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Natural Birth
How soon did you go home?
I was telling my mom that my midwives say you can be discharged from the hospital or birthing centre within a couple hours after birth (assuming everything is okay) and she seemed to think this was outrageous, so how soon after the birth did you go home?
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Re: How soon did you go home?
I left the hospital 16 hours after delivering my son. I also had a midwife but ended up having to go to a hospital the midwifes don't usually like to deliver babies at (because I didn't have time to make it to the hospital I was planning on going to because I was already 10cm dilated and pushing when we left for the hospital) and that hospital wanted us to wait until the next day to see the pediatrician before leaving. I was GBS+ and the hospital was concerned that the antibiotics were not in long enough before my son was born - had it not been for the hospital, we would have probably left much sooner.
A friend of mine also had a midwife and was home within about 4 hours of the birth with both of her children.
med-free birth x2, breastfeeding, baby wearing SAHM
My BFP Chart
DS1: I was in hospital for about 48 hours. I had GD with this pregnancy and DS needed to pass blood tests consecutively in order to be discharged. I didn't mind staying an extra day.
DS2: I was ready to go home immediately but spent 1 night in hospital. It was ok.
When my mom had us (in the 60s) she stayed a week each time. She said it was wonderful. The new moms got a beer every afternoon, hand massages; the nurses took great care of the babies.
Different times.
With my first - natural delivery in hospital with midwives, it took almost 48 hours. It wasn't hard to get my midwife to sign me out, but it was hard to get a ped to come sign the baby out due to scheduling. Sucked.
With my second - free standing birth center with midwives, DS#2 and I were headed home around 7 hours after birth (including a tear repair in the hospital after).
...baby #3 is here...
three days after ds1 (c-section). DS2 was a homebirth. The midwives left three hours after the birth, and left me with a list of things to watch for and her emergency number. She came to my house to check on me every day for the next couple days and then twice a week for the next week.
My dad was horrified after DS2 was born when he found out I wasn't going to the hospital to be monitored for a few days. But I felt great at home, and I knew help wasn't far away if needed.
I didn't make it to the hospital in time to get antibiotics for GBS, so they made us stay for 48 hours despite having a complication and intervention free delivery.
It's a big reason we're home birthing this time. If I'd been GBS-, I'm pretty sure I could've gone home that day (he was born at 11am).
With DS hospital standard for v birth 2 days
This time birth center is like 4 hours unless there are complications. It scared both DH and myself on the tour, but I think after reading a lot of supporting books we feel more relaxed about it.
I stayed the full 48 hours and would have liked to stay another day. I had hemorrhaging after birth and my uterus wasn't contracting as much as they felt it should. I soaked through my bedding a few times during the first day and due to my tear/swelling was unable to sit for more than a few minutes without causing extreme pain and gushing blood during the first week.
On top of that, my LO had jaundice issues and I would have preferred they do the treatments in the hospital instead of the five days of at home treatments and having to go to the hospital five mornings in a row for blood work. Me waddling into the hospital because I was horrified at the thought of being separated from my baby, praying that I wouldn't bleed down my leg, well, it wasn't a good time.
Obviously every experience is different, but I would have liked to stay a little longer until I felt more confident in my body and knew that my son was fine.
DS at a hospital attached birth center: about 32 hours after birth (DS was having real problems with nursing and lethargy, so they kept us longer)
DD at a hospital: about 30 hours after birth (she was born at 4 am, so we stayed that day and night, and left around noon the next day)
This LO at a free standing birth center: assuming all goes well they discharge you 3-6 hours after birth.
Warning: My case is extreme and not the norm.
K was born at 6:15am on a Saturday. She was lethargic and didn't nurse at all the 24-30 hours. By noon on Sunday she was in the Special Care Nursery/NICU under the bili lights for jaundice complicated by ABO Incompatibility (Coombs positive). I was discharged at 7pm on Sunday without ever seeing the on call dr for my OB's practice (she had come in to see me when they were taking K to the NICU and I had another person in the room doing something and the dr said she'd come back but never did).
Even though I was offically discharged I remained in the hospital for the next 9 days as a "boarder" while K was in the NICU. I was transferred from L&D across the hall to Acute Care and was given a room to stay in, however, I was no longer a pt so I no longer recieved any nursing care or meals. My husband had to bring me all my meals or I had to purchase them from the cafeteria.
With my first he was born at 36 weeks. A wonderful natural birth and he never left my side in the hospital but we did have to stay 5 days to deal with breastfeeding issues and jaundice.
My daughter was born in a birth center at 40 weeks and we went home after 5 hours or so. At our birth center the max you can stay is 8 hours after the birth (unless that would have you leaving in the middle of the night, in which case you can wait until morning).
I did fine going home right away. They call every day for the first 3 and there's a home visit on day 3 as well. They do a great job with discharge instructions and personally I was more concerned with them checking the baby than me, since I figured I'd be able to tell if something wasn't right with my body, but the baby was separate now and even with intuition I was worried that first week, largely because of the jaundice issues with my first baby.
I feel I should mention that with DD (at a hospital), she was born at 4 am and we could have been discharged the same day, but since we had already paid for a private room I decided to take advantage and stay the night. So a good portion of our stay was by choice.
Where I am if everything is ok after a vag delivery then you are strongly encouraged to leave after 2 hours. BUT we have the option of going to one of the nearby birth centres and staying for up to 48 hours with our DHs in a private room.
It's all free and it's like staying in a hotel with on call midwives it's fabulous.
My parents are still appalled that I walked out of the hospital at 4am 2hours after LO was born with a plastic sheet the hospital gave me to sit on in the car. That was with DD1
After I had DD2 on our bathroom floor because I was strongly encouraged to go home from the hospital, my parents have decided that our maternity services are positively 3rd world. :-)
Elizabeth 5yrs old Jane 3yrs old