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Natural Birth
earthboundmisfit
member
When did/when will you show up at the hospital?
earthboundmisfit
member
I guess common sense would say that the longer you are at the hospital, the more time for them to push interventions onto you. I know the "rule" for most OBs is 5-1-1 [contractions every 5 minutes, 1 minute long for 1 hour]. At that point in my labor with DD, it had been about 3 hours from first contraction. I went to the hospital and spent 9 hours there until I delivered.
My plan this time is wait SO much longer. I'm not sure what my cutoff is though..we live about 4 minutes from the hospital.
Just curious to see..if you've already delivered, at what point did you arrive at the hospital [centimeter, contraction wise ect..]. If you haven't delivered yet, what is your plan?
thanks! this is my first post btw..Hi!
2 losses
2 beautiful children
proud mommy!
2 beautiful children
proud mommy!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: When did/when will you show up at the hospital?
Happy first post, welcome!
short answer...I arrived 1 hour and 12 minutes before DS was born and was fully dilated with my waters intact. My plan was to arrive sooner but my labor seemed to go right from easy early labor right into transition. We hadn't even called to put my doula or parents on notice that I was in labor b/c I'd assumed this was just the early stages.
long answer... I started contracting at 3:30 with them about 8-10 minutes apart. I took a bath and they stopped, DH convinced me to go out and go on a walk and while I was out I had a contraction that lasted 12 minutes (OMG!). They were kind of all over the place time wise after that but never shorter than 2 minutes and never farther than 8. But by 5:00 they were 1-2 minutes apart but I could still walk and talk through them. By 5:30 I'd turned on a dime from easy labor into MAJOR contractions (still 1-2 mins apart), and my bloody show started. I couldn't talk through the contractions and hit the self-doubt sign post so we called the doula and the m/w. I relayed to the m/w that the contraction felt like I needed to sit on the toilet and she said to get to the hospital a.s.a.p. I hit transition I think while we were waiting on my parents to get there to watch DD. I arrived at the hospital at 6:30 fully dilated with a lip and bulging bag. I "rested" (i.e. cried b/c I said I didn't want to push) for 30 minutes, pushed the next 30 minutes and DS was born at 7:42.
I had been in active labor for 8 hours (only had 2 hours of early labor) and my contractions were about 2 minutes apart lasting 30 seconds long and my water broke. My water breaking was the pushing factor for us to head in per my doula especially since my contractions were so close together.
When we arrived at the hospital I was sadly at only 2 centimeters! Luckily I had asked to not find that out since I knew it could change very fast, good thing because I ended up laboring at the hospital for the next 16 hours totaling in a 24 hour active labor. Though he came out in 10 minutes with one good push!
Next time I want to have at home so need to head in!
baby #1, i never had them 5 min apart, they started at 3 min apart and DS was born 9 hrs later. i was 3 cm when i got to the hospital, after i timed them for 1 hr.
baby #2, they started about 4 min apart. i timed them for an hour and had the baby 45 min later...i was 7cm upon arrival
so if there is a next time i'm either having a baby at home or leaving way early. IMO i think if you're close to the hospital ~3 min apart is ok (unless you have a history of super fast labor).
I went to the hospital when I was 3:1:1 which happened to be about 12 hours from the time my water broke. My midwife wanted me to come in then to see where we were contraction wise at that time and thankfully I was in good active labor that I didn't need any pitocin. When I left the house I couldn't speak through contractions and had to stop and focus on each one so I knew I was in good shape labor-wise. I arrived and was given first internal about an hour later and was 7cm. Delivered DD about 4 hours later.
I would like to get to the hospital even later with this one but it's really going to depend if my water breaks early like it did with my first. If it does, I'll probably take the same course as I did with my first. Thankfully I have a very NCB friendly hospital and midwifery practice helping me so I'm not worried about being "bullied" into stuff.
We planned on staying at home until I was pretty much ready to push with DS. The midwife on call convinced me to go to the hospital for a non-stress test, even though I knew I was in earlyish labor with DS (they had been monitoring me for low amniotic fluid, and I was past 41 weeks - i.e. total screw job). Anyhoo, I showed up, they did the NST and then gave me some excuse that DS's heart rate looked sort of suspicious, so I had to stay. I was 2 cm when I got there, and was given the third degree about my contractions (I guess I was acting like they didn't hurt enough? Who knows...). But I was complete in about 8-10 hours after I was admitted...DS was born by c-section after I pushed for 4+ hours past that.
We've been interviewing doulas, and they all seem to think (as does my midwife) that this labor will be pretty quick...I'm hoping to show up LATE in labor this time - basically riiiight before pushing, but early enough that the car ride isn't too hellish. We'll see.
DS2 - Oct 2010 (my VBAC baby!)
Welcome to the board!
My contractions with DS were never very regular, but they were generally about 3-1-1 when we left for the hospital, which was 45 minutes away. I labored at home for about 10 hours. I got to the hospital at 9 cm, my water broke about 15 minutes later, and I started pushing about 15 minutes after that. It took an hour and a half of pushing. All in all, we were at the hospital for about 2 hours before DS was born.
With this baby, I will actually leave a little sooner, like 5-1-1 or 4-1-1, since the general rule is second labors go faster, and we will still have the 45 minute drive.
I went in when I had to stop everything I was doing. I couldn't talk, I couldn't walk during a contraction. I was 3cm, 90%. But I was in the hospital for less than 5 hours before DS was born.
I wanted to go to the hospital because I was unsure of how everything was going to happen.
Next time I want to go later, but not too late. With DS I went from 7cm to pushing (I couldn't stop) in 2 contractions.
~Working Mom~Breastfeeding Mom~Cloth Diapering Mom~BLW Mom~
Blog - No Longer on the DL ~ The Man Cave
Shawn and Larissa
LO #1 - Took 2 years and 2 IVFs ~ DX - severe MFI mild PCOS homozygous MTHFR (a1298c)
LO #2 - TTC 7 months, surprise spontaneous BFP!
My first was born in a hospital. My OB knew I wanted a natural birth and told me to wait at home as long as possible. The sheet they gave me said to call when the contrax were 3 minutes apart lasting 1 minutes for 2 hours. My contractions started out about every 3 minutes apart lasting for about 1.5 minutes. I waited a bit over 2 hours before calling. They they had me go to the office first since it was during working hours. When I got to the office I was 8cm dilated and when they got me wheeled over to the hospital I was 9cm. My mom told me to wait until I was literally on the ground with the contractions. She was right, I literally had to be on the ground to get through them. That's how I knew it was time. DH on the other hand totally thought I was just having cramps from the membrane stripping earlier that morning and thought I was overreacting! Ha! I showed him. My entire labor was about 4 hours.
With #2 I was having her a a birth center so I wasn't as concerned with staying home as long as possible. Again my contractions started off around every 3 minutes or closer than that (I don't really know, we didn't time them this time around). I had about four contractions and I knew we had to go. So we went. I showed up about 4cm and had my baby about an hour and 15 minutes later. My entire labor was about 2.5 hours.
My labor started at 8pm Friday night and I went to the hospital around 2 pm Saturday afternoon. My contractions were about 2 min. apart, lasting about 1 minute and had been that way for several hours. Being a first time mom, that was the hardest part of my labor: knowing when I should leave (and I really mean that was the hardest...I had a pretty painless labor). Luckily, I had a doula and she helped me decide when to leave. When I arrived, I was right at a 6. I gave birth at 8:20 pm, so it took me 24 hours total, and 6 hours in the hospital.
I'm glad I went when I did, even though I was at the hospital longer than I was expecting. Since I wasn't experiencing any pain, just minor discomfort, I had no idea I had even transitioned and was at 10cm at the hospital. If I would have waited until I "thought" I was ready to go, I think it would've been too late!
With my first son, my contractions were never closer than about an hour until I was in active labor. So once they were 5 minutes apart for an hour, we headed to the hospital. I got there at 1:30am and he was born at 5:56am. When I got to 6cm and stayed there for about an hour, my OB gave me Pitocin since I had "stalled". You would think they'd give me a little while to progress since it was my first pregnancy and I had only been in labor for about 3 hours.
With my second son, my contractions were basically non-existent and then suddenly they were 5 minutes apart. I didn't want to rush to the hospital and end up receiving the pitocin again so I tried to stay home as long as possible. My husband wasn't too happy with that though. I only lived 5 minutes from the hospital so I wasn't too worried about getting there fast enough. After about an hour and a half, we went to the hospital and they admitted me. I was 5cm. Two hours later I was pushing. No pitocin! My labor was an hour shorter than my first and I went from 5 to 10 much faster than the first time but I would still stay home as long as possible if I had to do it again. Maybe being so close to the hospital helps ease my mind since I know I can get there between contractions if necessary.