How far would you drive?

[livelovelaugh]

I know that there are many homebirth moms here, but I really don't think we could afford it, and I am in a situation where I will likely have to drive an hour in order to have a VBAC. Just curious as to how far you would drive in labor. I am concerned because my first was obviously a c-section (emergency, and no labor), so my second was actually my first labor natural, wonderful, only 5 hrs for a "first" labor...not sure what that means for this one - third baby, second labor. Any input? Advice?

[mom2happy]

Im driving over an hour for a vba2c. My husband will also be an hour away from home, so it will be for however long it takes for him to get here then to get there.
If its an emergency my dad will take me and shouldnt be more than 20 min away from my house.
Im trying not to stress about it because its the choice I made. I had no other option for a trial of labor after 2 c/s.
Im due next month, but could go sooner.

[momoftheboys]

we drove about 2 hours to get to my midwife with vbac baby number 2. It was tough to be in the car that long, and it was time to push once we got there, but I would do it all over again to avoid a csection..... Hope everything goes great for you!

[mediumcrunch]

I drive an hour (on a good day). I drive past probably 4 hospitals that are closer to get to one with VBAC friendly physicians and mother friendly policies.
It was over an hour to the last hospital which wasn't a big deal until my baby spent a week in the NICU there.

[lyterae]

My options here are a midwife or hospital about 1 hr 15 minutes away or a hospital about 45 minutes away. We're presently opting for the midwife should be blessed with another child.

[kitkat5505]

Next time the hospital I will go to is about 45 mins away, since the only Dr here who will do vba2c is at that hospital. We have a hospital less than 10mins away but it's worth it to drive farther for the birth I want. If I had to I would go to the hospital 2hrs away that I had my first 2 at.

[cairomama]

It was a 2 hour drive for my VBAC. I listened to Hypnobabies and it seemed like 20 minutes. I was 8cm when I got to the hospital and my baby was born 2.5 hours later. As long as you have someone to drive you, you should be fine. I went into labor a few days before my 40 week appointment, but I was planning to stay near my hospital after my 40 week appointment until labor started.

An hour is definitely worth the drive to a supportive provider/environment in my opinion.

[smallbutfeisty]

My midwife is about 50 minutes from my home, and the hospital at which I plan to have my VBAC is about 50 minutes with no traffic.

The hospital at which my son was born, at which I would more likely than not have a repeat C, is a mere 10 minutes from my house, as are at least 3 other hospitals.

[DocsNemesis]

Well, I may either be driving down to Portland OR from the Seattle area (prior to labor obviously, I don't know that I'd make it in labor!) or...I may be flying to another area all together.

Yes, its that important to me.

[peachsara]

Currently, my OB's office is 1.5 hours away (with good traffic) and the hospital is about an hour. But, we are about to move, and it will put the hospital about 2 hours away and his office closer to 2.5. Yay. Still completely worth it to me for the level of care that I'm getting, though.

[gingerbane]

I will be driving 90 minutes. There are closer hosptials that "allow" VBACs but the hospital I chose doesn't just "allow" them, they beleive in them and their statistics back up the stories of their support.

[CherryBomb]

An hour sounds fine. I drove 45 minutes for my vba2c, planning the same this time

[littlemamabearkk]

Originally Posted by livelovelaugh

I know that there are many homebirth moms here, but I really don't think we could afford it, and I am in a situation where I will likely have to drive an hour in order to have a VBAC. Just curious as to how far you would drive in labor. I am concerned because my first was obviously a c-section (emergency, and no labor), so my second was actually my first labor natural, wonderful, only 5 hrs for a "first" labor...not sure what that means for this one - third baby, second labor. Any input? Advice?

I drove 1 1/2 hours for my VBAC, and on some of the worst highway in america, icy roads, cliffs, twisty turny curves, no cell phone coverage. It didn't bother me, though. I was in the backseat in labor land, the only thing I recall from the drive was looking out the window and seeing the full moon over the ocean and just staring at it for a few contractions, feeling so exited and peacefull. It was beautifull. My poor husband on the other hand, had to pull over to throw up a couple times, I don't think he enjoyed it at all. =)

[forestrymom]

I'm driving 2.25 hours for my second vbac. Its the closest we can get to have one--homebirth is not an options because any hospital is over an hour and none of the midwives I talked to would do a vbac, even though its my second, with that kind of commute to a hospital.

[wombatclay]

I drove about 45min-hour for my most recent vbac.

However, we got a hotel room about 12 minutes from the hospital... our kiddos stayed there with my MIL while DH and I were at the hospital, and we had planned on laboring there for a while. In the end I had a very fast labor (about 4.5 hours from start to finish) and it was wicked intense so I'm glad we were close to our "destination". And it was nice after the birth to have everyone so close to the hospital.

[chisub]

That's a great idea Wombat! We live in the Chicagoland area so traffic can be bad as well and even though I'm not pg. yet I'm seriously considering a facility that is at least an hour away. A hotel is probably good b/c their warm water would probably last longer than our house anyways!

[wombatclay]

Yeah, the hotel worked out really well. The girls (4yo and 2yo at the time) thought it was a huge adventure. There was a tv (we're tv free but our 4yo adores food network), a fridge in the room (we brought treats for them), and a pool. Add a grandmother to the mix and they didn't want to leave. And it meant that DH could spend time with the babe and I, pop out to the hotel to put the girls to bed, then come back to the hospital to sleep with us.

Our doula was ok meeting us at the hotel and our midwife knew we were there. We did have one false alarm just past my due date which resulted in a "family mini-vacation" with no baby, so there was a bit of financial stress/performance anxiety in trying to guess when to go to the hotel. In fact, we ended up being very last minute... we'd gone for a 41wk NST (I was actually 42 weeks but since the midwives couldn't attend past 41wk well....) and they wanted me to go to the hospital for AROM induction that afternoont. I said no, they did a sweep, and we got a hotel room just in case. I did go to the hospital that night (around 11pm) and DS was born around 3am. But we didn't have all the "stuff" we had planned on bringing to the hotel. So if you do go with a hotel, leave a "hotel bag" in the car!

[roadfamily6now]

I drove 100 miles for my 4th baby, 3rd VBAC. Was pretty scary since my 3rd baby, 2nd VBAC was just 2 hours long!! But we made it with time to spare.

Are you SURE you cannot do a homebirth?

[MeaganS]

I'm moving at 7 months to a city 3.5 hours away. Where I live now there are no VBAC friendly doctors or hospitals, but there are where we are moving. So in order to get one of the good doctors, I'll be travelling 7 hours round trip to all my appointments. Once we move, it will be more like 20 minutes to the hospital and my appointments, not too bad.

[shruley]

We're just starting to plan for our next one, and right now I'm looking at driving anywhere from 1 hour to 90-110 minutes away. I've never had fast labors, but my previous 2 babies were malpositioned so if this one is actually in good position before labor who knows.

I live in MN, and one percaution we're taking is not conceiving until this August so we won't be due during the winter months. I can just see me going into labor during a huge snowstorm. Another thought we also have is a local homebirth midwife also offers Monitrice services. Thought about using her for a local person to check me and help decide when to go and then she'd either ride with us or follow behind so if something happens there's at least someone experienced there.

I know people are saying why not just stay home. We're considering it, but there are NO VBAC friendly hospitals near here in case of transfer that doesn't need an immeadiate c-section. I'd rather drive in early labor than in distress or exhaustion. Plus, with a critically ill child, I've seen their hospital and ER in action. It's frightening! Literally scary, so I'm afraid I just won't feel comfortable at home.