Anyone gone into labour alone?

[MaverickSnoopy]

First labour was 40+10 and spontaneous with waters breaking during the night. DH was with me and labour was 25 hours from start to finish. Contractions started minutes after waters breaking.

Second labour I was induced (by breaking waters) at 40+15 and labour lasted 4 hours from start to finish.

Both labours contractions were back to back with no gaps in between. Couldn't time them at all.

I am getting nervous about the potential scenario that 1) I may go into labour with the DC (2yo & 6yo) and no adults and 2) that it may be very fast as it's my third (of course it may not be). No friends and family who can get to us within 25 minutes and it will take DH the same amount of time to get home from work (at best). Unfortunately he doesn't have a job where he can work from home.

I need a contingency if I am at home alone and/or with the DC. DH says that in this instance I should phone an ambulance the second my waters break and/or contractions start (and phone him simultaneously and he will come home). I feel a bit uneasy about this. What if it's a long labour and I'm wasting their time?!

Has anyone been on their own and what did you do? What would you do in the above scenario?

You would definitely need to call your partner and ambulance 🚑 I’ve been in labour alone without knowing it was labour partner came home not long into it all worked out

I went into labour at 10:30 at night, contractions on top of one another. Let dh sleep for 45 minutes as he'd been up since 4am. Took 3 hours to get to fully dilated. I'm slightly terrified of going into labour during the day this time as he could be a couple of hours away from me, I've got friends and mum on standby who can get here within 40 minutes. But if necessary I'll ring an ambulance as the hospital is nearly an hour away.

I delivered DC4 on my own. Sent DH to take the children to school and then she arrived extremely quickly. I knew I was in labour when he left but misjudged how close she was to arriving. He was only gone for 30 minutes, the midwives told me that your body will try and ‘hold on’ whilst you are looking after your other children? Don’t know if there is anything in that! Fortunately everything was fine but that was more by good luck than good judgement.

I don’t want to worry you unnecessarily but I had a similar labour with DC3. Induced, about four hours in length, no pause between contractions! Might be worth having a plan.

I had the ambulance out anyway unfortunately as I think both DH and I didn’t quite know what to do. They were very nice, cut the cord and checked me and DC4 over. We didn’t go in to hospital in the end.

I have had very fast labours and I was worried about going into labour alone with my last DC. Because I was worried the hospital agreed to bring me in the day before my due date to induce me. Luckily I didn't go into labour before that day.

Ironically I would love a spontaneous labour this time - I was quite sad to be induced last time. I'm just worried about it being "too" spontaneous.

I feel better now knowing that others have phoned an ambulance and that it's OK. Interesting comment about your body holding on if you're with children - wonder if that's true. My absolute fear is being alone with 2yo while 6yo is at school.

Thinking about it our DDs have an ex childminder who we're still in touch with and she did say we could call if we needed her so I may need to do that if she's available (I know she's very busy though and also on holiday a couple of weeks before I'm due). Will keep thinking of a plan.

I was very lucky in that mil was over visiting so she had ds but I had to phone a friend to take me in. I was 34 weeks so didn't believe I was in labour but had rang and they said I needed to go in. I was 8 cm when I got there. DH was 2 hours away. Dd arrived less than 10 mins after he got there it felt a bit like my body waited for him!