How far away from a hospital is too far for a hb?

[Jelinifer]

The original thread is here:

http://www.mothering.com/discussions....php?t=1132816

Any thoughts? DH just brought this up and it does have be concerned...

[Starfish11]

I think this will all come down to your comfort level. Meaning, you will hear people say they would or would not do it but ultimately you need to make a decision that you don't second guess b/c you know it's the right one.

Personally, I would not be comfortable with this but I tend to be a worrier. It's annoying but makes me an excellent planner

[Jelinifer]

Personally, I would not be comfortable with this but I tend to be a worrier. It's annoying but makes me an excellent planner

It sounds like you are just like my DH and I. We're both worrier/planners and like to work out every little "what if" before we dive into something

[JorgieGirl]

Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable with more than 30 minutes. Obviously though, like Starfish said, it's ultimately up to you and your comfort level.

[brooklyn_warbler]

i would definitely feel comfortable with 30 minutes, without a doubt. but it's really about your comfort level. i would interview your midwife choices and see what they think.

[AliciaP8]

I think it's all about the comfort level of BOTH parents. You both need to feel confident and content. We're an hour+ for the hospital and it is a point to be discssed. Dh is less comfortable than I am with the thought of a home birth.

[brooklyn_warbler]

personally, my feeling is you're more likely to be put in an emergency situation IN a hospital anyway. secondly, most homebirth midwives are trained to see potentially dangerous situations from a mile away. most hb transfers are for "failure to progress"/maternal exhaustion anyway.

[Starfish11]

Do you have appts with the homebirth midwives? I totally agree that getting to know one that you truly have total faith in might help you with your decision.

[bethanta]

I think the closest hospital to us is about 20 minutes away and I'm comfortable with that. We do not live in a high traffic area and only about 5 minutes of that drive would be off the expressway.

I understand the worry over this though. It's all about finding the best solution for both of you and being comfortable with where you will be laboring.

[thefreckledmama]

Something to keep in mind-ambulances don't necessarily come from the hospital, so in factoring time in a critical emergency, you're not talking time from the hospital to you, back to the hospital. I say that only because in a transfer situation where time is a critical factor, you're more likely to call an ambulance. Also, once the ambulance were to arrive, you immediately have access to medications and equipment that a MW wouldn't typically have. That's another aspect to factor into your decision regarding how far from a hospital you're comfortable being.

In my last two pregnancies, which were planned hospital births, I lived 40 minutes from the hospital-never thought anything of it.

[Jelinifer]

Update: DH and I talked alot more about this over the last day and called the MW we were scheduled to meet with to interview. She's from an hour away and it turns out that she has no contacts at the local hospital (a big concern of ours.) I was also uneasy with her level of confidence considering she has no bearings on the hospital/route to the hospital. She also explained that most transfers are due to failure to progress but waffled when I brought up what her plan would be in a true "need an ambulance NOW" type emergency.

I think at this point I'd be more comfortable with hospital intervention/risks vs. the unknowns we would be facing with this MW. There is another midwife group in town but they are way out of our price range by any stretch of imagination(I was quoted at $12,000-13,000 for a private pay HB, while the MW we were going to meet with charges close to $4,000 private pay.)

Thank you for all the insight and imput gals. I did show DH these threads with replies during our discussion.

[LilMama23]

I agree with the others; I think it totally depends on the comfort level of both partners. My DH would absolutely lose his mind if I suggested a homebirth because our hospital is about 20-25 minutes away (with no traffic). I originally wanted to give birth in the nearest freestanding birth center, which is 45 minutes away but over an hour in heavy traffic. With my last birth, he was fine with my laboring as home as much as I wanted because the hospital was only about 3 minutes away, no chance of traffic since it was back roads. If I was going to choose a homebirth, it should have been the last one!

[Katie Ever]

You can still do much of your laboring at home

[Jelinifer]

Originally Posted by Katie Ever

You can still do much of your laboring at home

Might do that (DH and I are comfortable with that) but the hospital we'd probably deliver at (not the "emergency" one- this one is a bit farther away in the opposite direction) is very mom/baby friendly and each l&d/postpartum suite has a jacuzzi tub big enough for two adults which you can stay in the entire time you labor and a full-sized futon for DH to sleep on. The rooms at this place are cushier than my apartment (even with a birthing tub we were hoping to plop down in my living room!) We both agreed that if we had have to have a planned hospital birth it would only be there, hands-down.

I'm trying to find consolation in the fact that they are very crunchy too, for a hospital. We will be using a CNM (they are great gals- were providing my well-woman care until I had to transfer to an infertility specialist for TTC.) We've also agreed that we're going to hire a doula to assist. DH's very mainstream friend and his wife had a baby there a year ago and complained about how crunchy the staff/policies were (encouraging bfing, discouraging sending the kiddo to the nursery for the night,etc...) needless to say, DH and I were impressed

[Starfish11]

Ha! That's so funny I can't imagine ever complaining about how crunchy someone is :grin

Glad you have made a decision you are both happy with