how far from hospital is too far when considering a homebirth?

[feb]

am only a few weeks pg but am thinking about having a homebirth for dc2.
ds1 born very quick and easily in consultant led unit with no intervention/pain relief.
my concern is that where i live is at least 45 minutes to hospital, even in a blue light ambulance.
haven't seen a midwife yet so will obv discuss it with her but is this too far away do you think?
many thanks

I would think so unless you left the moment you felt the first twinge. I ended up having an unplanned homebirth with DS2 because it took a while to feel like labour was established and then once it was my waters broke so we called an ambulance. Just as well as it was only 20 minutes after that that DS2 was born with the help of the paramedics. We were only 25 minutes from the hospital but that would have been too long especially if DH had been driving carefully!

If you had it easy last time, chances are it will be easy this time, although no guarantees of course.

thanks niecie
my 1st labour was only 3 1/2 hrs so my other fear is giving birth in the car!

10 mins was too far for my last one. With hindsight the fist little twinge was 40 mins before baby but it was half an hour before I was fairly sure. Baby was born in the front seat of an Astra on the way to hospital.

Oh I'm glad that didn't happen to me mummyrex, I don't think DH would have forgiven me for messing up his upholstery!

my hospital is about 35 miles away, and im allowed a hb. although saying that my 2 previous labours have been quick and trouble-free, hoping for the same this time please! My local midwives are very supportive of hb and my friend lives 10 miles further away from the hosp than me and she was allowed to try, but ended up being transferred.

Sounds ok to me, IME.

I owuld think a planned homebirth would be a good option tbh, at least MW would have all the equipment there, unike in a car on the road.

Don't they keep an ambulance on standby alert where you live Loopy? They do for homebirthers here

If there is a problem, the mw's will spot it before it comes urgent, so there should be time for an ambulance journey. Also mw's carry resuscitation equipment with them.

If it's what you would like to do, go for it.

Hi Niecie

We managed to pull over so I shoved a towel under me. The car cleaned up really well and you couldn't tell anything had happened there - honest!

We drive past the spot all the time and it's now called the baby's "born lawn".

'Luckily' there had been a (non-fatal) road traffic accident nearby and so there was an ambulance on hand.

Next time we are planning a home-birth, though really, it could be an 'anywhere I happen to be' birth.

Mummyrex - Glad you had a decent towel. DH was told by the ambulance controller to get a towel and he came back with a piddly little hand towel! I didn't have the heart (or the power of speech) to tell him it wasn't going to cut it!

We had a fairly new carpet but thankfully it was a dark blue and although there was a patch where it was a bit purple which took some scrubbing, it did end up being almost unnoticeable to those who didn't know what had happened.

Well done on having the foresight to have a decent towel in the car!

At least you have an interesting story to tell your DC about the day they were born. Did you make it into the paper?

Dh ahs invested in a Vax, as that decision was amde shortly after my HB decision I think I know why LOL

And all the towels were manky anyway so i dyed them black, therefore he ahs no excuse to worry about those (he's mroe inclined to than me, tbh)

But we have a huge kitchen and we're moving the table out when I go into labour if Dh is home, then its a warm large area next to a heater with a wipe clean vinyl floor- result!

think loopymumsy hit the nail about chancing the emergency transfer than definitely have to drive to the hospital whilst in labour.
just have to hope my mw is supportive.

Hope it works out for you feb.

An ambulance transfer would definitely be better than your DH trying to get you there in a car - at least they would have gas & air on board and you wouldn't have to worry about their upholstery.

Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

thx niecie