Woman in labor commutes to hospital!

[colorisnt]

http://blogs.babble.com/strollerderb...ital-in-labor/


It's a little crazy, but I am glad she is so dedicated!

[Biciclista]

oh, wow!! what a trooper!

[KnottedYet]

One mile isn't actually that far. And in early labor, she was pretty safe.

I walked about 6 miles during the early stages of my labor (other folks get the "nesting instict" and clean their houses, I got the "walk away!" instinct and walked through the neighborhood until I was contentedly tired... which in retrospect was kind of stupid. I should have walked around a track instead).

It's amusing from a biker's standpoint, but really not that unusual for women in labor to engage in some kind of high-metabolic activity. It really does help and makes the whole process easier.

Biking is just as valid as walking or house-cleaning.

Do whatever works, ladies!

[Biciclista]

I walked during my labor (for a couple hours) but i stopped when I had a contraction. Wouldn't want to be on a bike for that!
(What was wrong with walking in your neighborhood? that's what i did, i wasn't close to a track)

she was 8 mm along, i wouldn't have thought that was early labor!

[KnottedYet]

(What was wrong with walking in your neighborhood? that's what i did, i wasn't close to a track)

I was very far from home, and no-one knew where I was or even that I was in labor. (this was before cell-phones were invented)

[Biciclista]

OH. I was walking with my sister, more or less just going around the block so i was never far from home. Yes, long before cellphones..

[Trek420]

BC, before cell phones.

[BikeDutchess]

It took her 12 hours to go from 8 cm to delivery? Oh my!

[sfa]

Contractions three minutes apart and eight centimeters dilated? That's not early labor.

But I wonder if she had something like what I had in my second labor--labor was progressing quickly and I left the house at roughly the same time (contractions three minutes apart) and got to the hospital seven centimeters dilated. Yay! I thought I'd finish up those last three centimeters quickly. Then my water broke and I went down to only four centimeters--the bulging sac was causing the dilation. Took another seven or eight hours till the baby was born.

[Bike Chick]

I don't know if I think that was amazing or just plain stupid.

[redrhodie]

I wonder what saddle she has?

[Grog]

It is really nice that in this day and age a woman would ride herself to the hospital if at all possible, but to those who wonder if it's stupid, I'd like to point out that it's only a mile, which even at 8 miles an hour would take less than 10 minutes, including the time to lock up the bike. The worst thing would be carrying one's "hospital bag" on the bike, and getting the panniers on and off, but that's what husbands are for, isn't it?

I'm assuming she didn't do that on a high saddled, aggressive-position racing road bike...

[KnottedYet]

"Get into the drops, honey! That'll squeeze the baby out faster! Spin, honey, spin! 120 rpm! If Lance can do it, so can you!"

[Crankin]

What amazed me was the vehemence of the comments against her in the blog. Of course, that blog looks, ah, kind of geared to people who are not into cycling.
I don't see anything wrong with it. For my first delivery, I got the nesting instinct and cleaned the kitchen, got the house in order for my mom who would come after the birth, and took a bath and shaved my legs. I had been on 6 weeks of "house arrest" with premature contractions when they took me off of the drugs that were keeping me pregnant, with son #2. We timed this to happen on a Saturday, leisurely took the toddler to friend's house, dropped off a package at the airport for shipping (before Fed Ex), then drove the ten miles to the hospital. Nothing was progressing and when the resident said he was going to send me home. I grabbed him by the white coat and said, "Listen azzhole, I've been in my house for 6 weeks, I'm having this baby today." So, they scraped the membranes, my water broke, and DH entered the labor room just as he returned from getting his dinner. The smell of the fries he had on the tray was overwhelming and I yelled,"Get the f***out of here." At that point, they were deciding if I would make it to the delivery room, so he grabbed a set of scrubs, shoved the food tray in a nurse's hands, and they wheeled me in to the delivery room. Two pushes later, my little Marine was born.

[celticgarden]

Thanks for posting that, made me smile. Women exert themselves in many different ways pre labor. I wish I had thought to ask the questions when I lived in East Africa but I was a 20 something adventurer and having babies was the LAST thing I was interested in.

What went through my mind though was my 2nd labor...water broke by itself, arrived at the hospital in transition fully dilated, ready to push while we were in the parking garage debating how to get into the hospital. 2 hours from water break to holding baby.

Linda