What happens if you're alone & bring baby to labour ward?

[dina10]

What happens if you're a single parent without friends or family and bring a baby to the labour ward? Or call an ambulance in labour and have a baby in the house with nobody else there?

I think if you literally had no one, they may call social services and find emergency foster care...I'm guessing though and have no actual knowledge but can't see what else they could do

Yes, as above, friend is a foster carer and has looked after children in an emergency after being called by social services

I would say social services as well as you can’t have a baby there whilst you give birth

If you know about the situation in advance you'd be able to talk to your midwife, but respite foster care is used in these situations. It would be better if it was arranged in advance as you'd have chance to meet the carer.

The same thing happened to my SIL and her DCs were cared for by emergency foster carers until family could get there.

They can get emergency care for these situ.

A woman at my local Midwife Led Unit had her toddler in the birthing pool with her until her partner could get there to take him away 🤷 They have photos of it on the wall!

This is why pregnancy lasts nine months so you can sort issues like this. (I read on an ambulance drivers blog that his local hospital had a midwife who told patients this if they said they would have to call an ambulance because they didn’t have a car.)

This is why pregnancy lasts nine months so you can sort issues like this

What an unpleasant thing to say. You can't just conjure up willing friends and family out of thin air.

Midwife here. Your midwife should help you explore your options e.g. Local babysitting services/family/friends/nanny/childminder etc etc. If you have nothing in place through no fault of your own then social services would organise emergency care for you. For your sake and for your toddler, I would suggest exploring the other options where you can, purely because you're likely to relax more knowing your eldest is with someone they know

@viques

This is why pregnancy lasts nine months so you can sort issues like this. (I read on an ambulance drivers blog that his local hospital had a midwife who told patients this if they said they would have to call an ambulance because they didn’t have a car.)

Yes, that is absolutely the only reason pregnancy lasts 9 months

@thedot

A woman at my local Midwife Led Unit had her toddler in the birthing pool with her until her partner could get there to take him away 🤷 They have photos of it on the wall!

I’m guessing that’s because she actually had someone on the way, not that the child would be there the whole time, my baby was born by emcs and I had to stay in the hospital 3 days after, couldn’t exactly have a Baby there the whole time, from the op there would be no one else coming

Social services. I would try to find an alternative 😬

A nanny can help. Many you can book for 2 weeks on a retainer fee, and then have available 24/7 for the few days needs

@Comedycook

This is why pregnancy lasts nine months so you can sort issues like this

What an unpleasant thing to say. You can't just conjure up willing friends and family out of thin air.

Nor do you conjure up a pregnancy out of thin air. It is called taking responsibility.

Just because it's social services it doesn't mean they are taking the DC away forever, what a strange thing to say.

@berksandbeyond

Social services. I would try to find an alternative 😬

That was to this post.

I do agree that I would explore other options first. Social services are very overstretched and probably have more important cases that take priority over a largely predictable event.

@BertieBotts

Just because it's social services it doesn't mean they are taking the DC away forever, what a strange thing to say.

I think a lot of people just see social services as dealing with abused children...but there's all sorts of situations where children from loving homes may need temporary foster care...maybe if a single parent is seriously ill

Why/how can you have a baby and also be pregnant with another child without the father? Where are the father(s) in all this?

See I would try to avoid ss if I could because one I wouldn’t want my child to go to a random foster carer they or I have never met, and because I would worry they would be concerned that I had no one and was isolate, being honest yes I would worry about that. So I would try to find a paid for sitter though I appreciate cost may be difficult there.

I had my post deleted because I may have misinterpreted the post I was referring to. They may have meant that social services have better things to do.

Social services would arrange something