How long of a stay after a hospital birth? - Page 3

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by Quindin

And no, one can't really rest in their hospital can they? They wake you up ALL the freaking time!!

What amazes me is that they seem to be oblivious to that, themselves. I've been woken up so many times by the same people who will make comments about how nice it is to get some rest before "having to be home with the baby". At least when the baby is sleeping at home, I can sleep, too!!

[Storm Bride]

I think the standard stay at my local hospital is overnight for a vaginal birth, and 3 days for a c-section. I'm not sure on the vaginal birth, as I've never had one...but my cousin left the same day her dd was born, after a morning birth. I stayed 5 days with ds1 (emergency c/s under general), and 3 days each with dd and ds2 (both scheduled section with a spinal). I don't know if the difference in my stay was because ds1 was born at a different time (he's 10 years older than dd), or because he was an "emergency" or what.

[the_lissa]

Yeah when I left after my iv abx were done, all the nurses were so surprised and wondering why I dind't want to stay and rest. Um how about because I got about 20 minutes sleep in 24 hours?

[felix23]

Originally Posted by Storm Bride

What amazes me is that they seem to be oblivious to that, themselves. I've been woken up so many times by the same people who will make comments about how nice it is to get some rest before "having to be home with the baby". At least when the baby is sleeping at home, I can sleep, too!!

I am so lucky. Nobody really bothered me after I had my c-section. Well, the first couple of hours after getting back from recovery they came and checked a lot, but I really needed them. After I was up moving around they just told me to page them when I needed pain meds. I think they came and checked on Lucy at midnight, but I was pretty much left alone.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by felix23

I am so lucky. Nobody really bothered me after I had my c-section. Well, the first couple of hours after getting back from recovery they came and checked a lot, but I really needed them. After I was up moving around they just told me to page them when I needed pain meds. I think they came and checked on Lucy at midnight, but I was pretty much left alone.

Every time they came in to check on me or my baby (blood pressure, temperature, etc.), they slammed open the door to my room, so I woke up - didn't matter what time of day or night. With ds2, they kept checking his chart, and waking me up to feed him if I hadn't marked down a feeding within the 2 or 3 hours or whatever. This drove me crazy, for two reasons. The first is that they wanted me to feed him more often because of jaundice, and he wasn't jaundiced (first nurse put down that he was, for who knows what reason, and the rest of them just followed suit, without even looking at him). The second was that I was tired and in pain, and I woke up in the middle of the night to feed him, I was very unlikely to write it down!

[wombatclay]

Yeah... I think so much depends on the hospital (maybe find a doula or nurse who is willing to talk about the reality of their routines?). After my c/s I was checked every 2 hours for the first 6 hours... then they removed all the hook ups and helped me walk around. After that it was a 4 hour check for the remained of the first 24 hours following the surgery. I was in the hospital a full 4 days and after the first 24 hours I was considered a maternity patient (instead of a surgical patient) which meant 4 checks a day... breakfast, lunch, dinner, and midnight basically. They never actually woke me... dd1 nursed a lot so I was awake and in fact it was really nice to have the nursing staff since I could buzz them in to help me get dd1 positioned (hard for me in the first few days post-op) and nice to be able to order food delivered to the room at 3 in the morning when I realized I was feeling icky because I hadn't eaten in a couple hours!

That's also what happened after my vbac... dd2 had a few special needs so they did check her every hour for the first few hours but then both dd2 and I were on the regular 4x a day routine (I had the self administered vbirth pack so there really wasn't much for them to check!). And again I loved being able to call down to the cafe to get goodies at random hours, or call in a nurse to help out since DH had to spend the nights at home with dd1 (so, for instance, the nurses would hold dd2 in my room while I took a shower or they'd prep the sitz bath while I nursed dd2 down so I'd have a longer soak).

And the staff always knocked (which my kiddos never do) and if you said it wasn't a good time they'd ask you to buzz them when you were ready and just move on to the next room.

But this is a small rural hospital. There are larger hospitals near here that really advertise their "birth spa" atmosphere but then don't actually back that up with anything. Yes, you get a labor massage and a nice fluffy robe but they are not flexible with their routines and really give mamas a tough time if they want to do anything outside the norm. If you're birthing in a hospital it's vital to know what you're up against. There really are great hospitals, but they're not the norm and I can totally understand why someone would want out as soon as possible! But you never know... if you can find a nurse to chat with you might be surprised at what can be arranged. Seriously, especially in smaller hospitals, the Press Ganey ("customer satisfaction" surveys) carry a lot of weight, and writing letters about positive or negative experiences can also have an impact. Not so much at larger institutions where they have a huge client base, but smaller facilities often want to encourage repeat business.

[Storm Bride]

I've been thinking about it a lot, and if I get staples again (I'm going to request sutures), I'll stay the whole three days. If I stay three days, they'll take the staples out before I go home...but if I leave early, I have to do an office visit to have them removed. Even saving a day in the hospital probably isn't worth it - I find making appointments during the first month absolutely excruciating. Once I'm home, I just want to be home.

If I get my sutures, I'll just see how I'm feeling. I do like the hospital bed, for the extra help getting in and out...

[JennTheMomma]

I was in a Birth Center affiliated with a Hospital. You have to stay 12 hours if everything is ok. They like to check over you and babe and feed you. Take a shower and nap maybe. I stayed 2 days and didn't feel it was enough for me. I had to have surgery for a blood clot though, so it was a little different then just a vaginal birth. I also had postpartum depression and was struggling horrible with breastfeeding.