hospital stay after birth

[StlKT]

wow, i'm a nurse in ob and i'm surprised at all the negative postpartum hospital experiences you girls have had.
As a mother/baby nurse, we do have to do assessments and vitals every 4 hours for the first 12 hours after you deliver. After that, just ask your nurse to not be bothered often if you do not want. I will put a "do not disturb" sign on the door for my patients who want to rest without interruption.

Typical hospital stay is 2 days for vaginal delivery, and 3-4 days for c/s. It is possible, but most pediatricians will not discharge the baby before 24 hours because they want baby to be watched for early signs of infection and to make sure he/she's eating ok. Also, if you are GBS positive (it's a normal vag. bacteria, but can be fatal to infants if they get it; they do a vaginal swab at 36 weeks pregnant to test for this) most drs will want to keep babies in the hospital for 48 hours.
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[patty@myflightsurgeon.com]

With my son I was only in the hospital 12 hours, he was born at 11:59pm and was home by 12:00 pm the next day. Needless to say I was a happy camper.

[Regina]

I asked the doctor today, and she said 48 hours, but if the pediatrician will sign off, they will let you out in 24.

Patty, how did you get to leave in 12? I would love to do that.

I am having a boy, and I don't know if the fact that I will be having him circumsized makes a difference. Like I mentioned before, last time (boy also) I was let out at 24.

Oh, which brings me to another question: up north, the pediatrician circumsizes. Down here, the o.b.'S circumsize. Is that a location thing or have times changed?

[katherine2473]

I'm finding this interesting - my best friend arrived at hospital to have her 2nd baby at 2am. Jack was born at 7am and she was released just before midday! She was told she should stay in for 6 hours but she was feeling fine so 5 hours was ok! And my sister was allowed out after her 2nd after about 20 hours - but if Charlotte had arrived earlier in the day she could have gone home that evening if she'd wanted to (which she didn't - she wanted a night of sleep!) I haven't heard of anyone staying in 48 hours unless there's something wrong with them or the baby.

[Brenda]

Originally Posted by Regina

I asked the doctor today, and she said 48 hours, but if the pediatrician will sign off, they will let you out in 24.

Patty, how did you get to leave in 12? I would love to do that.

I am having a boy, and I don't know if the fact that I will be having him circumsized makes a difference. Like I mentioned before, last time (boy also) I was let out at 24.

Oh, which brings me to another question: up north, the pediatrician circumsizes. Down here, the o.b.'S circumsize. Is that a location thing or have times changed?

In FL, the hospital I was at, the ped and ob did the circs. They were so overcrowded with kids, I was going to have to leave the hospital without my baby boy so that he could wait in line to have the procedure done. OR.. I could leave, take him and then go the next day, day 3, to the ped office and he would perform the circ. I opted for choice number 2. Of course that was a bad mistake, I watched the entire procedure, almost pssed out. And now, we are in the process of considering legal advice. His circ was not done properly, he's having it re done next month, we need to travel to do this, there will be pain and trauma. It doesn't even look like he was circumsized. Sure, some people think it isn't a big deal to circ, but we chose to, paid fo rit, and now we need to fix it thanks to a pediatrician who proabbly had not done enough of them.

[stellaandcorasmommy]

i can't figure out this quote thing...every time i do it wrong...
but i just wanted to say, my friends decided to have the circumcision done at the peds office (to save $) and ended up having the same problem. it needs to be redone...and is going to cost more in the long run.

i was in the hospital for 48 hours with my first...we had some complications...huge loss of blood, etc.
second daughter, she was born at 2:55 am and i was out 28 hours later...as soon as i got home...the dog was running around, the cats were checking us out, husband was vacuuming, grandparents were coming over, stella wanted to play barbies...and i seriously considered driving us back to the hospital (i figured they would take the return if we still had our "tags" on...)

[Regina]

Brenda,

If you need a reknown pediatric urologist, I have someone great! I am not sure where you are located, but he is in Ohio. He was my son's urologist, and the only one that would come to the nicu at the hospital that told us that he was going to live. He also was the one that gave us his home phone, cell phone, vacation house phone, etc. I never thought I would call him at home, but I ended up calling him at home at around 11 pm one night, and he met me in the e.r. He was not only kind, but he was a great doc.

Anyway, my oldest couldn't be circumcized at birth because all the medical issues, but he was circumcized at a year old by this urologist during a different medical procedure. His circ looks just like a normal circ.

Anyway, pm me if you need more info.

[Brenda]

[quote=stellaandcorasmommy;54807

i was in the hospital for 48 hours with my first...we had some complications...huge loss of blood, etc.
second daughter, she was born at 2:55 am and i was out 28 hours later...as soon as i got home...the dog was running around, the cats were checking us out, husband was vacuuming, grandparents were coming over, stella wanted to play barbies...and i seriously considered driving us back to the hospital (i figured they would take the return if we still had our "tags" on...)[


Thanks for the first laugh of the day!

[Brenda]

Originally Posted by Regina

Brenda,

If you need a reknown pediatric urologist, I have someone great! I am not sure where you are located, but he is in Ohio. He was my son's urologist, and the only one that would come to the nicu at the hospital that told us that he was going to live. He also was the one that gave us his home phone, cell phone, vacation house phone, etc. I never thought I would call him at home, but I ended up calling him at home at around 11 pm one night, and he met me in the e.r. He was not only kind, but he was a great doc.

Anyway, my oldest couldn't be circumcized at birth because all the medical issues, but he was circumcized at a year old by this urologist during a different medical procedure. His circ looks just like a normal circ.

Anyway, pm me if you need more info.

Regina, Thank you. We've already met with the uroligist from the Riley's children hospital in Indy. Seems to be an okay guy.

[Dana]

We keep you in the hospital not only for the mothers sake but more so for the baby. Remember the whole uproar about 10 years ago about "Drive through deliveries"? That was when we were letting moms and babies go before 24 hrs and there were some serious complications both to mom and baby.
Laws were set by the government to protect consumers from health insurance companies for this very reason.

Likely if all is well in the first 24 hrs, they will be from then on. Babies are monitored for temperature regulation, heart conditions, respiratory issues (such as apnea, or stop breathing) first pee's and poops, infections, etc.

Regina, in your case of this being the 6th or 7th pregnancy, you are at more risk for bleeding after birth as your uterus may not want to clamp down as nicely as say someone who has given birth 2 or 3 times. They would want to watch you more closely as well.

Bleeding and infection are the biggest concerns for moms after delivery.
Take your time, try and rest and if all is going well, ask the OB if they can just wake you up in 4 hrs at night, unless you just delivered, then your Vitals and uterus will need to be monitored more frequently.....

Dana