What would you plan for birth?

[Pinksorrel]

I realise the best laid plans go awry, but I still have to make one!

Second baby is due in a few weeks. I live in the Highlands, and currently there isn't a proper local midwife service because housing is impossible to find for workers (curse of second homes, rich people moving into area, etc). So it's unlikely I'll be able to give birth in MLU locally, and home births are also not covered just now.

So choice one is to have the baby in A&E, maybe without a midwife. Doctor/nurses would be available. Pain relief options limited. No option for emergency c section. This local hospital is about half an hour away so I can definitely get there in time.

Choice two is to try to make it to Inverness. Takes just over two hours if there aren't too many campervans! All medical options are available at Inverness. But my first baby came in four hours from first twinge, so I think there's a high chance this baby will come in the car on the way through!

First birth was uncomplicated and this pregnancy is low risk.

Would you risk the car journey through, or risk the reduced facilities available locally?

Obviously it's your choice.

My personal view is that the NHS encourages women to believe an awful lot of utter bullshit about epidurals, probably to discourage women from having them for cost reasons.

I live in France where nearly all women have epidurals and the rates of assisted delivery and C-section are not higher than in the UK. I'm pretty sure they're actually lower. If you're having a straightforward labour, all an epidural is likely to do is take the contraction pain away. Which is obviously what it is supposed to do.

Also, I would have an induction over an ELCS every day of the week. The worst case outcome with an induction is that it ends in an EMCS. But it probably won't, especially if you've already had a straightforward vaginal delivery before.

The recovery from a straightforward vaginal delivery is much better than the recovery from a C-section.

Apologies if someone else has mentioned this, but Raigmore hospital has patient accommodation (Kyle Court, I think) and it's common for pregnant women from remoter areas to stay there until they go into labour. Your partner can stay with you, but only until you are admitted.
It might be wirth discussing with your MW or consultant.

@BigglyBee pregnant women from my area used to routinely stay in Kyle Court, but it doesn't seem to be done anymore 🤷 Staying in Inverness for a couple of weeks isn't really an option though because of my toddler. But thank you 😊
@RosaBonheur thank you, and I do see your point. Maybe the NHS is too trigger happy with forceps then!

You can have an ElCS just because, so you have every right to ask for one.

The normal thing for women in my area who want to deliver in Inverness is to book self-catering accommodation in the area and take their families away with them. It's very difficult and can mean that partners can't be at the birth since they have to look after the older children. What solutions are you being offered? You obviously won't be the only person to have these difficulties, surely the health board should have something in place?

Is there any chance that your health board will pay for SC accommodation, since they can't offer a reasonable standard of care otherwise? (Ours does, because the facilities here are very,very basic and there is no surgical facility, plus it can take 3 hours or more for the ambulance plane to arrive.

The only other solution I've seen is for women to be admitted and just wait it out in hospital. I had to do this with my first, in Stornoway.

@BigglyBee paying for self-catering accommodation is just the sort of bonkers thing they'd do, you're right. It would be much better for them to pay for self-catering accommodation for a midwife locally of course, rather than multiple pregnant women, but that would be far too sensible.
They just say to 'jump in the car and try to make it to Inverness'. I do have an appointment really soon though so I'll ask a bit more about everything. I think if I was higher risk they might be leaning on me to go and stay in Inverness, but because I'm not they seem reasonably happy for me to chance it. Maybe I can buy some pain relief for the car journey 🤔 If anyone knows how a person would go about acquiring some black market entonox I'd be grateful...

I'm past the ago of having to deal with this any more, but I often used to joke about making sure the vet was available, because that was the only option!

I did have an unschelduled birth here, and the midwife broke the entenox canister somehow. I wanted to kill her! The doctor was on the phone to another doctor asking what to do, and when my baby needed an injection into her heart, it took nearly half an hour to get hold of someone who was qualified to do that. It was a massive shitshow. Both of my subsequent babies were born in Raigmore. The heating is always on blast and the ice machine never seemed to be working, but the midwives were excellent and the doctors didn't once need to go and fetch a grown-up!

past the AGE, not past the ago!

Yeah it is hotter than the fires of hell in Raigmore 😬 Joy.
Your first birth sounds hairy! I hope everything was okay in the end.

If you gave birth within four hours for the first one then I’d def see if you can book the induction at Inverness. If you have it 39 weeks and you’ve already had a previous (seemingly straightforward?) birth then odds are you’d be totally fine & it’s more predictable. Personally I would try to avoid being away from a big hospital with all the resources, but then my first birth was a disaster so my view is probably skewed!!