helpful with bf'ing, great. If not, go home and call the NCT!

By Codswallop on Thursday, 6 May, 2004 1:23:24 PM

wsm dont you think when you want go you want ot go NOW!?

ABSO-FRICKIN-LUTELY

like when you want to concieve really - I did all this " we will see what happens" crap but I was ruthless!

one night before labour then 4nights after

With ds I was out the next day. With dd I was down for a six hour discharge (get me out of this place!), but I couldn't leave because dd had a heart murmur, and we had to wait til the next day, and they had to run all sorts of tests.

So if you plan for 6 hours, also be prepared for longer. I had only taken enough stuff in for 6 hours! I had packed another bag at home just in case, but dh kept forgetting to bring it...

both sections went home 3 days after section. Needed to get home for a rest. After first one I was home before my friend who had a forceps delivery same day as my section.

I had Normal delivery and went home after2.45 hours!
First baby was even quicker but that was in NZ where they don't freak out quite as much at normal births, just keep asking, literally I asked before the placenta came out, when can I go home, I had dd at 7am and was home by 10.30
Bliss!

Part of why I got let home early was because the baby fed well from the breast straight after birth too, it is important to be confident about feeding baby whichever you choose

dd, stayed 1 night.

ds, after 3 hours. Sat watching Watchdog, desperate to go home, whilst the MW finished my notes.

sweetkitty, haven't read all the replies (sorry if I'm repeating) but you can leave the hospital whenever you want.

They can't make you stay, although they can delay in signing you out or doing this or that, but you can leave even if it's not done.

Your community midwife will be your postbirth resource, I think (don't know much about the NHS..) and will be just as good or better as anyone in hospital to take care of you once the birth is over. Stay in hospital if there are medical reasons, but you can leave when you feel ready.