After the Birth: My Postpartum Hospital Stay Story

Being in labor and delivering Baby T is only part of my birthing story. (Part 1: This Is My Birth Story) The other part of my story is post delivery and my hospital stay. I believe this part of my story is just as important as the first half. When I first wrote this, I was still pretty angry, but now I feel at peace about the situation and I am comfortable posting about it.

After Birth

Once my baby girl was in my arms, nothing else mattered. After labor comes after birth. They helped me onto the hospital bed, Baby T was still connected to her umbilical cord, which was still connected to the placenta inside of me. Our original wish was to not cut the umbilical cord for a couple of hours after she was born. That would have happened if we delivered at the birthing center, but the hospital functions by their own rules. The cord “had” to be cut before I delivered the placenta, but the doctor did wait until cord had stopped pulsing  blood. They clamped Baby T’s belly button and my husband cut the cord. Another contraction happened, but honestly I didn’t feel anything except tightening and my body pushing. The doctor pulled the placenta out.

Next it was time for stitches and she placed my feet in stirrups. Receiving stitches in such a sensitive place was not fun, though it was not as bad as labor and there was numbing cream, it was extremely painful. Unfortunately the doctor did not do a great job and I still have a tear where I shouldn’t. I believe this is because it was in an extremely unusual spot to tear.

At this time my midwives left as well as the doctor. A nurse helped me to the bathroom and my husband held Baby T. While in the bathroom another nurse took Baby T’s vitals to make sure everything looked good. Using the restroom after giving birth seemed more painful than giving birth at that moment. Everything stung and burned, plus I was extremely weak but happy. Baby T was perfect. I climbed back into bed and had her on my chest. She looked like she wanted to nurse so I put her close and she latched instantly. She had been making sucking motions with her lips and tongue ever since she was born. I feel extremely blessed that we had no issue with breast-feeding.

February 28, 2017 5:00 am

We were finally left alone for the first time. With Baby T on my chest and my husband on the couch we all got some sleep. The nurse came back in around 7 am with food for me and a voucher card for my husband. She took Baby T’s vitals again. She also recommended that we do the eye drops, vitamin K and the hepatitis B shot. We opted out of the hepatitis B shot but she received eye drops and vitamin K. If I were to do it over I would have opted out of everything. They told me that it was the exact same thing that the birthing center used and I do not believe that at all.

Before the nurse left, my husband took Baby T and placed her on  his chest, getting skin to skin time. The nurse made two comments. She said that we shouldn’t allow Baby T to lay on our chests because some babies fall off of their parents chest and that if a doctor came in and saw that they would be very concerned. She also let us know that we could leave Baby T in the nursery and go down stairs to get food together. If you knew me you would know that there was no way I was going to set my baby down at all.

February 28, 2017 8:00 am

My husband went to go get his food and I ate some of mine. At this time all I wanted was to go home and be with my baby and my husband. If we had been at the birthing center, like we originally planned, then we would have been “allowed” to leave at any time. A midwife was coming to our house the next morning to check on Baby T and take her vitals, so we did not need to stay at the hospital for any reason. I was going to tell the nurse that the next time I saw her, but I fell back asleep.

February 28, 2017 12:00 pm

A new nurse came in to check on us. I told her I wanted to go home and to discharge us asap. She told me that they could discharge me but the pediatrician would have to clear Baby T to get discharged and assured me that she would start working on the paper work to discharge me and tell the pediatrician to come look at Baby T. She left but soon returned with one of my coworkers. I didn’t want visitors. We hadn’t even told anyone Baby T was born. My coworker came to drop off a present for me at the front desk. The nurse insisted that she come up and bring it to me herself. In most people’s situation I understand that would have been the right thing to do, but I wanted Baby T all to myself. Luckily my coworker was a great friend and I was happy to see her, but I was still disappointed that the nurse never took into consideration my wishes.

February 28, 2017 3:00 pm

I still had not been discharged nor had the nurse come back. The pediatrician came in and took a look at Baby T. She said she was doing great, but they like to keep baby’s for 24 hours. I told her that there was a midwife coming to our house in the morning to check on her so we did not need to stay. The doctor then brought up the fact that we declined the Hep B shot. She told us that I (the mom) could be Hep B positive without even knowing it because our testing isn’t as good as it should be. So Baby T could possibly have Hep B and without the vaccination her liver could fail. I again told her we did not want her to get the shot. She then turned to my husband and told him some more terrifying facts about Hep B completely ignoring my comment. My husband told her that we still did not want the vaccination at this time. The pediatrician said she would work on getting Baby T discharged but would prefer us to stay longer.

February 28, 2017 5:00 pm

At this point I was completely done. I wanted to be home, in my bed, with our baby. I called for the nurse and asked why we still hadn’t been discharged. She seemed confused and said she would go get it done right then but that the pediatrician was still the only one who could discharge Baby T. My older brother had just gotten off work so he was on his way to meet Baby T.

February 28, 2017 7:00 pm

By the time he got there I was starting to pack up because I was going to leave whether they discharged us or not. The pediatrician finally arrive with the paperwork and a pamphlet that listed all the side effects of Hep B. She handed it to my husband and told him/us that we should really reconsider the vaccination.  After she left the nurse arrived with my paperwork and told us we were good to go, we just needed the front desk to check our car seat and make sure it was safe for our child (literal eye roll, we had been there for 16 hours and was just now told that I needed the front desk to “approve” our car seat?)

At 7:25 pm we were finally leaving the hospital with our new born baby girl.

P.S. The hospital charged us an extra $800 that our insurance wouldn’t cover because it was an “extended hospital stay”

Part 1: This Is My Birth Story