Driving - able to until when?

Hi

Know it is a bit early to post this but trying to work out how long I can work up until and I know that several of you ladies are on bub no 2 +. How long were you able to continue driving for. I have an hour + drive to and from work each day so while ideally I would like to keep working up 3 weeks or so before the birth don't know if I will be able to drive that far very late into my pregnancy. (Guess some of it will depend on how big I get :lol:)

How did you travel if you excuse the pun.

Thanks M

i dont think there are any limitations about how late you can drive.
as long as you can drive safely i.e reach the steering wheel and pedals
all is good
i drove whilst i was in labour oops - funny story

good luck

Lol well I've been in early labour since Thursday and I was driving today :) I figure as long as you feel comfy behind the wheel it's fine.

for as long as u can fit behind the steering wheel lol

with DD I drove up until 41 weeks
with DS I drove up until 39 weeks (had him at 39+2 weeks)

I didnt drive long distances though because I live very close to everything I need

It will depend on how comfortable you are while driving.....

Agree with everyone else as long as you fit safely :)

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i dont think there are any limitations about how late you can drive.
as long as you can drive safely i.e reach the steering wheel and pedals
all is good
i drove whilst i was in labour oops - funny story

good luck

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:rofl: me too waters broke while I was driving, so I drove another 15 min home in the opposite direction to the hospital :lol:

Many people can drive right up until, although you might not feel like it. I remember Skittlebub drove maybe 45 min to and from my house and went into labour the next day, so it can be done! :p

My car seats sloped downwards and put pressure on some vein or something with #1 and I would almost pass out every time I was in that car from about 25 weeks onwards, so I didn't drive, just sat in the passenger seat with cushions. I didn't bother trying in late pregnancy with #2, mostly cos I was able to avoid it.

So barring any medical thing that makes you concerned, you should be able to drive for as long as you like!

As long as you can fit behind the wheel, it's fine. I just found I got really tired towards the end of my pregnancy - dreaded the long nights because of reflux, just couldn't sleep at all. And that also impacted on my driving. I found I was having microsleeps at the wheel when I had to drive nearly 3 hours to see my ob for the weekly appointments at the end. Not good! But for around town, no problems.

Oh if you have long legs you should be sweet because you can pull your seat back to fit your belly under the steering wheel and still reach the pedals :) But yeah, glad to know I'm not the only one who drives right up until (or after) their due date... my mother is horrified that I'm still driving myself around all the time :)

Driving in labour = bad idea. Even strong prelabour or strong BHs. Trust me, you get a strong contraction and your concentration on the road is gone.

Otherwise I was driving pretty much until I went into labour. (With 12 days of prelabour - but only once when it actually was bothering me and not again.)

Obviously if your bump is so big you can't move the steering wheel maybe you should think about giving it up too, but that didn't happen to me.

I drove for the last time, pre-baby, about 3 hours before I went into active labour. Tbh, until I saw this thread, it never even occured to me not to :lol:

I drove until the day before my last DS was born. Can't remember with the others sorry.

im pretty sure its fine to drive right up until you feel confortable enough, as the others said, as long as you can sit and reach pedals and wheel ok.

Im more scared to drive a heap when im bigger, as im always worried what 'Might' happen. And im a little worried bout the pressure of the retractable seat belt sitting on my bump.

however i saw a show on foxtel home and health show which says its fine to have the seatbelt across your tummy, just use aa small pillow or towel wrapped around the belt.

i had a similar length of drive to & from work & i stopped working at about 33 weeks. i took annual leave for a couple of weeks & am now on proper mat leave. the driving itself wasn't/isn't a problem, but i found doing that amount of driving every day to be quite tiring & i was also having to get up before 6 each day so it wasn't an even longer drive because of the traffic.

my back was getting pretty sore & it was only when i stopped doing that drive every day that i realised it must have been due to sitting in the car for that long because it feels a lot better now.

i'd say it's probably different for each person though & i've definitely had no problems with driving in general.

I drove all the way to the end, but it was uncomfortable in the last few weeks (both times) because I have short legs & a huuuuge bump!

I think for as long as you feel comfortable, my SIL is having her C/S in 10 days and is still driving today :) Your insurance company may have limits on when they will stop covering you in case of an accident, Mine is beyond 35 weeks pregnant so maybe check that out to be safe!!

I drove all the way through my pregnancy... I still fit behind the wheel, so it was all good. It was after I had bub I couldn't drive, as I'd had an emergency c/s.

I don't think there are any limits - as long as you feel safe driving, then that's fine. I know a lot of people put down a water proof sheet, just in case their waters broke while driving.

Drove myself to hossy after my waters broke with Nate - had to. DH was 600kms away.

Drove myself to hossy after my waters broke with Nate - had to. DH was 600kms away. I was lucky though I never even came close to touching the sterring wheel with my bump. I guess it could be pretty dangerous if you did though - then there might be control of the car issues.

Another one who drove right the way through!

Like you I also had an hour+ travel time to work everyday - I worked until I was 8 months - and it wasn't the driving why stopped! lol

i stopped in the 37th week. not really cause i couldnt fit, but on the last day i drove my pg brain got the better of me and i *didnt see* the 10 metre tall, 100+ year old GUMTREE that i was reversing into. after that i decided that i had become too vague to deal with it all...

starting tomorrow (yes, i had to go out today lol) im only driving if i really really have to. ie playgroup on thursdays!

im beginning to feel uncomfortable, and am finding it hard to turn to do headchecks, and just generally uncomfortable.

ive told dp he is coming with me to do the grocery shopping, as i can barely push the trolley either!

i guess it depends on how you feel.

i drove up until the day both of mine were born, i even drove myself and ds to the hospital when i thought my waters had broken with dd. i was talking to my mum on the phone, she was in iraq, and she thought i was nuts. false alarm though... i was leaking pee... lol

Thanks to everyone for their advice.

Think I may have an issue with "fitting" as I'm only 5ft and have to sit closer to the wheel than people of average height so will have to see. Was interested to see how many peoples pregnancy brain kicked in that made them feel unsafe driving. But looks like in most cases that didn't happen so maybe I'll be good too.

Thanks again.

Meadsie, I just wanted to add I'm only 5'2" with really short legs, and I manged to fit, no probs. So you might get lucky :D