Get me outta here (getting discharged ASAP after birth)

[LondonRoo]

Did a tour of the birthing centre and labour ward yesterday and was most surprised to hear the staff member do the tour say proudly that most first time mums stay a day or two for support after the birth as though a post natal stay was a treat.

I've just changed maternity services as moved house and the previous service generally discharged people within 6 hours of birth if all was well.

I strongly dislike hospitals (work in one) and assuming all is well my preference is to be at home, in my own space, with my own food, in peace and quiet adapting to being a new mum. Obviously if there are problems and good reasons to stay in the hospital, that's a different story... But if me and baby are well then I want to be at home.

I'd consider a home birth if this wasn't my first pregnancy but given the high transfer rates to hospital for first time mums, I think a birth centre is a good middle ground.

How long after birth did people go home? Any advice for getting out of hospital ASAP? Have a midwife appointment on Friday so going to discuss it further with her.

Roo

Have some consideration for women who don't sail so smoothly through conception, pregnancy, birth and rearing a baby. Jesus Christ you have enraged me.

3 days for both DC. Dc1 was C-section and he wasn't feeding well. They finally discharged us after we agreed to use bottle and showed we knew how. DC2 was vbac but at 36w. Fed well at first then less good. I threatened to discharge myself as I knew feeding would be fine once I could see the NCT counsellor who had helped with dc1 ( but she wouldn't come to the hospital).

Well I ended up having an EMCS so I had to stay in a little bit longer. Had DD at 1am on Friday and was discharged at around 3pm on Saturday so was on the ward for the best part of 2 days. I was really happy to be leaving, but to be honest as soon as I got home I wished I had stayed in hospital. Had horrible, horrible anxiety for the first week or so. Really crippling. To the point that I thought I was losing my mind. I felt much more confident and secure in hospital. But I think it's quite typical to suffer from anxiety for the first few days and there's no saying that I wouldn't have felt exactly the same in hospital I suppose.

I was on an programme to try and get very quick discharge from the maternity ward. They recommend eating high protein foods and drinking loads of water.
I hate hospitals too so I completely understand where your coming from.

I gave birth to my first at 9.21am and was asked if I'd mind "freeing up the bed" at around 3pm - in fairness the hospital were a ward down due to building works - it took them about 2 and a half hours to sort paper work so left about 5.30pm - at the time I felt quite anxious about it but looking back I was far more comfortable being at home with my husband to help than I would have been alone at the hospital - the midwives were so busy that even they said they would have struggled to provide much assistance through the night!

I stayed in 4 nights with DS, purely because he wasn't taking to breastfeeding very well.

He was born at 10am, and I had to go to theatre to be stitched up so had a spinal block, which didn't wear off until about lunchtime the next day. I was kept in a second night after he struggled to latch, and I had to rely on using their breast pump to feed him. He was slightly jaundice too.

I was then offered the option of being transferred to the nearby maternity unit, which was pretty much like a hotel for new mums. It was bliss.
There were two beds per room, but I was lucky to have a room to myself. Midwives on hand who would bend over backwards for you, plenty of BF support.
You could saunter down to the day room for some proper cooked food, watch TV while chatting to the other new mums with their newborns.
One midwife even offered in the small hours to take screaming DS to the day room with a bottle of expressed milk so I could sleep for an hour or so after seeing how upset I was getting.
I didn't want to leave!