The objective of this study was to estimate hospital readmission and Emergency Department visit rates in puerperium among women discharged from the Italian Hospital of Udine after vaginal delivery. Administrative health databases of the Hospital were used as source of information. Readmissions or visits occurring within 42 days from deliveries recorded from 2000 to 2018 were analysed. Vaginal deliveries were 20756, postpartum readmissions 99 (0.48%) and ED visits 292 (1.41%). Readmissions occurred after a median time of 9 days from discharge, with median length of stay of 4 days. Postpartum ED visits occurred after a median of 15 days; 12.7% were yellow triage tags and 0.7% were red tags. Causes of readmissions and visits did not include only the specific complications of pregnancy, childbirth and puerperium; they differed in case of readmission or visit. Thus, readmissions only depict part of the postpartum hospital care needs of women after vaginal deliveries.
