Best day of the week for scheduled C-section?

[tiapam]

Last time I had an unscheduled C-section on a Tuesday morning and went home on Friday. I talked to the OB nurse and she doesn't see much difference between the weekdays at the hospital. It is a very busy L&D hospital so they are often full, it's not like there is a quiet time. I just can't decide if I want to be in the hospital over the weekend, or at home for the weekend. My family is a little overextended right now, so I want to make it easy for them to visit and help as much as possible. DH can take two weeks, but last time we staggered it a little which was nice. I might not have that luxury this time, though, if he is the only one who can really be available 100%.

TIA!

[o_mom]

Based on having all three of my kids born on Friday - avoid the weekend if at all possible. At the very least, avoid it for the first part of your stay. Weekends you get the on-call OB, on-call ped, etc. Many places don't have LCs available on weekends or they are reduced hours. Those first couple days when you are working through any problems it would be nice to have familiar people to work with and as much support from the hospital as possible.

[Elilly]

Tuesday was my choice for a couple of reasons. I work at a hospital and Mondays are often a day where paperwork dilemmas etc are being cleaned up from the weekend. Also, I wanted DH to have as much time off with us at home as possible. Plus, if you have a baby on a Friday, the visitors are non-stop at the hospital over the weekend. I prefered being able to let people know what a good day and time were once we were home.

[egoldber]

Definitely avoid the weekend especially if its a holiday weekend!!

I would think that Monday or Tuesday would be OK days.

My only scheduled section was on a Thursday (no real choice since it was semi urgent) and that worked out OK. It happened early on Thursday and had my early issues were dealt with by the weekday staff.

Since Amy was in NICU (and we knew she would be) I was doubly concerned about not dealing with weekend NICU staff on the first couple days since past experience with NICU had taught me that the weekend staff at our hospital a) was definitely the B team and b) the weekend people have little authority to change.make treatment plans...their main function was to coast until Monday.

[o_mom]

Plus, if you have a baby on a Friday, the visitors are non-stop at the hospital over the weekend. I prefered being able to let people know what a good day and time were once we were home.

Oh, I forgot about that one! So true! Hey it's Saturday - let's go bug the new parents at the hospital!

[lilycat88]

I'd vote for Tuesday as well. That's when I had DD via c-section. We were in the hospital for 5 days due to her jaundice. The first 4 days were great. We got whatever help we needed. LCs were available. Come Saturday (we went home late afternoon), it took forever to get things done. We were back at the hospital the following Friday for a weekend of phototherapy and we hardly saw anyone the entire weekend. Granted, we were in a peds unit at that point but still! We were having major nursing issues and it was horrible trying to get help.

[KBecks]

I doubt you will get to choose the specific day..... the OB's schedule will play a big part of it. I think a Monday would be great, or early in the week.

[Melbel]

I concur that it would be better to schedule for early in the week if possible. I have had 2 prior CS and 3 back surgeries and have noticed a big difference in the overall level of care during the week vs. the weekend.

With DD2, we are scheduled for this Monday, June 2nd! :cheerleader1:

[salsah]

wow. i guess i got lucky. i had mine on a friday and it was perfect for us. fortunately no hospital / doc issues. i loved the visitors. and since i went home sunday dh and my dad only had to take one day off from work.
so i was going to post to suggest friday but i guess since most people discourage it i shouldn't. let's go w/ the majority opinion . . .

[KrisM]

Boy, I was going to say a Friday!

DS was born early Friday morning and I went home Sunday morning. DH can take a week off of work, so he was off for the first week we were home.

DD was born Sunday evening and I went home Tuesday afternoon. DH went back to work when she was 8 days old, so he was only home the first 5 days I was home and 2 days that I was still in the hospital.

I liked the Friday scenario much better.

I do agree that I had a lot of visitors and the LC wasn't there on the weekend. No personel issues though.

I've been thinking about this too since I'll have a c-birth as well. I'm hoping not to hit a scheduled date, so will likely wait until 41 weeks, which is a Monday. I'm considering asking for it to be a few days earlier on a Friday instead.

[elephantmeg]

I doubt you will get to choose the specific day..... the OB's schedule will play a big part of it. I think a Monday would be great, or early in the week.


yeah, your group probably has scheduled OR days. Mine was Tues or Fri. I chose Tues. It was perfect-went home Thurs.

[mamabelle]

Earlier in the week would be my vote. I had an emergency c and delivered on late friday. Dd needed care from a non nicu specialist and no one was around (but we ended up being lucky that the doc made had to come for an emergency and saw dd at 10:30 pm on saturday night) We mostly saw residents and and a million visitors (not ours) were all over the place. The constant influx of everyones visitors who did not have anyplace else to be because it was the weekend was a big issue for me because it was noisy and there were lots of kids visiting because they did not have school so it was also germ central. Finally, getting an lc on the weekend was next to impossible. One came by on saturday morning and told me all the reasons it was going to be hard to nurse dd and then I could not get another visit until monday aternoon.

[lmwbasye]

I would definitely avoid the weekends. It's free time off for DH to be home with you and very often things can be closed and/or low-staffed on the weekends.

Just my experience. I enjoyed having mine Wed. morning and going home Friday afternoon. Worked out great!

[saschalicks]

I say Tuesday, b/c by the time your released it's a weekend and if you need help your more likely to find people who can help on a weekend.

[bubbaray]

Whatever day of the week will get you YOUR OB and not the on-call OB. Whatever day is your OB's favorite surgery day (ie., when they are most "with it", not when they've just come off of being on call). I had an emergency c/s with DD#1 on a Sunday and a scheduled c/s with DD#2 on a Wednesday.

[khm]

At my hospital, you'd be VERY lucky to have any say in the matter as a planned unless you plan months and months early. :) My first necessitated a c-section for breech. I was 38 weeks when they failed to get her to turn and we scheduled. The very first appt available for scheduled c's was more than two weeks later. (Obviously, slots are left open for emergencies and scheduled moms who go into labor before their date.)

With #2, we scheduled it very early, like 1st trimester early. (I still didn't know if I was trying VBAC or not, but I figured I'd just cancel if I made up my mind to go that route.)

Anyways, #1 was a Friday, with my doc. I had no issues whatsoever. My parents visited a lot. The docs and nurses were great. My ped the was on vacation, so we'd have not had him no matter what. His partner covered and she was awesome. I went home on Monday.

#2 was a Monday. If there is B-team coverage on weekends at my hospital, then I'm glad we were there on a Monday as my son required NICU care. His care was stellar. All manner of specialists saw him, the nurses were heroes and our ped saw him every morning at 6 am before his office hours. I have no idea if things would have been different on a different day of the week!! I've honestly never considered it before now.....

[KrisM]

I say Tuesday, b/c by the time your released it's a weekend and if you need help your more likely to find people who can help on a weekend.

This is YMMV for sure. My stays were both right about 48 hours. I have the okay from the OBs this time for 24 hours if all is well.

[pb&j]

Whatever day your favorite OB is on call. Hopefully earlier in the week. ;)

DS was born (vaginally) on a Thurs, which had me being discharged on a Saturday. It took for-freakin-EVER to get discharged. OMG. The birth certificate lady had to come get all our info (and then got DH's middle name wrong, and I had to pay $10 to get it fixed after the fact), we had to wait hours for the on-call OB at our practice to be available to do DS's circ and my discharge paperwork, the nursing staff was behind the 8-ball with the paperwork, etc - and we were one of just THREE couples on the floor that day. We should have been released first thing, around 9am. We ended up not getting released until after 1pm! We were literally sitting around with DS all dressed and in his carrier, just waiting for everything to get done. Total PITA. This time I am scheduling my induction for a Tuesday!!

[KrisM]

In thinking more about this today, I still think later in the week could be good. Having visitors can be a good thing. With DD, DH was home with DS, so I was happy to have my mom and my aunt come to visit. But that was during the week, so I was limited to people who didn't work. At times, I was just bored! DD slept a lot and I just sat around and read magazines. I would have loved more company. DH and DS came to visit for a bit, but it's pretty boring for a 2 year old, too.

[gordo]

I just scheduled mine for a Friday - June 20th and I really did get to pick. My OB wanted June 19th, but its my bday and my sis's bday so I preferred to not do it that day. I wanted a Friday so that Dh would get more free time off to be with me and our family wouldn't have to take off too much work to take care of my DD.

[kransden]

I was scheduled for Thursday afternoon and went home on Mon. Mine was routine and I had no issues. I liked that people visited us in the hospital over the weekend. That way they didn't stay too long lol!

[cono0507]

My OB's office has for 4 docs - each has a day of the week and then they trade off for weekends and fridays. So I just chose a day when my preferred doc was on, which happened to be a friday.

I agree that the LC's can be hard to come by on the weekend. I'm not sure I even saw one (I left on Sunday).

My first c/s was emergent and on a Thursday. Again, LC's were no where to be found on the weekend, but I was pumping so it didn't matter too much because my nurse taught me how to use the pump (nicu baby, couldn't eat yet).

Statistically, I've heard Tuesday is the best day becaues the staff is freshest that day. They've recovered from Monday, but not yet burnt out from the week.

I will echo PP's in that weekends everyone and their mother will want to come and visit. If you want to avoid that, Tuesday seems perfect.

ETA - and sometimes the photography people aren't available on the weekend (or not as available). We had to wait around for 1-2 hours on Sunday when I was ready to leave so we could get the photos done (they do a very good job at my hospital with professional photographers - color and b/w with natural light, no crazy rainbow backdrops, etc) so it was worth it, but just another annoyance about the weekend.