Going Home

Bringing your new baby home comes with questions.

Going Home Getting Ready Tips

Going Home After Giving Birth

Bringing your new baby home from the hospital for the first time comes with its own unique joys, worries and questions.

Our goal is to make sure you are prepared and feel confident caring for yourself and your newborn baby.

This brochure shares key information about caring for your baby and provides support resources and important telephone numbers.

To learn more about our maternity services, call 302-301-3360.

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Getting Ready To Go Home

Our maternity services staff will do everything possible to help ensure you and baby are ready to go home by 11 a.m. of your discharge day.

First-time mothers who are breastfeeding will receive a phone call from a Parent Education nurse a few days after discharge. She will answer your questions, help you with problems and provide additional support.

This is part of our ongoing commitment to the highest level of care for infant feeding and mother-baby bonding has earned us a Baby-Friendly™ designation by the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative—a global program of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Even if you aren’t a first-time or breastfeeding mother, you can call 302-301-3360 at any time after you leave the hospital to speak with a Parent Education nurse.

Tips on Your New Life at Home

Bathing: You should use showers during your recovery period. You may soak in a clean tub of warm, clear water, no bubble baths. Do not douche. Do not use tampons.
Diet: After you go home you should stay on your usual nutritious diet. Breastfeeding mothers should drink enough fluids to satisfy thirst. Do not diet or eat less than 1800 calories each day. A breastfeeding mother should have 500 more calories a day in her diet while breastfeeding.
Sex: Having sex while you are bleeding raises your chances of getting an infection. Remember, you will need to use some type of birth control if you do not want to become pregnant again. Breastfeeding is not effective for birth control even if you have not gotten a period. Changes in your hormones after birth may cause you to have vaginal dryness. A water-based lubricant can be used for comfort.

Additional Support

If you haven’t already, be sure to look at all of the classes and group sessions that our Parent Education Department offers.

These include need-to-know essentials like infant CPR training and child safety-seat education, but also the Happiest Baby on the Block class, a favorite of many mothers.

And mothers with babies up to 10 weeks old are invited to attend four free Mother/Baby Development sessions, which offer not just tips and training to help you get through the first few months of parenting, but also a chance to meet other moms who are going through just what you’re going through. Many of our mothers make lasting friendships during these festive gatherings.