AIBU to travel 1.5 hours for antenatal appointments

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Hi everyone, looking for some advice on whether 1.5-2hr is a reasonable commute time for antenatal appointments/birth. Would you choose your nearest hospital (20 mins drive) or one that is better rated by CQC? My nearest is rated good but so far they have been haphazard at best. They were supposed to call me with my blood results and did not and only booked me in for fetal RhD test after prompting. Because of their negligence I have had to take Anti-D without knowing whether I actually needed it or not which was very distressing to me. A better hospital is an hour drive away and could be 1.5 hours or two hours away if traffic is bad. I am a low risk pregnancy, so I don’t know whether to stick with the convenient devil I know or switch to a better trust. I have been to this other trust and I have the money to stay nearby for a week or so closer to the birth if needed. What would you do? AIBU - stay with the nearby hospital. YANBU - go for the better but further one.

It’s too far to travel in active labour. Like a op said you could be waiting 5 weeks for your baby to arrive and your new born should only be in a car seat for a max of 30 mins at at time.

I suggest you ring your local hospital and ask for a PMA midwife to ring you back and discuss your concerns with her.

That's too far. I'd have had a horrific drive to hospital with DS1 and would have had DS2 in the car. You'll be panicking at every twinge when you're near term. You'll probably end up going in too early in case things progress quickly. If you have stitches the drive home will be horrible, and you're unlikely to make that journey in one hit with a newborn.

Are you in London OP? Most trusts still do give anti-D as standard, I believe a few are trialling this fetal test, most do not offer it- I am rh neg and had 3 pregnancies and had care at 3 different trusts and was never offered it, I always had to have the anti-D injection. I understand you feel very upset about this but if this is the only thing that has upset you it might be worth giving the close hospital another chance.

Nope, I’d always choose the closest. Birth is so unpredictable and I seriously can’t imagine trying to sit in the car having contractions for 1.5 hours! Also consider driving the newborn home, 1.5 hours is far too long for a newborn to be stuck in a car seat. Bad idea.

I had my second in my local hospital. The experience was so poor that I have opted for a hospital 40 minutes away. I am 34 weeks and and haven't minded travelling for the antenatal appointments at all. I am hoping that birth goes smoothly.

2 hours probably would have been enough to put me off though.

I had my dd in, supposedly one of the best hospitals in the country. Care was lacking to say the least. The midwives weren't at all helpful and caring, thankfully though the staff at nighttime were brilliant.

The rest of the women in my antenatal group gave birth in a different hospital, one that doesn't have a good reputation, and they all had a fantastic experience.

Just because the cqc report says they are outstanding, doesn't mean you're going to receive any better care. It's all down to the staff on duty at the time you visit. Luck of the draw really.

It is too far, however, it depends how they are with delivery. This the only thing that matters. Are they capable with dealing with complications. Will they monitor heart beat properly during labour etc. If the answer is no then you have to go elsewhere.

I think baby blood group testing is a newish thing - didnt have it with my eldest but did with youngest. Ended up having anti D both times, probably could have saved me the extra blood test tbh.

I wouldn't pick a hospital that far away, travelling while having contractions is pretty awful, travelling after giving birth is even worse. Plus you'll have to stop to get baby out of the car seat so a 1.5 hour journey could easily turn into 2.5 hours which isn't the best when you're knackered, sore and bleeding heavily.

I'm booked in in a different trust but only because I am on the border and it's closer than the one in my area. That said, when I was moving and in temporary accommodation I was doing a 90 minute journey to appointments. Not sure I'd want to do 90 minutes in labour.

My nearest hospital is an hour away, and I found it to be a real worry. I have a few local friends with scary stories of giving birth in an ambulance, or the hospital car park.

I was quite relieved to find out that I would be induced.

The worst part was my DH having to do the drive at 3am to be with me when DC unexpectedly needed surgery in the first few days after birth. And then after I was discharged, travelling up and down to neonatal every day, with a 3rd degree tear.

I think baby blood group testing is a newish thing - didnt have it with my eldest but did with youngest

My youngest was only born in December and anti d is still standard for any rh - mothers where I am so they must only do the baby blood group testing in some trusts.

Definitely agree closer to home is better. To help you manage your care and expectations, it might be worth reading the full CQC report relating to maternity care.

My MiL recently spent a prolonged period in a hospital with a poor rating. We read the report and, for example, it highlighted communication with families as a failing but said staff interacted really well with patients. So we put extra focus on being proactive with our communication, made sure we spoke to a range of staff and had specific questions we asked daily.

I suggest this not as a direct parallel, obviously, but to give you ideas about how to take more control in managing your care.

Good luck

I studied prion diseases at university (can be transferred with blood products such as anti-D and not tested for during manufacture), so was anxious and not keen on it if I did not have to do it. After a fetal test approximately 40% of rhesus negative women actually don’t need to take it.

I think the idea of taking control is a great one, but as I have no experience I only get to know what was supposed to be done when I call the head midwife and ask. Is there an easier way? Does anyone know some sort of NICE document with the full pathway for the pregnancy (incl. tests and medications).

Priority for birth is feeling safe, confident in the care you’re receiving and confident to birth. So many hospitals are falling short on this. It sounds like you’re a bit anxious, which is also normal and nothing to be ashamed of. It might benefit you to get some support in place now. I empathised as I was forced to have anti d despite both me and partner being R negative, and i had to have fortnightly blood tests to make sure baby wasn’t positive. Those were knackering and stressful and unnecessary and added to feeling disempowered and mismanaged. The justification I was given is that some women lie about who the father is so it was to keep the baby safe. So much to unpack there!

For my next birth I will have councilling to manage my anxiety and a doula to assist with the birth. That’s somebody knowledgeable about the process to advocate for me and support me so I can focus on giving birth and not worry about hospital and midwife agendas. (My epidural failed and I was on pitocin for 6 hours before anyone would believe me that I could feel the contractions, baby made no progress because I was so stressed, second epidural made me half hot half cold and ended up with a c section after being stuck at 5cm, what I came to the hospital with) for 30 hours (52 hour labour total). The lack of communication or interest in helping me to birth was unreal. Midwife just watching the foetal monitor, not interested in guiding me. I didn’t know to keep my knees together fo example! Unfortunately I’ve lost all faith in my local hospital that is 20 minutes away due to the poor standard of treatment that resulted in postnatal anxiety and PTSD. I would recommend arming yourself with the things you need to support yourself and don’t worry about other peoples opinions. Go visit the hospitals and ask them about when things go wrong and make the account for how they should respond. Do everything you need to feel safe.

I would stick with the hospital that you are nearest to.

Even though this is your first child, labour is still unpredictable and you could go fast. I can see your reasoning behind the hotel stay but when you're at that stage in your pregnancy you will want to be comfortable and also be able to nest which is not possible in a hotel room. Also baby could easily decide to arrive early or later.

You could easily end up needing very regular monitoring which can include daily monitoring along with weekly scans. I'm not attempting to scare you at all just to say that this is always a possibility. Nobody knows. I had to have daily monitoring and despite being close by it was still somewhat frustrating especially when you're tired and finally have some peace to nap but no have to go again... also interferes with nesting! Well it did for me!

Special care also needs to be a consideration as that is an extremely long journey to have to do especially after giving birth whichever way you do. Will be painful and very uncomfortable. Also for anything to be handed into you at hospital it makes it more awkward. I thought I had everything several times yet was always caught out by bibs, sleepsuits etc due to having to stay in such a long time and also bits for yourself are important also. Food and additional clothing things for you too.

I honestly do not mean to be come across all doom and gloom so apologies if so... it's just that these types of scenarios never entered my head when I was pregnant with my first. I had assumed easy, straightforward labour! Which most do.

I also wouldn't really pay much attention to the reports. Some hospitals have a high rating but the midwives are horrendous with only a couple decent ones... whereas the opposite can be said for ones with lower ratings.

If you have concerns then you should definitely speak to your lead midwife about them.

My first baby was 1.5 hour labour and 17 days early, second was 36 minute labour and 10 days early so I’d go for the closest hospital myself

Not quite the same scenario, but one of my friends worked quite far from our local hospital so she did have to travel a long way for all her appointments which was inconvenient for her (and probably for her work, as what would have been an hour or so was usually at least a half day, sometimes more but they obviously had to work around it) but the hospital closer to her work was obviously a lot further from her home so if she'd have wanted to swap she would have had to weigh up the risks and benefits.

Also, I was pregnant in 2019 (gave birth early 2020) and I had the fetal blood typing done, it was right in our case, I'm negative and she is positive, however I had friends who gave birth just a few months before me and they weren't offered it so assume it was quite new when I had it.

If you are rhesus negative then without fetal testing even if you know dp is rhesus negative then hospital cannot assume this without doing their own tests (and there is a possibility with some women that dp isn't baby's father). So if can't do fetal testing then it has to be antiD

After having a terrible experience with my first and a great experience at a different hospital with my second, I strongly recommend you travel to the better hospital. Just make sure you set off when Contractions start and it's unlikely with your first you will be in too much of a rush. And when you come home, just make sure you set off at a good time for low traffic. And stop half way to get the baby out the seat for a little bit. If you have a bad experience at the first one you might be left kicking yourself since you knew it was bad but went anyway if you see what I mean. Don't give them a chance to give you an awful experience would be my advice.

I wouldn’t do this. Half an hour in the car in labour was bad enough for me

My hospital is 15 mins away and during both my labours that was far enough, having to be sat still with a seatbelt on whilst having a contraction was torture!!

My baby came in 36 mins.. I'd try and work with what you have unless you absolutely can't.

Personally I'd 100% go for the closest hospital! I went into labour at 37 weeks. It was a 2 hour labour and 30 mins was spent in the car on the way there! Longest 30mins of my life!! No way would I of made it if I had further to travel! Good luck op! X