What happens if you can't get to hospital because of pain/sudden labour etc?

[SevernTrentWater]

If the second stage happens suddenly or you leave it too late and you can't get to the hospital because you're in too much pain and can't walk, what happens? Has this happen to anyone? Do the hospital send a community midwife if your partner rings them? If this happens to me i couldn't imagine anything worse than being thrown into an ambulance - what an awful way of birthing a baby.
Has anyone been in this situation?

happened to a friend a couple of months ago, they knew she would not make it to hospital so she stayed at home with midwife coming to her.
Mine would have been the same other than I was already there in hospital.

You ring the midwife and tell her whats happening and she will tell you whether to ring 999 or not. The ambulance crew will always wait until the midwife gets there to make the decision whether you can travel or not. Whatever happens you will get a baby and either deliver it yourself or with help.

I planned a home birth as after a quick 1st birth was expecting a quicker 2nd.

In reality it was v v quick, and despite calling the labour ward to get a mw out after my 1st contraction, she didn't arive until about a hour after the baby had been born - so no bundling into an ambulance for me. In fact the paramedics that turned up 20 mins after the birth (following ex's panicked 999 call once ds2 was born) just stood around drinking tea for 40 mins until the mw arrived.

You call 999.

Happened to me with ds2. Planned home birth but it was too sudden for the midwives to get here.

They actually suggested coming in but since I could feel his head descending it wasn't really an option.

Two lovely paramedics arrived as ds was crowning - one very very relieved dh!