When to go to the hospital?

katieidawalls · October 2016

I am a first time mom expecting a boy in January. I live on a farm and the closest hospital that they have me scheduled to deliver at is about an hour and a half away, (I'll say 2 ish hours because of winter roads in alberta). I'm nervous that I will get there and they will send me home and then I won't make it back on time to the hospital. Lol.
When is the "right" time to head to the hospital? How many minutes apart should my contractions be before I take a 2 hour trip to the hospital?

ashanne88 · October 2016

I would discuss this with your OB/provider before hand for a general idea. Also, at the first signs of labor, call the hospital. L&D can best advise you on when to come in based on what is going on and current weather conditions. I doubt they would send you home if you were in active labor and the round trip would be 3-4 hours to get back...

sarahmsoda · October 2016

My friend lives in a rural area as well and her hospital was in a city 2 hours away as well. She had lots of Braxton Hicks this last pregnancy (her third) around 36-40 weeks and kept driving to the city thinking she was in labour but she kept getting sent home. In the end her and her partner stayed in a hotel in the city the last few days before her due date to avoid the constant driving back and forth and her mother watched the kids.

She knew what labour felt like and still didn't know they were BH's. So there is no real answer to this, especially if your not sure the difference between a contraction and BH.

katesmama0706 · October 2016

We lived an hour from the hospital with our last baby, I just reminded my doctor of that when I asked for guidelines on when to come in. It never hurts to call either- if anything feels like labor call and describe it to the doctor or nurse and then add "I live an hour and half away, what do you think?". I had some false labor at 37 weeks and when I got the on call doctor (mine was out of town) and told her I'd been having contractions that were 7 minutes apart for hours and had jumped to every 5 minutes she said "wait until they're 3 minutes apart for about an hour and call back" but I jumped in and told her we lived far away and she came back and said "then go ahead and come in now".
Then when we got to the hospital I was dilated to 3 cm but needed to be at 4 to be admitted so the on call mid-wife wanted to send me home until I told her we lived far away so she told us we could walk the halls for 2 hours and check again or we could head home. By then they had spread back out so I was fairly sure it wasn't the real deal so we went home. Let them know your concerns if they want to send you home to labor there. But I'm sure every doctor has a different preference. Yours may want you to come in sooner than that. Discuss it with them.

ThePax89 · October 2016

Like others said, speak with your provider. They will probably have you come in before they would have others come in due to the distance. Maybe your water will break and then you will know for sure

When to go to the hospital?

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