birthing center experiences?

J234 · July 2011

Hi There,

Does anyone have any experiences or thoughts on leaving the birthing center 8-10 hours after giving birth? All my friends cannot even imagine the possibility. TIA!

Mrs.Greeko · July 2011

I had my second at a birth center. She was born at 6:36am. They let us go home at 12pm and we had to stay a bit longer than normal because I was initially bleeding too heavily and it needed to slow down before I could go home. We ate lunch at home that day.

Freaking awesome!

I will say that for the first two days I pretty much just stayed upstairs in our bedroom with the baby. DH took care of everything else and he would bring me food on a breakfast tray. This way I didn't have to go up and down the stairs at all since my midwives said not to for the first few days. It was so nice to be home, not being interrupted and being in my own comfy bed. My first I had in a hospital and stayed for a bit less than 48 hours after giving birth. Hated it. People constantly interrupting you, uncomfortable bed, bad food.

Third will be born at the birth center again and I'm looking forward to being home right away again.

DH especially loved being home ASAP.

ashg8r · July 2011

One of the reasons I'm excited for my home birth is that although I really wanted to leave the hospital last time (left about 15 hours after giving birth) I felt like I was too shaky/unsteady to be up and about - I had to sit down about 3 times on the way from the room to the car.

This time I'm really looking forward to the fact that I will be in my own bed after the birth, and will be staying there as long as I want! I'm sure they don't rush you out of the birth center, but personally, I have a hard time imagining feeling up to getting out of bed - but I know this is the norm for birth centers, so maybe I was just being a wuss! :-)

StacieJane · July 2011

I know that I can stay at the birth center for 24 hours (by law), but if I stayed that long, it would mean something was wrong and I'd be transferring to the hospital. My midwife said that most moms stay between 4-6 hours.

KrisM86 · July 2011

My birth center allows you to stay up to 23 1/2 hours. If you need to stay longer, you would transfer to the hospital because it would mean something must be wrong. My MW said that most women choose to leave between 4 to 6 hours after birth.

Sharon21 · July 2011

The birth center that I delivered DD#2 at is attached to a hospital. They allow women to stay for 48 hours and if you need to stay longer you will be transferred to the maternity ward. Most women don't stay that long though. I had to because I had pregnancy induced hypertension and prolonged rupture of membranes so they needed to watch my blood pressure to make sure it went down and I had to have antibiotics. While I was there several other women (there are three suits) came and went. A couple only stayed an hour or two after birth. I would have left sooner if I could and hope that I will be able to with my next child. Though that is unlikely since I also had PIH and PROM with my first DD, I guess that is just what my body does.