can I drive myself to the hospital if I'm in labour?

[ARV1981]

My husband can't drive so I'm always designated driver. I'm really worried about how we'll get to the hospital when I'm in labour.

My mum lives around 45 minutes away...would she be able to get to me in time, do you think? I have wondered about having her stay at mine from my due date onwards, but if baby's really late then I think it might be too much for us all. I don't think I want her at the birth, as she tends to get overly emotional and I think she might just stress me out!

My husband says his mum could drive me (she's around 20 minutes away) but, I'm not sure I want that. She's just bought a new car and if I spoiled it with leaks then I'd feel terrible, especially when she comes to sell it! My husband says I shouldn't worry about that, But she's quite precious over her things, so I think she would be annoyed (but I don't think she'd say anything). I definitely don't want her at the birth though. That's for sure.

It would be so much easier to drive myself. Would this be a problem, do you think? Would I be able to drive home afterwards?

[amothersplaceisinthewrong]

Get a taxi. ANd seriously, get your DH to learn to drive.

[WhenMarnieWasThere]

I drove myself to hospital.

I was 4 weeks early and I think I didn't realise it was labour. My waters had leaked and I was having some pains but I didn't put 2 and 2 together. I had an appointment with my consultant that morning in the hospital so I had a bath, waved DH off to work and went to my appointment.

It was on the way to the hospital that I realised I was in labour. It was the longest drive of my life and the traffic jam didn't help either. I parked about as far away from the hospital as possible as there were no spaces and it was a long, painful walk to the ward.

My sister had to come with DH to drive my car home as I was kept in for a week.

I wouldn't recommend it!

[NerrSnerr]

Has he spoken to other parents about why he may need to drive? It was really useful when my husband went out on a Sunday afternoon searching for anywhere that sold nipple shields (ended up in the next city!). We also had a few appointments in those early days yes which would have been a pain on public transport or expensive with taxis.

[AlisonBlunderland]

If you drive there and park at hospital, if you have to stay in for any reason, the parking charges will be more than the car is worth! And who is going to drive it back?

Get some puppy pads to protect car seat and get a taxi.
Advantage of that is a few taxi drivers have delivered a baby who couldn't wait!

[ARV1981]

He doesn't seem to care about the driving. It does really upset me, but I can't make him. I've tried, but given up! He will just have to be a passenger for the rest of his life. The baby will probably learn to drive before he does.

My dad used to say that choosing not to learn to drive is like choosing not to learn to read. I told dh this and he got mad at me saying I don't understand and that it wasn't his fault as he'd never had the money to learn. So I paid for some lessons and he hasn't even used them all yet and that was nearly a year ago. I'm not buying more for him when we have baby stuff to buy.

He does help me pay for the car though now, which he didn't before, so small victories and all that...

[Rockchick1984]

My DH doesn't drive ARV and there's no way I could have driven myself in labour so I spoke to a few friends and neighbours who were all happy to help out as long as I had binbags and towels to sit on

Second time I had a home birth so no worries.

Yes it can be frustrating at times being the only driver but in all honesty we tend to walk or use public transport quite a lot anyway so I'm not too bothered. Plus most of my friends with children only have one car which their DH uses for work so I'm lucky to have use of a car during the day while it's just me and 2 DC!