How long after birth did you go home?

[Melster]

DD i had a c-section and had trouble feeding so i was in hospital 8 days

This one i am private again and if i have a vaginal i think its 4-5 days....ill probably stay so i can bond with the baby without DD there all the time who is nearly 3.....coz i can tell what she will be like already. Then i wont have to cook or anything like that....plus i dont think people stay as long at hospital lol

[Taurean]

I stayed 5 nights with DD in a private room, in a double bed, with DH there each night and throughout the day. I wouldn't change a thing, will be doing a similar thing with our next baby.

- It was relaxing having three meals plus morning and afternoon tea brought to me.
- My midwives were lovely and I loved having them on call - at the end of my buzzer
- Visitors couldn't and didn't hang around for ages and I didn't feel obliged to offer them tea or coffee.
- The 'Mother and baby sleeping' sign on my door really worked and the midwives would have backed it up if necessary.
- I was SO grateful for the support and advice from my middies when I got the blues and my milk came in all at once! DH was grateful too I'm not sure how I would have coped with that on our own at home.
- DH and I got to bond with DD together - I loved that.

I just feel we got to really enjoy our first few days with DD without thinking about cooking meals, cleaning up, washing, etc. It worked really well for us but of course, everyone is different.

ETA: no midwife visits at home, just the usual checks by the MCHN

[Arimeh]

With my 2 vb's I left about 4/5 hours after birth. My midwife came daily for a week. With my first vb (3rd child) I had the mchn visiting from around 2 weeks.

This time round nobody has contacted me, so I haven't seen anyone since my midwife signed me out. I've been weighing dd3 every week (or thereabouts) so am keeping an eye on her weight gain.

Eta - even though I had nobody like a midwife taking care of me after the births, my mum stayed with us for a week afterwards so she did all the cooking and stuff

[Shanti]

I had a natural drug free birth with DD but was in for 5 nights as the feeding was so challenging and DD wasn't attaching (at all) and losing weight and I needed to know what I was doing before going home....so I was in no rush to head home until I knew how I could feed her!! Even after 5nts I still left feeling very uneasy about it all.... I also had a private room which made it easier!

This time around, hoping the BF will go ALOT better, which I'm sure it will, then I hope to be only in for 1-2 days max.

My DH doesn't get any time off work much so it's hard going home to not much support so sometimes being in hospital for a little while isn't so bad.

[Lisa]

DS1 - 4 days. I was having problems with my supply after a distressing birth and it was policy then for you to stay 4 days after an episiotomy.
DD1 - 12 hours. Midwives visited for 4 days.
DS2 - 4 days. Again I was having supply issues due to him having a tongue tie.
DD2 - 4 hours. Midwives visted for 4 days.
DD3 - Born at home but we went to the hospital to be checked over. We were there for 3 hours. Midwives vistied for 3 days.

[Gigi]

my plan was for homebirth and no hospital time at all.

in reality, my homebirth was transferred, ended up being an emergency c-section with complications of Bandl's Ring.

my baby was well enough to go home after a few days, but i was not. Due to no family backup, and my health, midwife wanted me to stay as long as possible. So as soon as i went home (end of sixth day), inspite of still having trouble walking and bending, i was responsible for the care of my nb all day long, until her dad came home at night and on weekends. He did all the bathing of her and the only food i ate, was what he made when he was home. (eating at 10pm). I was so envious of all the other women who had their mums and Mothers in law, that came to help. Or sisters etc. But i told myself, single mums with no family backup, must have it harder.

my midwife visited for the first six weeks, which was the only reason i kept breastfeeding, due to her being onsite to coach me on what to do. She got me one hour of a cleaning service, which i was so grateful for.

[Miss.September]

Four nights in a private room with a double bed. DH stayed right through. We had a midwife visit once at home. Next time around, I'd do the same thing, simply to try and get a bit of rest before I went home to everything. The staff at the hospital were very unintruding and the food was so-so, but as hard as it'd be to stay away from home, I'd want to give our new baby as much time with just mummy before we had to share