Is a hospital an hour away too far?

[cdk]

I found a natural birth friendly hospital but it is an hour away. Is that too far? There is a birthing center close by but my DH wants me in a hospital. So after tons of searching I found one that has water birthing, lowest C sec rate in area etc... I'm excited but since I've never been in labor before I need some help!

Thanks

[Nan'sMom]

I wouldn't want to drive an hour in labor, but if it were a choice between a more naturally-minded hospital and a more interventionist one I'd probably do it. However, I chose homebirths for both. In my opinion, this is far to important a discussion to just go with the husband's decision on, since the mom's health and baby's health are at stake. My husband was not keen on homebirth either until he started doing research with me, and quickly agreed that it was the safer choice for us and our baby to be.

[alegna]

I would not want to drive an hour in labor. But, I would not want to drive at ALL in labor.

Homebirth.

-Angela

[courtenay_e]

I know people who have traveled farther than that. I'd suggest that you and your husband take a Bradley class so that he can be educated about the stages of labor and the emotional and physical sign posts that he'll have to watch for so you don't leave too early or too late. Another thing you might consider doing is getting a hotel room near the hospital, and once you know for sure that you're in labor, go to the hotel room and labor there until you're in active labor. That way you're comfortable, but not at the hospital too soon (even a non interventive hospital isn't a good place to be in early labor!), and don't have to drive an hour while in hard labor.

I would suggest, though, that you ask your husband to do two hours of research and find hard statistics about the safety of birth center birth vs. hospital birth, and see what he finds. I'll tell you that the statistics are in favor of birth center birth, but you probably already know that! I know that with my dh, he was simply more comfortable with a hospital birth the first time...and because he was more comfortable there, _I_ was more comfortable while in labor. I found a nurse-midwife I liked, and with the second, he was more than open to a home birth. You might find the same thing happens with you. Or you might find that, after he does the work and reads the stats, he is open to the birth center after all...it's worth a try!

[courtenay_e]

Hello again! Alegna, I'm pretty sure that homebirth wasn't on the plate here, could we help the OP with her question (which I think you did beautifully with the "I wouldn't want to drive an hour in labor" part of your post!)? :

[alegna]

I'm putting homebirth on the plate : She gave no reason that it wouldn't be a valid choice.

-Angela

[Twwly]

I'm over an hour from a hospital. I opted for home birth (although we did have to transfer in the end). It was fine. You could be stuck for an hour in rush hour traffic, or a snow storm, or who knows what. You could be IN hospital and it could still take an hour for them to get a doctor in. You could get stuck in an elevator IN the hospital. Cows could come home, pigs could fly. You get my point... which is:

Give birth where you think you would be the most comfortable.

I'm not saying don't be prepared, but worry about crossing that bridge if/when you come to it, IMHO.

**Edit to add, I read the question wrong as well. That's what I get for skim reading.

No, for the same reasons mentioned above, I don't think wishing to go to a great hospital an hour away is a bad idea. Again, choose to give birth where you are most comfortable.

[eeldah]

I WISH I had had a home birth. Have your husband lie down and tell him he cannot get up - hand him a handful of crushed ice and tell him he cannot let go of it. Hosptials are awful, dirty, plastic covered traps. And the one I gave birth in is listed as one of the top 100 in the country. There was blood or something on the ceiling. The beds are up high and offer no comfort for lying on or leaning on. The floors are hard hard cold tile. The toilets are handicaped and your feet will dangle so even the "throne" provides no comfort. This was my birth experience in a hospital, twice. The first time the nurse and my husband held up my legs. For the second baby they pulled out leg stirups! No way I said - the Dr gave me a, "I need to see what I'm doing." And I said, "I, need to be comfortable". The nurse present for the second birth did not hold up my leg and my husband had my other leg in my ear... not for long I gave up on having my legs supported properly - for HAVING to be on my back. Do research - do what you are comfortable with after you do more research. I am a wimp and had epidurals too and I still would have a home birth for the next one now that I know about them and have established a network of natural minded moms. MY bed, MY bathtub, MY pillows, MY floor, my warm and loving home...

I haven't read it but there is a new book out called Pushed - The Painful Truth About Modern Maternity Care.

Good luck (Note: It wasn't a bad experience in the hospital - but it certainly was not a good one - and it should have been...)

[GooeyRN]

I feel it depends on where you live, and the expected weather when you will deliver. I think an hour is a bit long, personally. The hospital I am going to this time is 45 minutes away. Its further than I like, but they allow vaginal breech births, VBAC's, water births, etc. Weather here usually isn't a problem until January, and I will deliver late Nov/early Dec so I am comfortable going that far. There is also another good hospital around here, but it is an hour away. I know that road construction is always going on in that direction, and traffic is bad so I won't go to that hospital. On a bad day it would take too long to get there. We have a hospital about 0.25 miles away (the one I work at) but they are small and rural and it wouldn't be that much different from a homebirth if problems arise. (no vents, no nicu, no specially trained nurses, no OR staff in the building at night, etc) I would have to transfer to one of the other hospitals if problems arose, anyway. I say an hour away would be ok IF you don't anticipate poor driving conditions (snow/construction etc) and you aren't an overly anxious person. You would obviously also have to leave before labor got too far along. Good luck with your decision!

[ThreeBeans]

I drove an hour in hard labor with my second. Note I am having a homebirth with my third :

[BetsyS]

We drove an hour to deliver at the local naturally minded hospital. Our local "baby factory" is well over an hour away for most women in my city, too.

Almost everyone I know drives at least an hour to the hospital. It's the nature of traffic in my city (Atlanta), and it's really not that big of a deal.

[wombat]

I wouldn't want to drive an hour in labor but if it was to get me to a hospital I trusted versus one I didn't trust, then I'd do it.

I planned a homebirth with a MW an hour away from me but I had to drive that hour to the prenatal visits. Towards the end it was a bit uncomfortable but I still think it was worth it. If you have to attend prenatals at this hospital, you need to consider that also.

[QueenOfTheMeadow]

Originally Posted by courtenay_e

I know people who have traveled farther than that. I'd suggest that you and your husband take a Bradley class so that he can be educated about the stages of labor and the emotional and physical sign posts that he'll have to watch for so you don't leave too early or too late. Another thing you might consider doing is getting a hotel room near the hospital, and once you know for sure that you're in labor, go to the hotel room and labor there until you're in active labor. That way you're comfortable, but not at the hospital too soon (even a non interventive hospital isn't a good place to be in early labor!), and don't have to drive an hour while in hard labor.

I would suggest, though, that you ask your husband to do two hours of research and find hard statistics about the safety of birth center birth vs. hospital birth, and see what he finds. I'll tell you that the statistics are in favor of birth center birth, but you probably already know that! I know that with my dh, he was simply more comfortable with a hospital birth the first time...and because he was more comfortable there, _I_ was more comfortable while in labor. I found a nurse-midwife I liked, and with the second, he was more than open to a home birth. You might find the same thing happens with you. Or you might find that, after he does the work and reads the stats, he is open to the birth center after all...it's worth a try!

I drove an hour in labor with my second child, so that I could get to a more naturally minded hospital that my midwife from my first birth worked at. And courtenay hit the nail on the head. Bradley really helped. I was calm and collected the whole way, and delivered 30 minutes after arriving. I laugh now, because one of the nurses came in before my midwife got there and said to the other nurse, "Is she even dilated yet?" because I was so relaxed. The other nurse laughed and said, "Yes, 8 cents. YOu haven't seen a Bradly patient before, have you."

[pixiedust]

for me it would have been to far away.. we had a 15 min. drive to the hospital and I was only there for about 45 min. before I delivered last time around.. and that 15 min. drive was AWFUL

[phathui5]

I wouldn't choose to drive an hour to the hospital if there was a birth center closer. The birth center is equipped to handle anything that could come up and is statistically safer than delivering in a hospital. (I had my first in a hospital, second and third at a birth center, and this one will be at home).

For as much as I love my dh, I wouldn't drive an hour in labor to accomodate him on something like that. I'm the one having the baby, and while I want his support, I make the decisions.

[cdk]

Thanks for the replies. I live in Florida so fortunately weather won't be an issue, thought traffic could.

We have an appointment at the Birthing Center Tuesday. I'll admit I am worried about the miniscule chance something could go wrong Hopefully, we'll get all of our questions answered and feel comfortable going with the birthing center. If not, I am not crazy about the close hospitals so we will have to figure it out.

Thanks again.

[pamamidwife]

I'd rather risk the slim chance that I'd birth in the car to drive to a friendlier hospital if I wanted a natural birth. Of course, I'd stay home, too. But even with homebirth transports in my area (that are non-emergent), we'll drive 35-40 minutes to a friendlier hospital than choose the one closest in distance.

[amnesiac]

I think it just really depends on what you are most comfortable with. This last time I chose to labor at home for the most part & then drove ~30 minutes to my hospital for delivery. My dd was born 30 minutes after I was admitted. Based on my previous medical history, personal comfort level & surgical needs, homebirth would not have been a good option for me. The earliest portion of my labor experience (say 3-4 hours) was really so mild that I wouldn't have minded the drive.

[SublimeBirthGirl]

If I had a birth center that close, I'd be working on the husband, not driving an hour to a hospital.

[momuveight2B]

I am having the same concerns. We are seventy miles from the hospital and if all goes well it is about one hour fifteen minutes to get there. One big problem I have now in going to prenatal visits is that I have to stop halfway to pee and there are not any clean public toilets along the way.

We have a small hospital in town that takes about fifteen minutes to get to from our house. I don't know the doctors there and would have to take whoever is on call. They do not have NICU but my pediatrician is there and last time we went to the city we had major problems with the on-call doctor we were assigned to for pediatric care.

My big fear is that if anything goes wrong I would be in big trouble. I have been seeing a team of peris because I am high risk due to previous uterine surgery. They say I can have a vaginal delivery as long as I can do the whole thing on my own.

I would like to labor at home because we have a big tub and all the other comforts. Then my other children could be here too. It would be easier on all of us if I had a hospital stay close by.

It is just a really hard decision to make and I plan to talk to my doctor about it some more. We asked once and he said it is better to go to the small local hospital than to risk the drive once we are in active labor.

My last labor was two hours long and three pushes. Not much warning to get anywhere.