Time between phoning and mw turning up?

[lesleyann]

So I keep reading HB stories and one thing I seem to always notice is that the MW does not turn up for pretty much 2hours after you have rang up?

This concerns me abit as all my midwifes Ive seen so far want me to have a homebirth due to fast delivery with my son (4hours from first contraction to shower after birth).. So Ive been told I have to pretty much ring up from my first contraction since mine did not become regular with my son as they want to make sure the mw is here in time, now going off the whole second is faster than the first its making me worry quite a bit..

How long did your mw's take to turn up?

 

[xxembobxx]

Ooh I've never heard that they take that long but I suppose if you phoned the hospital they advise you not to go in straight away as even a quick labour lasts a few hours.
Saying that I had an unplanned HB as labour was so quick but I think I must have slept through most of it! I was told with the next labour that if I thought it was going too fast to kneel on all fours with my bum in the air as defying gravity would slow it down.
Dunno if it worked but the labour was longer, giving us time to get to the hospital.

 

[special_kala]

mine took about a hour the first time she came but i wasnt very far at all and when we called a few hours later she took about 30 minutes...could be because she heard me shouting in the background tell her to hurry up!

 

[lesleyann]

Ooh I've never heard that they take that long but I suppose if you phoned the hospital they advise you not to go in straight away as even a quick labour lasts a few hours.
Saying that I had an unplanned HB as labour was so quick but I think I must have slept through most of it! I was told with the next labour that if I thought it was going too fast to kneel on all fours with my bum in the air as defying gravity would slow it down.
Dunno if it worked but the labour was longer, giving us time to get to the hospital.

Thats the thing I must of slept though most of mine as mine started very painful the second I woke up, I had only been having contractions for 2hours before I was 9cm with my son and at that point the Mat unit told me to stay at home etc, told my dad to F off telling me how to breath so my mum said I best go in and thats when we found out that we should listen to my body more than the MW on the phone.

 

[ljo1984]

i suppose it'll depend on how far away they are and if they think there imediatly needed, otherwise they might faff about before setting off etc, or if they need to pick anything up. if they know you labour fast, they will propably set off straight away id of thought. xx

 

[Linzi]

about an hour. i rang delivery ssuite but they were too busy to send one, they contacted my mw who called me to say shhe was busy and would find someone else, the other midwife she found called and said she was about bhalf an hour away but would be there asap (they were panicking a little I think because I labour quickly too), 45 mins after she arrived molly was born

xx

 

[allaboard]

I've wondered this, as my first child was 6 hours from first contraction to fully dilated (minus the pushing bit which won't be anywhere near as long this time).

I know if i call too early and they are under-staffed, as they have told me is highly likely, i'll be asked to go into hosp or i'll be examined at home and they'll attempt to persuade me there's a reason i need to be admitted. But, if i call too late, i might end up free-birthing!

I don't know why they would take so long to arrive, as they have all their equipment ready in the car or at the woman's home. But i've heard they can take ages.

 

[Blah11]

i dont think il have this issue. amelie gave us a 15hr warning

 

[Rebaby]

I have the opposite worry, because Toby's labour was so long (just under 20 hours from start to finish) and that was with synto to speed things up! So i'm worried about calling too soon tbh. And my mw's haven't given my any idea of what sort of time frame i'd be looking at from ringing to someone actually arriving, and their only instructions were to "give them a ring when i think things are happening, if i am contracting regularly and they're getting closer together"... It's all a bit confusing isn't it?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

With Ruby they wanted contractions to be 2 mins apart and lasting at least a minute. If we'd waited for that we would have had an unassisted birth. They were never that long.

I'll call this time when I'm contracting regularly I think.

 

[Linzi]

They told me because Seth was quick (6 hours from waters breaking to birth, 4 hours from first contraction to birth) to call as soon as I started having contractions (I didnt tho). I woulld do that just to be safe xx

 

[lesleyann]

Yeah I think I will wait maybe 30mins? to make sure they are here for real then ring up, enough time so if its a false start we should of realised but not 2 long incase this one decides to show up in half or under half the time Kyle did lol

 

[Linzi]

Yeah good plan I know people say half the tim but not sure how accurate that is.... Seth and molly were both around the 6 1/2 hour mark xx

 

[RoxyRoo]

I had my first contraction at 2am, they became close together very quickly, rang MW at 3:30am. She was out of the area and had to go and pick gas & air up too, I didn't even end up using it.. Midwife arrived at 5:20am. Nancy was born 40 mins later!

 

[JenStar1976]

I rang the midwives when my contractions were 3 minutes apart. They turned up 45 minutes later. Alex was born 2 hours after that. x