One of the great doubts of women when the time of delivery is approaching is knowing when will the best time to go to the hospital, for the "fear" of going too early or going too late.
Surely more than one has happened to you, or at least you know someone close to you, who after going to the hospital to give birth returns home with the bárulos and with a “you still have a little left”.
To try to avoid too many round trips and to avoid excessive instrumentalization during the dilation phases, we will explain what is the best time to enter a hospital and why.
What happens if the woman comes too soon
There are women who as soon as they notice the first discomfort go to the hospital with the intention of not taking any risk, thinking that being under the watchful eye of the health professionals the delivery will go faster and better.
The reality is that many of these women (the majority), are in a phase of childbirth too early and that makes the wait much higher than if the woman arrives at a more advanced stage and that for this reason increase anxiety and restlessness in both women and their companions.
On several occasions we have been able to listen in the waiting rooms (the one of things that one learns there) to the mother of the parturient, or in her absence to the mother-in-law, complain because they have been “nosecuántas” hours with her and that “I do not know why what do they expect so much, to have a C-section? The reality is that many of these women should have returned home, since both the woman and the family mark the time at which the admission is made as “zero hour”.
A woman who arrives with considerable dilation and being in advanced labor will give birth long before a woman who arrives when the contractions begin. Then their mothers will cross and one will say that their daughter took 8 hours to give birth and the other will complain because hers takes more than 15 hours "and here nobody does anything."
But it doesn't end there. In addition to increasing the anxiety of women and their families, the fact Entering still early stages of labor increases the risk of intervention by health personnel. Several studies have associated early admission with increased use of oxytocin to induce labor, epidural anesthesia and intubation in newborns.
The best time to go to the hospital
The best time to go to the hospital is, consequently, one in which the dilation is already practically in the active phase. The recommendation for hospitals is admit parturients when they have regular uterine dynamics, when there is a cervical erasure of more than 50% and when there is a 3-4 cm dilation.
The time it can take for a woman to reach that moment is undetermined. It depends on previous births and depends a little on each woman, so the ideal would be wait until the contractions were regular (There are professionals who go further and say when they are at least every 5 minutes).
In case of going to the hospital, if they do not see it clearly because it is early, they will recommend returning home and in fact it is the most advisable. Once at home, the ideal is to try to relax and live the expansion in a favorable climate (usually a quiet place, without interference, with poor lighting, soft music, ...). The time to return will be when you have been indicated in the hospital or when you have the feeling that the contractions are stronger and continuous.
