Hour and a Half Commute to place of birth??

[Phoenix~Mama]

I'm trying to weigh several different options for birth right now and make a Pros and Cons case.

One option is an hour and a half commute from where I'm living. Is that too far? Am I crazy to even consider it? The thought of laboring in the car that long is very unamusing... but, want to hear other opinions... anyone who has done this before?

[lyterae]

Originally Posted by JSMa

I'm trying to weigh several different options for birth right now and make a Pros and Cons case.

One option is an hour and a half commute from where I'm living. Is that too far? Am I crazy to even consider it? The thought of laboring in the car that long is very unamusing... but, want to hear other opinions... anyone who has done this before?

Both of our midwife options are 1 hr 15 minutes away in good weather. We have rough winters here so I expect it could be closer to a 2 hour drive depending on weather conditions.

[branbran54]

I was contracting every 5 minutes when we left for the hospital with ds2. It is an hour drive. I really didn't mind it. I had the music from the radio to help relax me and by the time we got to the hospital, my contractions where 3 minutes apart. We ended up coming home though because the contractions weren't changing me much. I was at 3 and it took 3 hours to get to 4 so they just sent me home. I was contracting regular for the next 3 days and then had to make the drive again to go to my OB. He told me to go have a nice lunch and walk around the mall so we had to do more driving. We did almost three hours of driving, eating lunch, and walking around Tractor Supply(DH's idea) all while I was contracting 3 minutes apart. Looking back on it, I think it is nuts, but I truly believe it was all the riding that helped get ds ready to come out. I was at 6 when we got back to the hospital and had him three hours later. DS1's labor was 28 hours Big difference.

[wombatclay]

With ds's birth we were using a hospital just under an hour away depending on traffic. Our plan was to get a hotel room near the hospital at the first sign of labor, labor in the hotel till we were ready to go to the hospital, and then leave the two older kiddos with my MIL (at the hotel) while I birthed and during the pp period (so that the girls would be nearby, they could visit easily, they had MIL and the hotel pool for fun, and dh didn't have to travel back and forth to tuck them in... it was just a few minutes away!).

In practice, we had one false alarm at 40 weeks which meant we had an unplanned "family vacation" at the hotel. A bit frustrating, but kind of fun. Then we had a 42 week visit where they wanted me to be induced so we decided to get a hotel room and then think... Labor started that night so the plan worked, though I didn't have the doula meet us at the hotel as planned, she met us at the hospital.

[lifeguard]

I didn't have to labour in the car at all but looking back on it the idea of being strapped down & sitting still for that long would have been pretty unbearable. Obviously it is doable if you have to but I wouldn't choose it.