Currently in our country, Spain, women and babies are discharged from hospital after being admitted for approximately 36 hours after delivery. But between paperwork and waiting, in the end you meet the 48 hours of hospital admission. The American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) has urged health personnel to assess whether this period is sufficient to meet the necessary objectives to ensure the well-being of the baby in his new life.
For that, have listed some criteria that should be fulfilled without exception at the time of discharge to the newborn. And it is that in that day and a half of admission after the birth of the baby, there are more relatives who come to see you than health personnel as such. The creators of the criteria that we will see below, they have recalled the great importance of knowing the environment to which the baby will go as soon as he leaves the hospital, as well as knowing the parents and ruling out possible problems with them.
Criteria for discharge of the newborn
- Clinical and physical examinations with satisfactory results. With them, the possibility that the baby or mother will have to return to the hospital after a few days due to an undetected problem is ruled out.
- At least two complete and successful breast or bottle feedings, thus ensuring that the baby is feeding properly.
- Have a child restraint system installed in the car. The mother must know how to use it.
- Assessment of the family environment. Medical records to rule out drug or alcohol use, and medical records to find out if there are past cases of physical violence or child abuse.
- Postpartum medical follow-up to evaluate the correct growth of the baby and the recovery of the mother.
Psychological support after childbirth
Something that I missed a lot after the delivery of my daughter was a psychological follow-up. The fatigue never experienced until the arrival of motherhood can destroy your morale. It's not bad to have a shoulder to cry on outside of the family. In our country the follow-ups of newborns are more frequently in private health, where normally every 15 days we visit the pediatrician. In the case of having social security, the consultations are usually every month for the first months and then they become quarterly. And in both cases, the mother has one or two gynecological appointments after delivery.
There is no professional you are referred to after delivery to talk about yourself. In addition, the act of making tribe with other mothers to talk about fears or about the experiences that motherhood is teaching us is being lost. Sometimes it is as if they told us: "everything is fine, live your new life and let it not affect you mentally, that you are ready for this." But we still have a long way to go so that the lives of the new families get off to a good start.