The rapid birth and short stay of the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, with both her second and last baby, who in just seven hours gave her time to enter to give birth and leave, has opened the debate about the how long mothers should be in hospitals after giving birth.
Actually, answering the question is complicated, because not all mothers have the same births, because it is not the same to give birth to your first child as to the second or third, because it is not the same to have a natural birth that an instrumentalized vaginal delivery or a cesarean delivery and because not all parents are equally autonomous or capable. Anyway, we will try to respond by talking about it: How long should you be in the hospital after giving birth?
Why did Middleton leave so fast
How is it possible that this girl left with her baby so fast? Well, easy. In England they have a system whereby after giving birth, midwives or qualified staff continue to visit the mother and the baby to support them. In your case, it is more than likely that you also have more help than what is offered to all women.
For putting it in numbers, a large part of women leave after 6 hours of giving birth. Some are more hours, but it is not usual for them to be much longer in the hospital. This, for women who want to go home because everything went well and who feel capable is ideal, a dream come true. However, for those who live assaulted by doubts it can be very hard, and to show the results of a survey of 486 mothers, conducted in 2013, where 40% of the mothers considered that they left too fast, some with the feeling that they were running from the hospital, and others with the security and confidence of being able to leave, but in a sea of doubts in which they felt lack of support.
That little time could be determined by the lack of professionals who can care for mothers after childbirth and by the need to empty the beds quickly, all as a result of the crisis, but hidden in a "we do it for women, who are better and quieter at home. "
In Spain mothers are much longer
Currently the time of stay is less and less in our country, but it is still longer than in the United Kingdom. As we mentioned a few years ago, when the birth is vaginal, the time of admission is about 2.5 to 3.5 days, according to Autonomous Communities, and in case of caesarean section it ranges from 4.7 to 7.3 days.
Is this a lot or a little? It depends. When we had our first child we spent about 4 days because he was a C-section and although we wanted to go back home, I never had the feeling of being prepared to leave (maybe even if it had been a month I wouldn't have had it either). With the second does not count, because there was incubator in between. Already with the third, which was vaginal and with a great recovery, we were two days and we had two days left. Parents of a third child, with two at home and already everything very controlled, we requested the discharge at the day of birth and they denied it to us, that they did not do it there and that we had to wait for two days because that is when they are tested of the heel. So we stayed the time that "forced us to stay." Now to last bull I see clearly that we had to have insisted and asked for the voluntary discharge, because there we didn't paint anything.
And the women who give birth at home? They do not go to the hospital after giving birth. They are at home and at home they stay. Zero minutes from hospital. Does anyone help them? Of course. They give birth with a team of midwives, and they themselves give support and attention in the first few days until the woman takes autonomy.
Do mothers take autonomy in a hospital?
Or what is the same, is it useful the attention that mothers receive in maternity for later, when going home feel capable? Because this is the grace of the matter ... it is useless to stay in a hospital for five days if the nurses do everything to you (they take the child and they bathe you, they take it at night to sleep somewhere else, they take it they take and feed him, etc.), because that way you could stay two weeks and you would arrive home equally incapable or full of doubts that leaving you within a few hours.
If instead they let you be the one who takes care of the baby at all times, if they do not "steal it", if they do not make you feel that the baby is borrowed (something like the baby is theirs, that they are the guardians , those who decide what to do with it and they lend it to you until you leave, they give it to you as yours), if they help you, support and explain, you take autonomy before, security, you feel capable and you can go home anytime.
Unfortunately, there are still hospitals where the attention is that of the first paragraph. They do almost everything, they don't teach you, they don't support you, they don't even have empathy and when you get home you feel completely lost.
So how long should a woman be in the hospital after giving birth?
The just and necessary for him to leave with that feeling that he commented about knowing how to take care of his baby. They may be hours, it can be days and it will be different for each mother. Why did they make us spend 2 days with our third child as if it were our first child? Well, because they do it this way and they didn't take into account our needs or our abilities (in many hospitals you go home and go back to the second day, a moment, to do the heel test).
What is your first baby and you have a thousand doubts? Well, I don't know, maybe 2 or 3 days. That you feel very safe and confident and you feel well? Well home after a few hours and, in case of any problem, you return to the hospital.
What is a caesarean section? The mother's recovery time, of course, will always be longer than if it is vaginal delivery. Perhaps the 3-4 days is correct and the 7 days of Madrid are excessive, being variable according to, as I say, the parents of capable people feel.
In the end, time should be limited (a maximum, not that someone decided to be one month), but the decision should be from the parents because in England many feel that they are leaving too soon and in Spain many feel that they are looking too late, and it is so unpleasant to feel that they kick you like feeling that they have you held without need.
And you, how long were you in the hospital? Did you need more time or would you have preferred to go home earlier?
