When did you go into labour + how long was it / holiday late pregnancy

[Justabitdaftoroutrightnuts]

Currently have a holiday planned for when I'll be 37-38 weeks with second child.

UK based so no insurance / flights etc. Also family property so no cancellation issues etc.

Only concerns are the travel (300 miles / 5.5 hours in good traffic), plans for dd if I were to go into labour while there. (Staying half an hour from the nearest hospital.)
And obviously then car seat, hospital bag, long drive home with a newborn - LOTS of stops.

Possible that family member could drive to us to look after dd, but that would obviously be a big ask (although we're confident they would do it if needed, but whether it would take too long is the unknown).

DD was induced and dragged out at 42 weeks after a 2 day labour.

Help us decide if we're a bit daft or outright nuts for potentially doing this!

When did you go into labour and how long did it take?

Not a chance would I do that. Mine was born at 38 wks!

First DD 42 weeks, induced
Second DD 42 + 2, induced

I personally wouldn’t as I’d be worried the whole time. I went on holiday at 33/34 weeks and I was a bit concerned about that.

Take your notes if you do end up going. It’ll probably be fine but you just don’t know.

First baby - 36+5 (just as well I'd decided not to go to a family wedding at the other end of the country that weekend).

Second baby - 39 weeks.

I wouldn't be planning a holiday so late in pregnancy - even if the baby is born there, what happens if you or they need to stay in?

If I or we need to stay in we'll just stay at the property a little longer, as it's a family members property that isn't likely to be an issue. Obviously would sooner be home where our hospital is a little closer but I don't think the possibility of ending up needing to be there longer is too much of an issue.

Mine was born on his due date. This pregnancy i have a holiday when i'm 33 wks and I feel that's pushing it as it is.

I wouldn't risk going away that late personally- is this your first?

No it's my second. (1st line of the OP)
1st was born at 42wks after being induced 2 days before.

Newborns shouldn’t be in their car seats for longer than 30 mins so it would be a hellish journey back. I wouldn’t do it.

Well i guess you have a measure of when to expect baby then. Just research how far away you’ll be to a maternity unit

300 miles / 5.5 hours in good traffic is simply not a good idea at that gestation.

I wouldn't. You're obviously anxious about it, so even if nothing happened I doubt you'd really relax and enjoy the holiday.
Put your feet up (as far as you can with a lo!) On home turf.
Best of luck.

No way - ignoring all the obvious, what if you went into labour on the journey?

I thought you’re normally told not to go to far away from your hospital at full term from 37weeks? I wouldn’t do it.

I'm not anxious, just a planner and like to take everything into consideration.

my previous labour would make me think it's no issue to go at 37-38 weeks (since I had to be induced at almost 42 weeks and she still didn't want to come out!) but I'm well aware that it probably means nothing for when this one will come so wanted to hear when others went into labour / how long it took.

First: 30hrs long labour plus half a day or so longer of twinges, at 41+1.

Second: From first teensy little twinge to babe in arms was 8hrs and 2 paracetamol, 40+5. Born in under 20min from arriving at A&E (went to A&E at recommendation of maternity ward because of the onset speed of contractions, they didn't think I'd make it on time and no ambulance or locum midwife was available to respond to my home quick enough).

Turn around and come back?

I don't know, that's why I'm asking for people's experience. I've never had a natural/spontaneous labour.

The induction was bloody painful as I was super sensitive to the hormones. I've no idea how I would feel or how much pain I'll be in if I go into labour naturally.

This is a very valid point!

I wouldn’t even consider this - even if sitting in a car for 5 hours at 38 weeks pregnant didn’t seem like hell all by itself.

Yes, that doesn't appeal at all, but being in my favourite place for a week makes it seem possibly worth it 🤔😅

Didn’t this happen to Samantha Cameron with her last baby. They went to Cornwall on holiday when she was 37 weeks and she ended up having an emergency c section. I wouldn’t fancy a 5.5 hour drive recovering from a c section with a newborn and a toddler so for that reason I’d postpone the holiday and go when baby is a few months old if that’s possible

42 and 42+5. I had actually got a trip within UK planned at 40 weeks, only a weekend but I was definitely going to go but Covid lockdown and it was cancelled. If I had another I'd be confident of over 42 weeks and another v long labour. I also had a festival booked at 37 weeks but that was also a Covid cancel.

Wow, this is definitely helpful.

Thank you.

Surely if it's a family property you can go another time. You need to decide what's more important, a holiday or a hopefully stress free birth??

Yeah journey home after a CS would be very uncomfortable and is obviously something to consider or even just an episiotomy.
DD isn't a toddler though, fortunately, she's closer to 10. Definitely don't think I'd brave it needing to wrangle a toddler while heavily pregnant for a week!

A holiday before the birth would help with a stress free birth. Assuming it happens after we get back. It'll be a long time before we would go if we don't go then as I definitely wouldn't choose to do it with a newborn / young baby. Although we did actually do it when dd was barely 3 months now I think about it. But it wouldn't be the right weather / time of year until this one would be at least 6-7 months.

Ideally we would go a few weeks earlier but other family are using it.

It's more about peoples experience of when they went into labour and how long it took I'm hoping for so I can judge how nuts it is to consider it.

Mine born at 42 weeks makes 37-38 weeks seem reasonable to go. But as I've said, I know other people have very different experiences.

Hey OP,

So naively (or rather assuming there's no correlation between lengths of pregnancies between first and subsequent), you have a roughly 9% chance of going into labour in the week from being 37 weeks to 38 weeks (you can check probability of different dates at: https://datayze.com/labor-probability-calculator ).

I asked my midwife about this, as I went to 41+5 with my first (then was induced), and I wanted to know (for childcare planning purposes) whether it was more likely that my second would also be late. My midwife didn't think there was any correlation between lengths of pregnancies for first and subsequent babies. Also relevant is that second labours can be substantially shorter than first labours, so that might be good to factor in (particularly with respect to childcare).

Good luck whatever you decide!