2nd baby, 30 minutes from MLU. When to go in?

[DeffoJeffo]

Hiya, just wondered if anyone had any similar experiences? My first labour was long (we're talking 3-4 days of contractions, 3 hours of pushing) but I managed to stay at home until I was about 8cm. This time round my local MLU is closed for the month so I've booked into one slightly further away - about 30 minutes. My midwife said to wait until I'm getting 3 contractions every 10 minutes for an hour again but I keep hearing stories about how much quicker second labours can be and I really don't want to be caught unawares and end up pushing in the car :) any advice? I'm nearly 38 weeks....

Bump?

I am wondering similar as 20-30mins away from hospital this time, whereas last two labours the drive was under 10mins.

My first labour was fairly quick, although still an hour of pushing on arrival at hospital (when we went in contractions were pretty much back to back, no break in pain). For my second labour I had a doula, and at the point of where I was starting to get panicky about whether I 'should' go in, she advised me to stop timing contractions and asked what I felt like doing. I felt like lying down, so I did that, started to feel calmer and more in control and then there was a point at which I knew I wanted to be in hospital so we went. I have no idea how frequent contractions were, but was ready to push very shortly after arrival. All worked perfectly.

I do think going by contraction timings can be quite distracting and unhelpful if you need to just get your head in a place of focusing on getting through the pain and trusting your body and so on.

What I am worried about this time is labouring in the car for a longer time. Was manageable for 5 or so mins but not sure how 20mins will feel. But I don't want to be in hospital too long either - don't want to be waiting round worrying about how children are doing at home and so on...