How do you know when to go to the hospital

[Mimzy3]

With my first I had a drug free 16 hour labor. I stayed at home for several hours thought I was getting close so went into hospital and was told I was only I think 3cm dilated so I left and went back home. They told me to come back in 2-3 hours but I stayed home for as long as I could stand because I didn't want to be told I was only a few more centimeters dilated. Luckily when I finally went back in my son was born two hours later.

I'm worried that with the second time around they say things tend to go faster. How will I know when is the right time to go in? I don't want to go too soon like I did last time, I prefer to labor at home. But then I don't want to wait too long and end up having the baby at home or in the car.

 

[Dill]

I was told to come in once contractions were occurring regularly 3-4 minutes apart.

 

[Mimzy3]

I was told to come in once contractions were occurring regularly 3-4 minutes apart.

Mine started out 5 minutes apart and towards the end they were back to back! And I still was only around 4cm when they were like this.

 

[jessmke]

I've heard the 4-1-1 rule: go in once your contractions are 4 minutes apart, last for 1 minute, and this has been going on for 1 hour.

We live out of town on an acreage about a 30 minute drive from the hospital. Since I am due in December, we are worried about the roads being a disaster, and I don't want to spend 30 min in the car when I am in active labour. Our plan is to get a hotel room near the hospital and head there as soon as labour starts, so I don't have to go straight to the hospital. And if I do go in and I'm not very far along, I will just go back to the hotel instead of going all the way home or getting admitted and going through the entire labour in the hospital.

 

[Spudtastic]

I was told to come in once contractions were occurring regularly 3-4 minutes apart.

Mine started out 5 minutes apart and towards the end they were back to back! And I still was only around 4cm when they were like this.

Mimzy - this was my experience too. I had back to back contractions and was only 2.5cms. 6 hours later I was only 4cms.
I was chatting to my midwife about this this morning. She said that often first labour is long, hard and intense but subsequent labours start of with those mild contractions and when they get intense you are actually closer to giving birth. (This is not from experience just from what my midwife told me). However, I have about 6 friends who had long long intense first labours and the hard stuff for no2 was only 1 to 3 hours long.
I live 3+ hours drive from the hospital so I will be heading down when I first feel any contractions so when the hard stuff hits I'm in the same town as the hospital.

 

[jstarr]

I think about this too, hoping it's something you just know at the time

 

[PitaKat]

I've been wondering this as well. Last time I stayed home till I felt like I needed some pain relief, and at the hospital was told that I was dilated to 5. I want to stay home longer this time, till transition (hopefully), and have a natural delivery. I live only 10 minutes from the hospital though, so the chance of having the baby in the car is very small lol.

 

[jlw617]

I'm not sure how to advise you but generally your second labor usually doesn't get more intense until you're closer to the end...my second was easy up until a couple hours before I actually delivered

 

[MummyToAmberx]

For me, its hard to offer advice on this one. Every labour has been different, how things progressed have been different. I never followed those 'rules' with my third baby to much of the midwives surprize.

With my 1st i went in at 5mins apart i was 6cm
With my 2nd i went in when i felt i 'needed' pain relief i was 4cm
With my 3rd i went in because i thought i was close to transition to only be told i was 3cm.

What ive learnt for sure is as ive had more labour got more intense earlier on; my labour has been much shorter in return.

From me being told 3cm with my 3rd, irregular contractions but long lasting. My baby was in my arms only 3hrs later, totally unexpected.

 

[Mimzy3]

I was told to come in once contractions were occurring regularly 3-4 minutes apart.

Mine started out 5 minutes apart and towards the end they were back to back! And I still was only around 4cm when they were like this.

Mimzy - this was my experience too. I had back to back contractions and was only 2.5cms. 6 hours later I was only 4cms.
I was chatting to my midwife about this this morning. She said that often first labour is long, hard and intense but subsequent labours start of with those mild contractions and when they get intense you are actually closer to giving birth. (This is not from experience just from what my midwife told me). However, I have about 6 friends who had long long intense first labours and the hard stuff for no2 was only 1 to 3 hours long.
I live 3+ hours drive from the hospital so I will be heading down when I first feel any contractions so when the hard stuff hits I'm in the same town as the hospital.

That is great information! Thank you for sharing. I hope what your midwife told you is true for me as well...so when things get intense I can listen to my body and go in without the fear of being told I'm only 1-4cm

 

[BER614]

With my son they told me to go when contraction were 4 minutes apart lasting 1-minute for an hour. But my contractions started 3-minutes apart, so I waited until they were so strong that I couldn't talk through them. When I got to the hospital they were 1-2 minutes apart, and I delivered about 1 hr 45 min after arriving to the hospital. My whole labor was around 4-5 hours which is quick for a FTM.

I think you should go in when contractions become so intense it is difficult to talk though them, but don't wait too long after that, especially because 2nd babies usually come quicker.

 

[lynnikins]

its not somthing i worry about as my babies are planned homebirths, well the last three were and this one will be too

 

[Kanichen34]

I can't advise as I never made it to hospital! I had an unplanned home birth. Just wanted to say don't rely on labour getting painful. Mine wasn't painful until I was in transition. My contractions were also irratic until my waters broke and I went into transition when they became pretty much constant. Go in when you feel you need too.

 

[mum140381]

i left it until i was in so much pain then i walked in hospital and had her within 5 min it was my 4th but dont leave it 2 long

 

[mummytobe_93]

I was told to come in once contractions were occurring regularly 3-4 minutes apart.

Mine started out 5 minutes apart and towards the end they were back to back! And I still was only around 4cm when they were like this.

Mimzy - this was my experience too. I had back to back contractions and was only 2.5cms. 6 hours later I was only 4cms.
I was chatting to my midwife about this this morning. She said that often first labour is long, hard and intense but subsequent labours start of with those mild contractions and when they get intense you are actually closer to giving birth. (This is not from experience just from what my midwife told me). However, I have about 6 friends who had long long intense first labours and the hard stuff for no2 was only 1 to 3 hours long.
I live 3+ hours drive from the hospital so I will be heading down when I first feel any contractions so when the hard stuff hits I'm in the same town as the hospital.

That is great information! Thank you for sharing. I hope what your midwife told you is true for me as well...so when things get intense I can listen to my body and go in without the fear of being told I'm only 1-4cm

I agree with this. Number2 I didn't feel much pain at first and contractions very irregular. About 10 mins before pushing He contractions immediately got intense, to the point I couldn't cope I'm assuming this was transition. And then my body automatically started pushing. Baby was born at home by accident because of this.

It's not like your first labor where you have hours upon hours of painful labour (well for me anyway!)

 

[Willow82]

I find it confusing as well. I had a 33 hour labour with regular contractions coming every 5 minutes from the start and it took 19 hours of this to get to just 2cm! I went in when my contractions were 2-3 mins apart and they said that I was still in latent labour being only 2cm.

I was also told by my midwife that with subsequent babies, you tend to skip the latent labour phase and go straight to active labour. I worked out that only about 8 hours of my labour was active labour so this has worried me about how quick it might be!

Therefore, I'm worried about going in too early or too late.