Choosing hospital 50 mins away

[rosear]

Hi,
Im very lost about what hospital to choose, I read very good reviews about Queen Charlotte and I have registered with them, the problem is the drive can take from 40 mins to 1 hour and I am concerned about it being too long for me once I go into delivery. Has anyone been in a similar situation and opted for a hospital 26 miles away from home?
help!

I think some people have to as it’s their only option living rurally. If you live in an urban area I really would just chose the closest one. Reviews etc don’t matter to
me. You can have a bad birth in a top
hospital (happened to my friend) or great medical attention in an average hospital that’s 5 mins away (both my births)

also my second birth was 0-3 hours by the time baby arrived. Husband didn’t even make it in time. I wouldn’t choose an unnecessarily far away hospital unless I was high risk and choosing a hospital that specialised in prem babies for example

Well my nearest hospital was 40 minutes away when I had my 2 so that wasn't really a consideration.

My sil was 250 miles from her hospital, but obviously she travelled there at 38 weeks. Honestly mileage and time is very relative to where you live. My nearest hospital is 40 mins away on a good day, barely any quicker on blue lights (it's motorway most of the way so unless there's heavy traffic, cars go quicker than ambulances!) i wouldn't choose 50 mins in London though due to traffic

My hospital is an hours and 15 mins away in no traffic. We didn’t have a closet option. It was fine though and we left as soon as things started.

Remember it might not just be for the birth - with DD2 I was there daily for two weeks, then admitted for a week (but went home daily to see DD2). That would have been an awful lot of travel if the hospital wasn’t 15 mins away.

It’s obviously unavoidable if you’re rural, but I think the experience in most London hospitals is fairly similar. I certainly would say that any were so great they were worth a tonne of travel when you’ll be tired/ stressed / in pain.

Yeah also if you have a c section any journey home the shorter the better. It v uncomfortable getting in the car and I couldn’t wait to get out.

it was an unplanned c section and only a 5-10 min drive!!