Natural Birth
s/o how early from the hospital
If both mother and baby are doing good, will the dr grant early release? Or can you leave against dr orders? How early?
Just curious!
If you can share experiences that would be great!
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Re: s/o how early from the hospital
We left after 24 hours but I was ready to leave after about 4 hours. I got so bored but I think some of it had to do with a very quick labor (so I wasn't exhausted like some women are after long labors), it was baby #2, and she was born mid-morning. Had any of those factors been different I think 24 hours would have been about right for me.
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DD was born at 7:20pm on Tuesday and I was discharged and left at about 3:30pm on Thursday.
My situation was different because DD was in the NICU, so I had to "leave" without her. (In reality, we live 5 minutes from the hospital, so we went home to drop stuff off, say hi to the dogs, and then we went right back.)
Honestly, though, I still would have stayed. I liked having the sit-down shower (I separated my pelvis and couldn't stand up) and I liked using the hospital pump (which I know you can rent, but they are really big and kind of a PITA). The nurses were also a huge help!
TTC since 11/05...ectopic pg 4/08...early m/c 6/09...BFP 10/5/09!
Nora B...June 15, 2010...8lbs, 8oz...Med-free birth!
TTC #2 since 7/11...cycle #3 of Clomid + IUI = BFP
Malcolm...September 21, 2012...8lbs, 6oz...Another med-free birth!
You could certainly ask the doctor to grant early release. My OB said she was happy to send me home early, but the pediatrician would have to be willing to sign out the baby as well and she knew most would not.
I was lucky, though, because I lined up a pediatrician ahead of time instead of just using the doctors on call. That turned out to be fortuitous, because even though the hospital wanted to keep the baby 48 hours, our pedi signed us out in 36 hours and we saw her in her office the next day. I doubt the doctor on call would have taken on the liability of early discharge (we were supposed to stay 48 because I was GBS+ but my labor was too fast to get antibiotics.)
However, I would not leave against doctor's orders because your insurance company could theoretically refuse to pay for your entire hospital stay. At least that's how my DH (a doctor) explained it to me. I imagine it would also be harder to sign out a newborn AMA and there was no way I was leaving without my baby.
I had DD at 12:30am Tuesday and my MW and the hospital were fine with my leaving after 24 hours (I would have left after about 36 since it would have been the middle of the night). But I didn't check out until Thursday because I couldn't even walk more than a few feet I was so tired. I'm really glad I stayed though because DD ended up having to go under the Billilights Wednesday night through Friday morning. I got to stay at the hospital with her the extra day though (no charge for the room even!) since I needed to BF and I lived an hour away.
As far as I know, you can check yourself out at any point against dr.s orders, but they can keep baby 24hrs before you can check them out.
I Bump from my phone 90% of the time, with a baby in my lap, so please excuse my bad format and poor spelling and/or punctuation.
I had DS2 at 3:30am and when the docs came around at 8am for a check on us I assumed that I was being released. They laughed and said that we were going to be spending the day/night there, which was fine by me but I totally could have gone home that morning if I had wished.
With DS1 I spent 2 full days in hospital. I had GD and they needed to get 2 'good' blood sugar readings in a row from babe before they would discharge me.
I asked my midwife and know we have 48 hours total. She advised us to stay so we could have extra bfing support. I also know a lot of people want to visit us in the hospital, so we'll likely stay that long, assuming it's not a game weekend
You can leave against medical advice whenever you want. They will probably make you sign a form to that effect. The issue is when baby can leave...they all have to be checked out by a ped and if one isn't available for hours after you want to leave then you're stuck. You'd have to take baby out AMA and depending on your hospital's attitudes that can get ugly. Like child services being notified ugly. The best thing to do is tell doc and hospital up front you want to leave asap so they will have ped ready too.
At my hospital you can leave after 6 hours, and that's with the drs' oks. Some women just want to go that early. I don't want to labor or give birth in the hospital but staying afterwards doesn't bother me. The L&D nurses are so nice here and wait on you like servants ... I don't get that at home! Plus they help wrangle all the visitors, your meals are brought to you and someone's right there in person if you have questions. The part about a birthing center that I didn't like much was thinking about riding home in a car a few hours after pushing a baby out.
I delivered with a family doctor - so my doctor and the baby's doctor are the same person. And my hospital sucks, so I had no desire to hang out there. The food was terrible. The nurses did their best, but they are understaffed and were not available for much. I didn't even get to see a LC, even though I said a couple times that I would love to see one.
There are renos underway that may lead to a less sh*tty place to birth, but if it isn't really different, I'm aiming for a 6 hour stay next time.
My city does all births at one hospital. There isn't any such thing as a birth center, and I really don't want to birth at home. I don't want to clean that up.
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FYI, the midwives handle all the cleanup at a homebirth!
DD was born at around 9:30 PM on Monday and I was discharged at around 11 AM on Wednesday. The hospital wasn't so bad -- it was nice having nurses and LCs just a button-push away -- EXCEPT for the fact that I had a shared room. Which really sucked.
With DS, I refused to deliver at a hospital with shared rooms. But even with a private room, I didn't want to hang out at the hospital any longer than I had to. I wanted to get home to DD! My hospital required the baby to stay for at least 24 hours, so that was what I was planning on.
I ended up switching to homebirth and was in my bed within an hour of giving birth
And yes, the midwives did all the cleanup!
Mommy to DD1 (June 2007), DS (January 2010), DD2 (July 2012), and The Next One (EDD 3/31/2015)
I do have other reasons for wanting to have my children in a hospital setting.
But beige carpeting in most of my house still figures into the equation.
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