I was sent to a hospital an hour away while I was in labour

[keke2605]

Long story short I was staying in Birmingham with my boyfriend but I was registered with a hospital in another city (where I’m from) for my pregnancy.

One night when I thought I was in labour (I was) I called 111 and they put me through to the maternity ward at a hospital in Birmingham.

I explained what was going on and how I was feeling and the lady told me to go to the hospital that I was registered with. It was late at night, and my dad had to drive an hour to get me as I had no one else who could pick me up, and he had to drive an hour back with me in the car to take me to the hospital.

When I got to the hospital they told me I was in labour. I also ended up ill with suspected sepsis. Because of this I had to have an emergency C-section and me and my baby were put on antibiotics.

Has anyone else ever been sent to a different hospital? I was shocked that they didn’t see me in the closest hospital to me.

I gave birth in a hospital an hour away. My local hospital (ten minutes down the road, where I’d had lots of antenatal appointments) was full and so they send you elsewhere so as to ensure they have a safe ratio of nurses to women.

It sounds like you had a pretty traumatic experience. Would you be able to have a birth debrief to find out everything that happened and why? I found this quite helpful, especially if you have lots of questions whizzing around your head.

If it had been an emergency (a&e or ambulance) you would have been sent to the nearest available hospital. I’d assume the nearest was busy so you were sent to your hospital for ease. Or they felt it wasn’t urgent and you were fine to attend your usual hospital. Do you feel it impacted on the care you received or put you at risk in anyway? Did triage have all the information? It sounds like they made a judgement call and you agreed to it?

An hour isn’t particularly far. When I had my dd, the closest hospital was 45 minutes away.

you were a woman in labor. That alone isn’t an emergency. There was no reason not to calmly make your way to the hospital where you had registered and planned to give birth, which is what you did.

that you had no good plan to get to the hospital at all times is the only part of this incident that is odd.

“When I got to the hospital they told me I was in labour. I also ended up ill with suspected sepsis. Because of this I had to have an emergency C-section and me and my baby were put on antibiotics”

How long after your arrival was the delivery?
I don’t see how an hour could make a huge difference. A debrief is a good idea, answers will help you to process everything.
Congratulations on your baby.

Kindly, I don't think the hour journey is a huge deal. It's crap being stuck in a car while having contractions, but many women who live rurally will have this kind of journey time. It might be less stressful if you know in advance this is what you have to do, I guess. The birthing centre where I wanted to give birth to my son was closed as there wasn't a midwife available, so I also had to make the hour-long journey to the nearest hospital. Just one of those things 🤷 I actually had a haemorrhage, so my second birth had to be in hospital.

Were you worried about giving birth on the way?

I wonder if your experience afterwards is also colouring your perception of the journey? Sepsis etc sounds horrible and I'm sorry you went through that x

Both hospitals closest to me are over an hour away.

Have they said that they felt it was related to the travelling time?

I hope that you are both okay.

I can see why it was traumatic but I think it's not surprising staff encourage patients to go to their "home hospital" if they can. They need to make sure they have beds for patients who are registered with them. Obviously an emergency would be different but an hour is normally nothing in labour:

How early were you? Often people don't go too far from home when the date gets closer or have a plan in place to get back.

Each nhs trust has their own systems for notes etc. Unless it was an emergency, the harm that could be done through them trying to treat you as not on their system and without access to critical info outweighs the harm from an hour's travel in early labour. Sorry to hear this was difficult for you and I hope you and your baby are well now but this is on you. You could have transferred your registration to a Birmingham hospital in good time for all the notes & data to be transferred, or you could have stayed nearby to the hospital you were registered with, but the choice to be staying at a distance from your registered hospital was yours.

Many women live an hour away from a hospital so I don't see this as an issue. Obviously it would have been different in an emergency.

Im sorry you and your baby were unwell. My DD1 also had sepsis and spent two weeks in NICU - i spent lots of time afterwards worrying about what had happened and why. I hope you are both doing well now. Was she prem or were you near the end of your pregnancy?

I really recommend booking a "birth reflections" or "birth debrief". A senior specialist midwife went through my notes with me minute by minute and explained what was happening and why certain decisions were made. I found it very helpful to put things in context. Obviously they won't have a record of the Birmingham hospital, but as its normal for many women in labour to travel an hour to hospital anyway, maybe the Birmingham hospital didnt think it was an unreasonable request?

We also had a situation a few years ago where our local maternity ward was so full that women in labour were having to be diverted to a different hospital and there were literally no more midwives / beds - that was totally unexpected and stressful for those women but unfortunately nothing could be done about it, it was just the circumstances at the time.

If you really felt strongly, you could ask PALS at the Birmingham hospital to see if there was any record of your discussion, but if you weren't a patient and it was just a phone call, then there may not be.

I did develop PND after having such a stressful / traumatic start to DD1s life. If you think that might be the case as well, I really recommend speaking to your HV as maybe some talking therapy would help you to process what happened.

My hometown nearest place to give birth is 112 miles away. 2 half hours by car. Its normal

Lots of people live an hour+ from hospital, its relatively common to have to travel a bit. Its better to attend where you are registered. Sorry you had such a traumatic delivery, it sounded like an awful experience and hope you are recovering ok. But being in another hospital wouldn't have changed that. Obviously if there were signs of emergency you would have gotten an ambulance or been driven directly to the nearest hospital which is different. Without an emergency most people would travel to their own hospital.

Unless it’s an imminent delivery, or you are high risk with known complications, you go to your booked maternity unit.

This is the case countrywide.

Could I ask how many weeks you were?