Preparing for giving birth without medical assistance

[Maevish]

I'm due in three weeks. Because of where I live there is a reasonable chance I'll end up giving birth on the way to hospital, which is 2.5 hours away. There are lots of mobile phone black spots on the way so we may not be able to get medical advice via phone either.

I'm packing hospital bag and have included lots of towels, clips and badass scissors for cord.

We will also Google shoulder dystocia and positions that can help.
What else should we take/learn about?

It's my second baby, no complications, and me and my husband are competent and not panickers. My midwife won't really say much about which possible complications we could prepare for. I know it's likely to be fine, but I'd prefer to be prepared and not need it than to be unlucky and wish I'd prepared. If we are literally all on our own and there's a problem, I want to at least try to save the baby (or me!) even though we might not do it right.

BTW there are no other options here, like I can't have a home birth or anything.

Same!
good point

I've had 3 babies at inverness due to living in thurso. What I would do is if you don't go into labour a couple of days before your due date. Go down anyways and say you're getting twinges they won't send you back home they'll put you up in kyle court. They may want to induce if you don't go on your due date though. Which you can obviously refuse. Might be an idea.

Are you able to ask one of the other mums who has done this if your midwife won't offer any advice? Good luck x

@Boogiebot interesting... I was told that you can't request to stay at Kyle Court these days, that you only get to stay for free if they have decided it's a medical reason. How toddler proof would you say Kyle Court is? The issue with mine is that she is into everything, climbs everything, breaks everything. Is it quite minimalist like a hotel room? I'm so huge that physically running around after her is not possible! That's why I've ruled out house-sitting or staying in someone's spare room or similar (which people did suggested and sans toddler that would be great).

@clpsmum I know lots of other mums who have made the journey through (pretty much every woman who has given birth goes for their first) but I don't know any who haven't made it and given birth in a layby. Probably because until very recently people often stayed local for their second. I don't think other people bother preparing for possible issues like I want to do though. They just go for it and hope for the best.

The diarrhea issue is hilarious! I'm totally cool with a bucket or a bush 😆

Well they'll look at as it's so close to your due date there's no point in sending you home. I did it 3 years ago. They booked all of us into Kyle court and gave me an induction date baby came before the date though.

Resus for baby. Should you need it. Get DH to research this, maybe ask midwife if there's a course he can do?

Sorry you're getting negative comments!

It is difficult to unpick the risk factors and apply them to your own situation but in the absence of pre eclampsia, high blood pressure, high BMI, diabetes, where there are no interventions and given that you had a previous vaginal birth without complications, the risks are lower than the population risks.

Read the statistics as 92% chance of not having a PPH, reminding yourself that most of these complications happen in a hospital environment. Second time, low risk mothers have lower complications when they give birth at home than in hospital.

If any of the risks factors change, you can reasses your options.

This is a really good point. They should provide one in case it's too fast to do anything other than stay at home and call an ambulance. They have more useful stuff than the paramedics wouldn't necessarily have.

Surely then, you'd be better off asking friends and neighbours rather than random people on Mumsnet?
It's hard, as a Londoner, to envisage having to travel that far to get medical help. It seems nuts to me.
Consult local services, midwife etc and people who have experienced your way of life.

So what are you actually suggesting then? This thread has been fab re suggestions. But ultimately if you choose to live somewhere so remote, and choose not to move closer in the weeks beforehand, you thus have to choose how to put into place precautions. So what do you choose?

I have no idea how or why there is good morning giphy in my post.. sorry!!

@GreenMini and @Oblomov23 I've explained what I'm asking for in my previous posts surely? I wanted ideas for likely medical issues I might encounter, so I can research them and prepare if possible. Lots of posters have been really helpful with this. I said I've asked the midwife but she won't commit to anything (presumably so I can't sue or something if it goes wrong, fair enough). Other local women seem to just jump in the car unprepared and hope for the best, so they are not helpful. I'm not like that, I am more of a planner.
I've got what I needed from this thread, but people keep asking questions and I feel it's rude to ignore them as they are trying to help! So I've been answering 🤷

I’m very pro home birth and had some of my children at home. I declined induction in favour of monitoring. But in your situation I would ask for a c section at 38 weeks. That is the least risky option imo.

Giving birth completely naturally is great, but not without access to medical care. I ended up transferring to hospital with one of mine.

Problem is, for many of the issues there will be next to nothing you can do in a lay by. All the research in the world won't help your DH get the baby out if it's shoulder is stuck. He doesn't have the experience to know which way to go. He can't stop a haemorrhage. He probably won't be able to tell the difference between a haemorrhage and a bad tear in the dark at night in a lay by. If the cord is wrapped around the neck and you need to resuscitate you do not have the equipment which could help, if the baby needs resuscitation for another reason you don't have the experience or equipment to work out the reason why and do what is necessary. He could end up with you bleeding, him trying to resuscitate a baby, and no signal to call for help.

Sure, 99% of cases will be fine. But considering what's at stake I wouldn't risk being in that 1%. I'd take one of the options you prefer less to make sure you have access to medical attention.

Can you afford a private scan at 36 weeks? That might flag up any potential issues that could complicate the birth.

Yes, I know we can't fix most things, as I said in an earlier post. But it's crazy not to prepare for the things we can fix, just because there are some things we can't.

I also said earlier that hopefully we can go for the stay at home/ call ambulance route. I'll ask the midwife next appointment. That would probably be best.

I don't think it's helpful for me to keep commenting as I feel I'm saying the same things over and over 😆

Thanks very much everyone for helping and taking the time to respond.

How did it go? Hoping everything was fine.

So annoying when these threads are old!