I am due my second baby very soon, and will be giving birth in a MLU at hospital.
I've just been thinking about leaving hospital, and once the all clear has been given how much of a right do you have to insist on leaving?
Last time, I was in for 3 days post birth due to some minor complications with the baby and they also wanted to monitor me after a tricky delivery.
On the day we went home, the baby was given the all clear to go home at 10am by a paediatrician. I had been given the all clear the afternoon before.
We were kept there for a further 8 hours (left hospital around 6pm) as the midwife in charge wouldn't allow the time to organise the paperwork to complete our discharge. She said it was too busy and we would have to wait. We asked several midwives during that time who all seemed happy and willing to do it, then came back and said their senior had said no.
We sat on the bed, belongings packed, ready to leave. Once the baby had been checked my husband brought the car seat and took the majority of our things to the car. He was told to go and get them back when we asked how long we might be waiting to be discharged, as we had used our last nappy in the bag we kept with us.
I was worn out from having next to no sleep for days (long labour, general hospital noise, snoring patients, caring for my own baby). I felt grubby from only being able to grab very quick showers in shared toilets/bathrooms. I just longed to go home, have a bath, a decent meal and get settled for our first night at home.
Looking back I wonder whether I should have spoken up a bit more, instead i sat for hours getting silently wound up and tearful. The annoying thing was when we finally were discharged it was a relatively quick process, couple of forms to go through, red book, and we were ok to leave. (I know they would have had to organise this beforehand, but it was only 5 minutes max spent sat 'discharging' us).
It might have just been a particularly busy period and I was unlucky to be caught up in it, but it seems crazy to hold up a bed for so long?! I was actually kept in recovery for hours longer than necessary after birth as they were waiting for a bed to come free on the postnatal ward!
Has anyone else experienced this, and would you be more assertive about going home? I'm not wishing to be rude or anything, the staff are obviously amazing and do a fab job.
I don't want to deal with that kind of unnecessary wait again, my husband has very limited time off work this time, and we have a young child at home that we will be wanting to get back to! We wasted a whole day sat around.
I guess I'm just wondering how much right they have to hold you there once you are both deemed fit to leave?!