Introduction: The time that mother and her newborn child spent in a hospital after a vaginal labour has been reduced. Early discharge has become a rather common practice also in Slovenia, and the safety of an early discharge depends on the quality of the postnatal care at home. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to research the postnatal care after an early discharge from the hospital. A research amongst the postnatal care providers in Slovenia was carried out. The goal was to find out how the system of the postnatal care is adjusted to an early discharge from the hospital after the vaginal birth. Methods: A descriptive method of research was used in the first part of this thesis where the theoretical background was presented to the reader. The literature search was carried out via ScienceDirect, PubMed and Cochrane Library online resources and databases. Articles were selected with the PRISMA methodology for the purpose of the detailed analysis. In the second part of this thesis, a descriptive, casual non-experimental empirical research method was used. The results were collected by means of an online survey and all providers of the postnatal care in Slovenia were included in the research. Results: The results have pointed out divergent opinions about the time window of an early discharge from the hospital after a vaginal birth. Postnatal care providers believe that early discharge is neither safe nor unsafe for a healthy woman and her newborn. Almost half of the participants are not informed about the discharge of the woman and her newborn from the hospital, and they think communication with the hospital plays an important role. The most common issue they face after an early discharge is lactation and breastfeeding. The treatment of postnatal mental disorders has been selected for the least common by most participants. Moreover, many of them do not use the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale on a regular basis. The majority agrees that families after an early discharge from the hospital need more support from the postnatal care providers and would need of a more individual care. Discussion and conclusion: After an early discharge from the hospital postnatal care providers in Slovenia are facing the need for a more complex treatment, where they commonly point out breastfeeding. Postnatal mental health is also a very important part of the postnatal care for women, but frequently neglected. Many of them do not use the Edinburgh postnatal depression scale on a regular basis. After an early discharge, there is a need for a continuous and an individual postnatal care possible only with up-to-date informing about the discharge from the hospital.
|