Ambulance use when pregnant/labour

[mears]

As a follow-on from the quick survey on A&E ambulance use, how many have used one for pregnancy related issues?

You would be surprised possibly by the number of women who use the ambulance service like a taxi. Often relatives are in the cars following the ambulance

Fair enough if labour is happening fast or if there is an emergency. However, most are not needed IMO

no, I have never been billed... ghave never called an ambulace actually!
well except in work, but htats different
am just grumpy generally!

chapsmum hello hun - am just off to bed but will email you tomorrow night

sorry

hiya! looking forward to a chat!

When i was in a car accident, my bf at the time, who was driving, got a letter from the LAS stating that although they should bill him, they werent going to.

£75 IIRC.

I went into labour somewhat rapidly and someone on the end of 999 talked dh through it. dh delivered and ambulance arrived 5 mins later. there was no way he could have driven me. there was no way I was getting in a car anyway - it was obvious birth was imminent. didn;t actually use the ambulance. stayed at home with midwife.

I used one when I collapsed unconcious in severe pain (in my stomach) when 24 weeks pregnant. I had been told by the hospital to immediately ring for an ambulance if this happened as I suffer from stomach-related health problems. There is no way my husband could have carried me down the stairs unconscious and got me in the car. I was told at the hospital that I had down the right thing.

My husband drove me to the hospital when my waters broke and I had to go in for assessment and then again when I was in labour. I sympathise with people who suffer from lack of car parking spaces at maternity hospitals. The hospital I was at has very few. There were none available when I arrived in labour. And having sat for 1 hour to get to the hospital (with painful contractions 2 minutes apart) there was no way we were going to sit and wait. My husband parked in the pay and display area, rushed me in and then came back out and sat in the car, in a queue of other cars waiting. A friend nearly missed his child being both at this hospital for the same reason. Why they can't allocate a few spaces in the car park for women arriving in labour I'll never know. A midwife there told me they have a lot of babies born in the car park - I wonder why!! And the hospital is at the top of a very, very steep hill in the city centre, so there is no chance of parking nearby and walking.

dh took me, but i was so close i was afraid i'd give birth in the car! he was going dead fast and breaking the speed limit, but knew if he were flashed or pulled over, he had a good excuse.

only time i've used the ambulance service was when my ex-h and i were walking into work, he slipped on some ice and hit the pointed edge of some bricks on the way down - w/his head. it took some time for them to get to us b/c of the weather, and he'd regained consciousness by then, but he had a fractured skull in addition to a serious laceration and spent the next 3 days in ICU.

Only time I used an ambulance whilst pregnant was when I thought I was in labour at 23 weeks and was in alot of pain.

people w/head wounds can be a doozy! he kept asking the same questions, over and over and saying, 'I feel sleepy even tho I drank a pot of coffee.'

1-When i was overdue and bleeding.
2-Dp had to call one as he was delivering dd2.

In retrospect, I did

I was 9 weeks pg with no 4 and started bleeding. I didn't call the ambulance myself - the out of hours doctor did that for me, or told my dh to, I forget which - but I did go to hospital in the ambulance, blue light flashing, and I spent two nights in hospital and really there was no need

I did lose an unknown twin, but my bleeding was relatively light at that point and I could easily have stayed at home and attended the scan the next day without using an ambulance or taking up a hospital bed.

But at the time....well, things seemed very different.

Nothing wrong with that Dumbledore, you and dh were just following the doc's advice. It's important that people who need to see a doctor urgently do. The doctor you see as a result may then decide it's not an emergency, but you wouldn't know that unless you'd seen them!

There are people who call ambulances for trivial reasons. Equally there are people who don't seek help when they really should.