Early and late discharge after hospital birth. Health of mother and infant in the postpartum period.

Early discharge, defined as hospital leave 24-48 hours after birth, was introduced at Falun Hospital in 1984. 164 women interested in participating in an evaluative study of the program were randomly allocated in late pregnancy to an Experimental group (EG) offered early discharge, and a Control group (CG) offered the regular postpartum care in hospital. After medical and other withdrawals 24 h after the birth, 50 women remained in EG and 54 in CG. Infant morbidity and number of prescribed medicaments during the first 6 months after the birth were lower in EG than in CG, but the difference was not statistically significant. EG mothers made fewer visits to the Child Health Centre nurse than did CG mothers (p less than 0.05). No significant difference in puerperal complications was demonstrated, but the intake of sedatives by EG mothers was smaller than that of CG mothers during the first puerperal week (p less than 0.01).