step daughter had baby has to stay in for 5 days

liney

I stayed in hospital for 4 days after delivery for my own health, 8 years ago, and found it really intrusive when people kept grilling me as to why I wasn't home yet.

How long were you in labour, did you do a poo (!), did they have to cut you, how many stitches did you have, have you been to the toilet yet? Were just some of the questions people felt it was acceptable to ask.

In the nicest possible way, mind your own business. Your DH may not be being told 'the full story,' but he isn't the child's father and he isn't entitled to the ins and out of his adult daughter's medical care. Ask when they are seeing visitors, and if there is something you need to know i'm sure she will tell you both.

clairec79

If mum has a history of taking drugs during pregnancy they will advise baby stays in for withdrawal obs - there are some drugs (can't think which off the top of my head) where the baby only shows signs of withdrawal after 5 days

barbiedoll

fluffnutter wrote: »

My friend refused to leave! She was in for a week both times (they were c-sections to be fair, but even so, she was perfectly well enough to go home).

They kept coming round saying 'Ooh, let's get you home today shall we' and she'd just shake her head sadly and say 'I don't think I'm ready yet'. She said it was great; they made her cups of tea all day

Your friend obviously didn't have her baby in my hospital. I've seen women who have discharged themselves, even after a C-section, rather than spend another night in our post-natal ward! :eek::eek:

dizziblonde

margaretclare wrote: »

I admit that my midwifery career is a long way behind now - was made redundant in 1992 - but I would have thought that a young first-time mum cannot be discharged home with a small baby unless there is someone at home to look after her and help her, ideally someone who is a bit older and has some experience of looking after a baby. We would always want to make sure of this before planning a discharge. We used to do 'planned early discharge' after 48 hours but there had to be someone at home - baby's dad, or her mum, or someone adult and responsible.

What do you expect - for her to be discharged straight out of Delivery Suite to cope with everything alone? If you think that, then you have no idea of the effect of childbirth on a woman and the 'learning curve' of learning about care of a new and smaller-than-average baby.

Sorry - just the idea of 6lb being deemed tiny amuses me greatly - but then I came home with a not-yet-5lber and my almost-two-month old is only JUST 7lb this week!

The mat ward I spent too much blooming time on tended to try to encourage you to to at least do an overnight stay, had people in longer than that to establish feeding, because of jaundice and needing to go under the lights, or stuff like that... and since they managed to drag discharging you out as long as possible (they've been roasted in the media recently for it taking so long they regularly end up discharging people near midnight) - that can easily rack up another "day"s worth of stay (we were given the all clear to go home at 9am... was finally about 5pm when they processed the discharge).

pimento

iceicebaby wrote: »

I had to stay in 5 days after having my baby purely due to my blood pressure being too high. Could be as simple as tthat

I was also in for five days. Baby was jaundiced.

It wasn't that long ago that all mothers were kept in for a week.

onlyroz

dizziblonde wrote: »

... and since they managed to drag discharging you out as long as possible (they've been roasted in the media recently for it taking so long they regularly end up discharging people near midnight) - that can easily rack up another "day"s worth of stay (we were given the all clear to go home at 9am... was finally about 5pm when they processed the discharge).

With both my babies I was in for a night, but the next day I could have gone home hours earlier than I did because the doctors took so long in doing the discharge. In fact in both cases I was eventually told to just go home and come back the next day so the doctor could do their checks.

dizziblonde

onlyroz wrote: »

With both my babies I was in for a night, but the next day I could have gone home hours earlier than I did because the doctors took so long in doing the discharge. In fact in both cases I was eventually told to just go home and come back the next day so the doctor could do their checks.

They've resorted to telling patients that it's going to take so long for the pharmacy to get their butts in gear and sort out medication to go home with - to leave and come back and get it the next day at our hospital too.

barbiedoll

I used to work in a hospital pharmacy and believe me, our butts were in 5th gear all day long!

The delivery suite/post-natal ward were ALWAYS the last ones to bring down their scripts for dispensing, usually at around 3.30pm. We would then have a mad couple of hours trying to get them all done before we went home. If they weren't finished, we would stay late (unpaid) to do them. And 90% of them were for packets of paracetamol, iron tablets, and bottles of lactulose.....all of which can be bought over the counter at any pharmacy.

That's why the discharges are so late! :mad::mad:

flowertotmum

hi..well because she has had a c-section they advise you to stay in hospital for 5 days afterwards..you have to have injections everyday in your tummy to stop clots forming..well i did 3 yrs ago..but then i was discharged early as i was absolutely fine and driving them potty with walking around lol...had to do my own jabs at home..but my SIL just had her first baby via c-section and stayed in 5 days for rest,recovery and monitoring..so maybe its as simple as that.
ftm

katgirlie

I love (!) the idea that midwives are sitting around keeping hold of women and their babies, making more work for themselves, deliberately not sending prescription charts to pharmacy, intentionally winding everyone up. Do any of you who have inferred such things honestly think this is the case?

The prescriptions aren't written by midwives, they need to be written up by doctors who have to split their limited time between antenatal clinics, antenatal wards, labour ward/delivery suite, maternity theatre, postnatal ward, gynae ward, and if they're lucky, time for a wee and a cuppa. Yes women can buy the majority of their drugs over the counter, but why should they when they get on free prescriptions? There is a ridiculous amount of paperwork for the midwives and support workers to complete - at least twice as much as a standard ward as they have to document for mums and babies, plus record keeping is a huge focus for midwives as it's considered 'if it isn't written down, it wasn't done' and that includes everything from daily checks on mum and baby, baby's feeds (how much, how long, how effective), whether mum is eating, drinking, weeing, pooing, mobilising, sleeping, bonding with the baby, etc etc etc. Then they have to ensure that the mums and babies are discharged out to the community care teams (community midwives, GPs, health visitors, any other relevant agencies - social care, outreach, breastfeeding support etc) properly so the ongoing care is provided without a hitch. Visitors think they can come and go as they please rather than waiting till the family have gone home, so generally speaking as soon as someone starts a job it is interrupted by the phone or the door, which invariably (and rightly) has to be answered in person to protect the safety of the mums and babies. If you think they just keep families hanging around on purpose you're mad. Maybe if there were fewer of these type of women:

fluffnutter wrote: »

My friend refused to leave! She was in for a week both times (they were c-sections to be fair, but even so, she was perfectly well enough to go home).

They kept coming round saying 'Ooh, let's get you home today shall we' and she'd just shake her head sadly and say 'I don't think I'm ready yet'. She said it was great; they made her cups of tea all day

who seem to think they are in some kind of hotel rather than a hospital, the staff would have more time to look after, and discharge promptly, the other women.


~~~


But this is a bit of a rant and nothing to do with the OP, and I agree with other posters who suggest it could be any one of a number of things, either ask her or mind your own business. (Incidentally, if you genuinely think she could be on drugs, (do you have evidence for this, or just her history?) don't you think you should be raising this with her midwives/GP/social worker rather than sniping about it behind her back?)