How does this COVID labour triage work?

[BertieBotts]

You know the bit where you go into hospital and they tell you you're not in labour and to go home and take a paracetamol etc. Or hopefully not.

Everything I'm reading says that you shouldn't go in to hospital until you're literally unable to speak/in such an advanced stage of labour that you're not really able to string a sentence together or make much sense. And also that being in this kind of "labour trance state" is really important for coping/things to progress etc so if you're something like 6-8cm along and you have to stop to actually engage your brain and speak to people then everything is going to stop and you'll interrupt the flow or whatever.

But partners aren't allowed in for that stage at the moment, are they? You're supposed to go in and do that first initial monitoring/vaginal exam/where they establish you're actually in labour by yourself, and once they've decided you've passed the magic gates only then is your partner allowed in with you.

So how does that actually work? What if I can't operate my phone at that point to text him? What if I haven't charged my phone or have forgotten it and left it at home? I don't know his phone number by heart should I write it on my birth plan/arm? Is there a special COVID husband waiting area and they'll come and collect him?

I feel like I should know how this works as I'm having my third, but with both other DC for completely different reasons, I ended up going in when I was still in a fairly early stage and probably could have managed to contact DH absolutely fine when they decided to admit me. But I'm aiming to stay at home a bit longer this time if possible.

Also just to complicate things I'm not in the UK so it won't be an NHS hospital. But European country so not hugely different in terms of approach. I will have a chance to ask them but I thought I'd see what people's actual experiences have been recently.

DS was born April 2020 so probably some of the rules have changed, hopefully this is useful though

Basically it was pretty shit but only took a few minutes, I was so obviously in active labour (hanging off the triage desk contracting every 2 mins, yelling at the midwife that I wanted to push lol) that my midwife didn't even bother doing any exams or monitoring just started ushering me down the hall towards a birthing room.

I definitely would have struggled to operate my phone but luckily I'd thought about it in advance and taken the security code off, so the midwife could take the phone & call my birth partner (who was waiting in the car park getting a pep talk from the friend who drove us to hospital ). I'd also made sure my phone was plugged in & charging a few hours beforehand at home when I started timing contractions so it was fully charged when we left for hospital. & yes birth partners number was written at the top of my birth plan which I stuck right at the front of my notes.

As they didn't do an exam I have no idea how dilated I was (I'd guess fairly close to 10cm though??) but I wouldn't say I was deeply in the zone at that point, I couldn't speak coherently during contractions but I could walk and talk normally for about 60 seconds between each one. I only got into something like that trance state you're describing once I was in the pool with lots of lovely gas & air

That's helpful thank you! I will think about taking the security code off my phone/putting his number somewhere visible just in case.

YY I don't necessarily mean in a trance but otherwise engaged/off my face on pain kind of thing :o Isn't pregnancy fun?

lol for some reason I'm considering doing it again??? Hoping for a home birth with potential #2 though. And you're welcome, hope it all goes smoothly

10 month old baby now and I was wheeled in on a wheelchair in this state. I was at 2cm at the point where I couldn't speak and was screaming in pain! My daughter was transverse so this caused that level of pain so early on . Yay. I still managed to unlock my phone etc and dh was ringing me anyway in triage.