Natural birth & discharging from hospital Q

[Mum22GTTC]

If I cannot get my DH enthusiastic about a HB I will have to use the birth centre again. (I really need him to be 110% on board as he is a fab birth partner & if he has doubts, I know it will make me panic).

So, my 2 birth centre births were in the small hours of the night. I then showered & lay on the bed all night watching the clock (& of course my babies!) until morning came, when I got myself dressed, said "I want to go now" was told I needed to wait to be discharged. So I wait & wait & wait for the 'baby checks' and to be eventually discharged at 10am-11am.

^^ That is the worst part of birth for me, I just want to go home to my children & own bed.

So my question is, can I litterally get showered & say I'm going home NOW?!

 

[Mervs Mum]

Yes you can. You may have to be quite persistent and even sign to say you're going against medical advice but you can. They're normally happy with 6 hour discharges amd if they haven't done the baby checks by then you can say you'll come back. Again they're likely to put pressure on you to wait or sign but you could speak with the supervisor of mws in advance to say that yiu intent to discharge yourself ASAP and possibly before all standard non urgent checks are done. You might find that you come under less pressure that way as she will have signed it off and her mws won't be thinking its their head on the block so to speak.

You know there is literally nothing that they can't do at home that they can do at a birth centre. It's statistically as safe for baby to be at home as it is for then to be born at a BC and statistically BETTER for you....I had a lovely community Mw who because my hubby wasn't sure about being at home, offered to do an appointment with us both so she could put his mind at ease etc. might be worth considering

 

[Mum22GTTC]

Thank you MervsMum. I can imagine them making it awkward for me, it was bad enough saying I want to go after 6 hours - that turned into 9-10 hours! But if it comes to it I will stand my ground this time & will take your advice & try to get my plans known in advance.

The thing about my birth centre is that it's attached to the hospital so 'if' anything were to happen it's just a case of going down the corridor, so DH has no qualms with the birth centre.

I was doing so well with DH, I keep explaining the plus points & how mostly things go 'wrong' due to interventions etc and then we go and watch OBEM (not sure if you watched it, was a very upsetting episode) together last night & he's all in a tizz again Although I'm sure that poor lady was being induced, which kind of emphasises my point.

 

[Mervs Mum]

For the most part you can see which interventions lead to outcomes like they show on OBEM. By being at home you reduce the chances of the scenario you saw. It's hard to get people to see that. We hear all to often 'it was a good job I was in the hospital because XYZ happened.....' when for the most part is was BECAUSE they were in hospital and had interventions that XYZ probably happened.....

 

[ljo1984]

Urgh obem is winding me up they've shown 2 water births the rest are infection, forceps, c section, epidural, laying flat on back and screaming. Rant over.

When I was transferred with Freya (due to meconium in waters) she had to be monitored for 12 hours (resp rate, pulse and temp) but I was clock watching the entire time. She was born at 12.08pm and didn't get discharged till 2pm next day. So I know how you were feeling but you can leave against medical advice, you know yourself and baby and if alls fine there shouldn't be a reason to keep you there. I asked the dr who checked Freya over about going and they said they just check baby the mw discharges, still don't understand why it took so long the ward was empty! Xx