When to call your birth attendant?

Here I go with another round of questions ;)

How do I know when to call my birth support person when I go into labour? It's not like she's just around the corner & can pop over and go home if I'm actually not in labour or not progressing anywhere (she'd have to fly here, so however long to get to the airport, fly to Sydney, then get the hours drive to here, so maybe 3hrs all up). Would I know when I'm in labour? I suppose last time labour started at 1pm and I went to the hospital at 1am so I would know I guess.

What about having her at home? Would it be best to get her here before I feel ready to go to the hospital or get her to arrive to go to the hospital with me?

Hi Sarah LOL!!!

I always ask the women I support to call me whenever they feel any signs of movement and I talk it through with them and see if I can suss out where they are. You see Sydney isn't too bad even if things don't progress because your Birth Attendant might have relo's in Sydney to stay with ;)

I'm going to get expert at timing planes for labour LOL when I spoke to Kath I said that afternoon I better look at planes and she said she would see how she went, but come 7.30 when things really were serious, it was too late to pack, get to the airport then catch the plane! So that initial contact, then regular contact would be important should your Doula be from interstate :D I'm sure she'd come to your home cos she likely wont have a car? :)

Thanks Kelly. So I guess the main thing is to keep up the contact so the attendant can see how things are going. I'll make sure & remember that.