Patient preference and postnatal hospital stay

Summary

In a prospective study of the outcome of hospital or home postnatal care, the patient's own preference was taken as the arbiter, instead of the usual criteria of parity and appraisal of home and social circumstances by health personnel. Forty-eight women were discharged from hospital up to 5 days after delivery and 100 women after 6 to 14 days. No harm resulted from patient-selected early discharge and no benefit was found from longer hospital stay.