When should your baby go home? The minimum requirements are that the baby is feeding well and has peed and pooped at least once. The baby must stay in the hospital at least 24 hours after birth. Many experts still recommend that the baby stay in the hospital at least 48 hours, although this practice is becoming less common. In the absence of any complications or risk factors for infection or severe jaundice, the baby can usually go home between 24 and 48 hours of life. The timing of discharge from the hospital depends on a variety of factors for both mom and baby. Mom and baby may have different discharge dates, or dates that either could be discharged. In most cases, both mom and baby stay together until both can go home.
Vaginal deliveries usually go home the first day sometime after 24 hours once all the tests and screenings are completed. Mothers who have a C-section usually stay into the second day, though it may be less than 48 hours.
What common things may keep mom or baby in the hospital more than 1 day?
For mom
- C-section
- Hypertension and/or preeclampsia
- Infection testing or treatment
- Excessive bleeding before/during/after delivery
- Absence of prenatal care or labs or records
- Delivery at hospital other than the one your OB uses
- Other medical conditions
For baby
- Testing for infection
- Mom is group B strep positive (This will depend on how the pediatrician seeing your baby handles these things. Current guidelines suggest most of these babies can now go home after 24 hours).
- Low blood sugar (hypoglycemia)
- Poor feeding/excessive weight loss
- Late preterm infant (35-36 weeks)
- Jaundice
- Heart murmur & need for evaluation
- NICU admission