I'm a paramedic in Vic, not sure of NSW regulations but they are usually pretty similar to ours... There are no hard and fast rules regarding transporting accompanying children in the ambulance in Vic, but there is certainly a preference not to. It is up to the discretion of the crew who attend to you and they will make a decision based on the urgency of transporting you to hospital. Most paramedics will exhaust all other options (relatives/neighbours...) before agreeing to transport you with two accompanying young children. Assuming you are attended by a two person crew (not carrying any student observers) there are two additional seats in the ambulance; the front passenger seat and another behind the head of the stretcher. Neither is fitted with child restraints or bolts to attach a child restraint, ergo a child cannot safely be transported in either of these seats. Given you have time to arrange care for your kids if you should go into labour whilst your DH is away (the neighbours down the road sound like a good place to start), I would suggest that you do so. As a mother myself, I would not find it an acceptable plan to transport my 4 and 2 year old children unrestrained to hospital. You would also have an issue at the hospital itself in terms of who will watch your children whilst you deliver as hospitals are understaffed and won't have anyone available to babysit.
Your children will not be left at home alone by paramedics under any circumstances. If things are progressing normally, I would be prepared to risk delivery at home and await the arrival of someone to care for your children. Should immediate transport to hospital be clinically indicated (a medical emergency which demands transport with lights and sirens), your children would come with us - but again, as a mother I would be very uncomfortable with my young kids sitting in an ambulance traveling under lights and sirens, not appropriately restrained.
In Vic your newborn baby is automatically covered by family ambulance membership and you would not receive a bill. You should check with NSW.
As an aside, Cassius, there are absolutely no circumstances where I would agree to travel as a passenger in a patient's private vehicle to attend to a child. If the patient requires my clinical skills, that patient needs to be in my ambulance. In my 15 years as a paramedic, I have never had a parent refuse to allow the transport of a sick child in my ambulance, although parents do often want there children transported by ambulance when it is not necessary and they would be far safer in their car seat in a private vehicle! I would not ever compromise my own safety by traveling in the vehicle of a stranger, possibly one who is stressed or panicking due to an unwell child. Similarly, if the child's condition demands my paramedical skills, a cramped private vehicle presents avoidable OH&S issues as well as lacking access to the full gamut of my equipment. I am surprised - and somewhat concerned - to hear that one of my colleagues has done this, and also surprised that I have not heard about it as it is certainly not common behaviour.
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