How far from a hospital would you homebirth?

[RunningAway]

I just found out that we are expecting a surprise baby #5. My 1st and 2nd were typical hospital induced epidural births. My 3rd was natural in the hospital, and the 4th was a waterbirth in a German hospital. I had no labor or postpartum complications with any of them. We are now back in the US and I really want to have this baby at home. My only hold-up is the distance from our house to the hospital. We live 25-30 minutes from the 2 closest hospitals-one of those is a military hospital (dh is Army) and the other is civilian. I'm having a hard time with the idea of it taking 30 minutes to get to the hospital in the unlikely event of a real emergency transfer. On the other hand, I'm having a hard time thinking of any complications where a 30 minute drive would cause more problems than a 15 minute drive, you know? I'd be seeing a legal CNM, so she will be able to legally have any necessary resuscitation equipment and meds for pp hemorrhage.
So how far from a hospital would you or did you homebirth?

[lyterae]

We are planning on having a hbac and we are about 30 minutes from the nearest hospital.

[elus0814]

This is my fifth baby, all the others were natural hospital births with no complications. We live on an air force base a ways outside of the city and out on a spit of land in the water. For us to drive to the hospital as quickly as possible would be a bare minimum of 30 minutes, it's about 40-45 with regular driving. I'm ok with it. My only slight concern is that if we had to call an ambulance it would take who knows how long to get over the bridge, onto the base, then over into housing. Again, it's not really a big concern either way since I'm not expecting complications. I do know that if I have any inkling that something is wrong I won't delay in leaving for the hospital or calling for an ambulance.

[Peacemamalove]

30 min. was the fatherest from me. That seemed perfectly reasonable we are kinda in the middle of two of them.

[Mamabeakley]

That is about how far we are from hospitals. I've had all 3 at home - I did have a pp hemorragh with DS1 but my MW had pit and methergin & I was fine. (Argh, two words I CANNOT spell! )

I really did not even think about the distance to the hospital. I guess in my educated opinion, the chances of something going wrong where time is of the essence are so small, and then there's the fact that even in an absolute emergency, it takes time for a hospital to set up for surgery anyway . . . time during which I could be en route from my home . . ..

And, there are many more dangerous things in life than giving birth that I do every day (like riding in/driving a car). And I never worry about being far from a hospital then.

But, this is a very individual decision. If it really worries you, perhaps you can figure out WHY it really worries you and work through it. Or not. But you can choose what is right for you.

[McMandy]

We were about 10 minutes away from a hospital for our unassisted birth, and we are about 10-15 minutes away from the hospital now (and are planning a MW attended HB).

I would have a homebirth (even a UC) even if we were an hour away from a hospital.

[tygrss]

Originally Posted by cileag

I would want to be able to be in an OR within 30 minutes, so about 20 minutes away from a hospital with in house OBs and anesthesia.

^^^This.

[cileag]

I would want to be able to be in an OR within 30 minutes, so about 20 minutes away from a hospital with in house OBs and anesthesia.

[BirthNut]

My son was a planned HBAC, but we did transfer, non emergency. There was a hospital less than 30 min away, but they would have insisted on an instant cesarean so we opted to go the a further hospital 45 min away that allowed me to continue trying for the VBAC. This time I am less than 2 miles from the hospital.

[laurendecorrea]

I live in a very rural area. When I gave birth we were living about 25 min (FLYING!) to 45 min (slow drivers in the way) from the nearest hospital. I really trusted my midwife! I knew that she would call any potential complications in time to get to the hospital. Also, I had had an ultrasound at 26 weeks, and everything looked good. This was reassuring to me.

Just my experience in case it helps. Plenty of women here in my area do home birth, and more opt for the hospital because of the distance. It's just comfort level.

[limette]

Midwives here will only do homebirths if you are less than 25 minutes from the hospital.

[laughymama]

We're planning our homebirth for August. We'll be around 20 minutes from our preferred hospital but the closest will be 10 minutes away.

I feel comfortable 20-30 minutes away from the nearest hospital.

[phathui5]

For me, I guess about half an hour.

[lunarlady]

I would say about 20-30 minutes of forget the speed limit, run the stop lights, get me there NOW driving. (Which I would guess to be about 30-45 minutes of normal driving).

Outside of that, I would get a little nervous. However, I would consider birthing at a friend or family memeber's home closer to the hospital (heck, even a hotel!) before I considered a hospital birth.

[Tulafina]

I had my DS2 at home- about 35 mins from the nearest hospital-45 mins from my 1st choice of hospitals. After being a doula for the last year, I realized that even in most "emergency" situations in the hospital, it takes a solid 20-40 mins before a woman can have a c-section. I figure if they knew we were coming in, I could most likely have an emergency C-sec in the same amount of time. Most other home to hospital transfers are non-emergent- such as slow progression-needing pain relief-decels in baby- thick mec in fluid-dehydration(if your mw can't do an IV)-etc.

I am having DC3 at home in June. After my homebirth experience of DS2 I'm really looking forward to it- no fear at all. I've had very straight forward births-with no PP issues, so I know that the chances of any problems coming up that the MW can't handle is pretty slim.


Good luck with your decision!!

[Eresh]

This time around I have an ER less than a mile away but the nearest 3 hospitals are 25-40 minutes away (which is "closest" depends heavily on the time of day since I'm on a major commuter corridor). The ER has no L&D (no hospital attached) and is not equipped to deal with infants so in all except the most dire circumstances they would stabilize and transport and unless I needed immediate blood products or surgery I would drive to one of the hospitals rather than to the nearby ER. With DS's homebirth the ER was not there yet.