[Sca-cooks] Baby has arrived!

[Laura C. Minnick]

At 07:27 AM 3/27/02 -0600, you wrote:
>A question, But first Congratulations on the Baby Girl, When my Wife had our
>two kids, albeit C-section, she was in the hospital 3 days. Tara was out in
>less than a day from having the baby. Is this Standard procedure for
>standard delivery births now?
>
>Thorbjorn

Depends. Yes, some hospitals/insurance companies seem to send you home as
soon as the baby cleaned up a bit, but I don't think they are quite as
draconian as all that. If it was an uncomplicated birth and mother and baby
have good support at home, really no reason not to. You're somewhat safer
at home, without the rampant strep and staph bugs, noise all day and night,
and 'helpful' hospital procedures. Usually it is up to the doctor's
discretion.

Complications and things like c-sects are a different matter, of course.
What matters is Mom's comfort and whether or not she still needs skilled
nursing care.

I ran gamut- Annie was in the hospital, I had pre-eclampsia and was
desperately ill. 5 weeks early too. Stay- 5 days. Stephen was in a birth
center. Stay- 18 hours. Lydia was born at home. My midwife shuffled home
for a nap after, oh, I forget- 8-10 hours observation? Weird that I don't
remember. Her assistant and the other apprentice went home after two or
three hours. 'Daddy' pulled his usual- made phone calls, was blissfully
happy for a couple of hours, and then crashed out, as though he'd done all
the work. :-/

'Lainie