How far from home to your hospital?

lancyjo · January 2012

The below post about "labor checklists" got me thinking... How far do you have to drive once you go into labor?

I'd love to get some of the things mentioned in those posts done before heading to the hospital (shower/shave, house picked up, etc.), but I have an hour drive to the hospital in perfect conditions... if there's snow it'll be longer than that. I don't think I'll have time to do those things! Am I being silly, and will actually have more time than I think? (right now, I'm thinking "water breaks, leave immediately or else!")

kms34 · January 2012

About 10-15 minutes max. We live fairly central and very close to the interstate so it doesn't take us long to get anywhere in our city.

lindsayandjamie · January 2012

During our scare last week, we left at rush hour during a snow storm and it took 30 min. When DH went home to grab some clothes at midnight it was 15min. This is also the furthest hospital from our home, so if it was urgent we could go to one 5 min away.

emmasue18 · January 2012

Maybe two minutes. Ha ha. It almost connects to our neighborhood. :-)

chippy3465 · January 2012

It depends on where my Dr is delivering for the day. If he's already downtown then it's a 20 min drive but if he's near my house I have a 10 min drive. I'm hoping weather won't be an issue cause then it turns into an 45 min drive and an hour drive.

ferris0906 · January 2012

We're really luck ours is so close--maybe 5 minutes by car or 15 minutes by bus.

Lawren · January 2012

Not even 2 minutes. It's a mile up the road from us. I was stressing out about having his car seat if I went into labor early and DH was joking that he would walk home with LO, not to stress out about it.

December192009 · January 2012

20-30 min from home, 45-1hr from work...

runrinserepeat · January 2012

Probably about 25-30 minutes.

AttyMomma28 · January 2012

30 - 60 minutes depending on traffic. Basically its 45-60 during rush hour, 30 minutes otherwise. We have a hospital 5 minutes away in case of emergency/snow (we're near Boston).

I think when you leave and what you do before you leave really depends on your labor. I'd also talk to your doctor. I always assumed that I'd need to leave right away if my water broke, but in talking to them it seams they may have you wait until contractions get strong or more time has passed (since they want you to deliver within 12 hrs of the water breaking.)

megahof · January 2012

We're very lucky - our hospital is just 5 minutes from home, maybe 15 minutes from work.

jonsuz · January 2012

We are also very lucky. Not even 5 minutes away.

nonoemily · January 2012

The birth center is a 15 minute drive, even in bad traffic.

Shawnee11507 · January 2012

About 5-10 minutes away.

shortsweet&sassy · January 2012

I live 3 hours from mine (closest one with a NICU) I have to have a repeat c/s so we've already got the date and time set and my babies dont have room to mive down so I shouldnt have to worry about going into labor early. (here's to hoping it actually works that way!)

wigirl2007 · January 2012

Lawren:
Not even 2 minutes. It's a mile up the road from us. I was stressing out about having his car seat if I went into labor early and DH was joking that he would walk home with LO, not to stress out about it.

This is us. We seriously live like five blocks away from our hospital. If I really had to, I could walk there.

ryry1977 · January 2012

We live only 20 minutes from the hospital. So not a bad drive at all. Last time with DS my water broke and we didn't leave for the hospital for 12 hours! Contractions were slow to come to say the least.

Brenna9481 · January 2012

Home to hospital is about 3 minutes with no snow- maybe 5-7 with snow. We have a 4 wheel drive truck so snow won't be an issue. Now from work, it will be a a little over an hour but I am keeping medical records with me just in case I need to get another hospital.

PhysChic7685 · January 2012

About 30 minutes. My OB said I was still good to wait to come in until contractions were 5 minutes apart, even with the drive.

I've read a few labor stories recently (mostly in January 2012 boards) and one of them involved the woman's water breaking and she still got sent home (actually, to grandmother's house since home was 1 hour away) to labor at "home" some more.

It'll all really depend on how fast your labor progresses.

halo_tx · January 2012

It really depends on time of day and traffic for us- we live in the suburbs and hospital is downtown- if there's no traffic, it will take about 30 minutes. Traffic could take up to an hour. I'm more worried about how uncomfortable I'll be sitting in the car for that long in labor than getting there in time though!

novasouthanblond · January 2012

About 35-40 mins in perfect conditions, up to 90 mins for bad weather/traffic (we live outside of the dc area and traffic is the suck). The last time we had 7+ hours of contractions, I just stayed home and coulda done some stuff around the house. I'm with you tho - if my water breaks, I'm out the door!

katied022 · January 2012

My drive is about 10-15 minutes. I would say as soon as something happens we will head there because of all the excitement I won't want to do anything else.

Lilcountrysmiles · January 2012

about 20 mins from the house and 30-45 mins from my work.

MollySm · January 2012

We live about 25 min from the hospital. Everything we've been told says that once contractions start (or water breaks) it will most likely be hours and hours before contractions will be close enough together and strong enough for it to make sense to go to the hospital. At our class they told us for FTMs that they should be 4 min apart, lasting 1 minute, for at least 1 hour before we go. So I'm not really worried about taking time to get to the hospital.

sapphirebride06 · January 2012

From my house, the hospital is between 45 and 65 minutes. Maybe up to an hour and fifteen minutes in bad traffic scenario. With DS #1 I was GBS+ so when my water broke I called my doctor's office and they told me to head on in but to call L&D and let them know I was coming. I'm glad we went when we did because being GBS+ I was on a 24 hour max from water breaking until DS had to be born and I made zero progress on my own - I wasn't dialated or effaced or anything - even after my water broke I had no contractions so they had to give me pitocin. It still took over 19 hours for DS to be born vaginally and I'm glad we went in.

My water broke about 7:55am and we were getting ready for work (H and I work from home together but had to go do title research that morning so we were heading to the courthouse/records room). I told H go run the errands we need, post office, bank (pay day but didn't have direct deposit, etc.) while I showered and finished the laundry and got my bag finalized. We got to the hospital about 11:30 - we stopped to get food since I knew they wouldn't let me eat once I was in active labor. I had a few small contractions during this time, but nothing like I had when I had pitocin, so had my water not broken I wouldn't have even known I was in labor lol.

christinak22 · January 2012

I'm 45 minutes away if speeding and 2 hours if it's snowing in rush hour. I'm a little freaked out about it, but plan to chart out hospitals on the way in case I feel the urge to push or anything crazy when we're on the way.

hillbillysunshine · January 2012

About 15-20 minutes max. With DD#1, it was about 30 minutes, and I had time to shower and shave. The house was already cleaned-up from my nesting. Embarrassed

k3montel · January 2012

I actually timed it yesterday when I went to visit my dad (during rush hour)...it only took 10 minutes at the busiest time of day. Probably 5 minutes at a non-busy time, but maybe 15 in a snow storm.

hillbillysunshine · January 2012

Lawren:
Not even 2 minutes. It's a mile up the road from us. I was stressing out about having his car seat if I went into labor early and DH was joking that he would walk home with LO, not to stress out about it.

LOL. That's pretty funny.

callmeAl19 · January 2012

Our hospital is 5-10 minutes from home and about 20-30 minutes from our workplaces.

champagna · January 2012

15 mins

reikotxm · January 2012

From home, i'm about 5-10 minutes away, but from work it's about 20.

HappyToBe2012 · January 2012

If I go into labor at home, anywhere from 40 to 50 minutes depending on traffic and how fast DH drives. If I'm at work, only about 20 minutes because I have to get to the other side of the city.

SeptemberBride'08 · January 2012

Less than 2 min. It's across the street.

pennyandandy · January 2012

10 minutes from our house, 20 minutes from work. Either way, we should be okay.

soralette · January 2012

It's about 20-30min in perfect conditions... More like 1hr+15min to 1.5hrs in traffic.

Snow... ugh. Seattle drivers have no idea WTF to do in the snow.

If it's snow and no one else's on the road, my Michigander DH knows wtf he's doing and could get us there in a reasonable amount of time (~45min?).

If it's snow AND traffic, it could be anything from 1.5hrs-3hrs or more. Basically, if there's snow and traffic, we'll start the drive home as soon as contractions are confirmed to be regular, never mind the distance between 'em.

In short, it's not allowed to snow this year. Sry.

bethanyturon · January 2012

30 - 60 minutes depending on traffic. My birth center also has us doing most of the labor at home - we shouldn't be leaving until contractions are 3 minutes apart, 1 minute long, for an hour.

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