Out for a ride when wife about to give birth

Tootler

I would be interested in opinions on this.

LittleB0b

could you plan a spirally route where you are never more than 15 min from home?


I say maybe - it depends on how terrified by the whole being pregnant thing i was, as to if i'd let the boy out to play. But i suspect i'd probably be fine with it , although maybe a bit jealous that i couldn't go too.

Starwasp

It really depends on how close your partner is to a phone and a hospital in the event of something nasty happening You may also find a caravan in the garden useful for the inevitable "get out"....but then again, at least you may get some sleep!

cougie

I'm thinking this is a loaded question....

APPARENTLY - its also not the done thing to fit in a quick turbo session the day after the birth whilst they are still in hospital.

Oh and also you need to get a card to say well done or congrats or something. Apparently....

redvee

No doubt in their hormonal state they'll blame the male for getting them pregnant, after all they couldn't be pregnant if it wasn't for the male of the species :roll:

synchronicity

Can you start another poll that says:

Is my life worth living? YES/NO.

I voted not acceptable... :shock:

Ash_

My wife's due date for our first baby was two days ago. I don't think I'd be able to get away with a ride like that at this time... Any cycling of late has been on the turbo, in the living room. I'm even driving to work now instead of cycling, just in case I need to collect her and get to the hospital, or get myself to the hospital pretty quickly to meet her there (of course, the latter is much quicker on a bike, though not the former).

No, I reckon long rides out are going to have to take a back seat for a while, for me at least. On the positive side, I used all this to justify buying a Tacx i-Magic - so I can get 'decent' rides in yet still be at home. On the negative side, I've already found out that the i-Magic is still just a fancy turbo trainer, with all it's associated tedium only occasionally lifted by a few not-so-fancy graphics.

neil²

First babies are usually late and a lot of them go 7 days + over.

If she is already in labour then get her on the back of the tandem and take her to the maternity ward; if there's no signs I would say 2 hours is ok - do a circular route around your house so you can be home in 15 minutes if the call comes....

Eventually you will run out of food and so you will have to go out for something!

Mind you, I don't think that a poll here is really the important one - what does she think? If she doesn't think it is OK then maybe this is not the time to be shaving a few seconds of your 50 mile times.

chrisberry

My GF is pregnant with a month to go;

First baby was 2 weeks late; when he came we had three hours warning and it was a very fast delivery. Odd are this one will be too.

Due dates are just a date.

I still get sent to work and that is a 20 min ride away, so by my reckoning as long as she isn't showing signs of starting you should still live your life, just with respect to her needs and stay reasonably close and in contact.

Be part of your babies life, we need more cyclists so train em young!

term1te

I cycled home from work, when the call came, to take my wife to hospital when our first was born. Ah, the naivety of youth, I wasn't so relaxed the next time! :shock:

If the baby is a few days late, a trip on the bike for both of you may encourage things along a bit?

singlespeedexplosif

APPARENTLY - its also not the done thing to fit in a quick turbo session the day after the birth whilst they are still in hospital.

absolute crap. It's fine. You can't be there the whole time, they have things called visiting hours. Plus, you'll need something to take your mind off the crush/tear injuries inflicted upon your hands the previous day.

Even better - ride to and from the hospital when you can visit

FWIW - I got out for rides on the days both our boys were born. Nothing wrong with that, wife was fine with it, just as long as I was where I needed to be when I needed to be. This involved me carrying a mobile phone for the first time ever. Horrible things but served a purpose on those days.

bill57

Apparently when my sister and I were due, my father announced to my mother that "there was a very good run of salmon on the Teith" and of he went.
My mother got two seven pounders, don't know about the fish.......

Tom Butcher

Our first was born at about 3.30 am - at about 8am I drove from Leicester to Alfreton to play the first Sunday league game of the season. We lost.

Anyway to answer the OP - yes I think a couple of hours on the bike is OK - so long as you are contactable even if you did an out and back ride the worst case is you are 60mins away.

robmanic1

In some remote parts of the world women have babies whilst collecting water from streams 20 miles away (probably), then carry 25 gallons back on their heads whilst simultaneously breastfeeding said sprog (or not). All this whilst the menfolk, who, after all , have had to go through the whole unpleasant business of copulation in the first place, are collecting/ gathering (bike riding).

We're too soft on 'em if you ask me!

Tom Butcher

Good point - bike riding is just the equivalent of a hunting trip - OK so we may not find any antelope to kill - but it's hardly our fault they've been extinct in this country for a few million years (if they ever lived here). I'm out again tonight for 90 minutes - I hope she appreciates the effort.

biondino

When my mum went into labour my dad made sure she was okay then went to the football, saw his team win, then nipped over to the hospital and only had to wait an hour or so before I was born. Worked out well for everyone.

GavH

I think a 2.5 hr ride when shes literally due any minute is just plain stupid. What is she supposed to do for that time if she drops just as you've headed off? Ambulances don't go on trees. I work about 3 miles from the ambulance station and Royal Hants Hospital. Just the other week it took an ambulance over an hour to arrive from making the call to our work for someone. Your partner will be in quite a bit of distress in that time if she is alone.

Save the ride for the day after and play it safe.

robmanic1

Gav, I think the OP probably has more than a little tongue in his cheek on this one.

Tom Butcher

GavH wrote:

I think a 2.5 hr ride when shes literally due any minute is just plain stupid. What is she supposed to do for that time if she drops just as you've headed off? Ambulances don't go on trees. I work about 3 miles from the ambulance station and Royal Hants Hospital. Just the other week it took an ambulance over an hour to arrive from making the call to our work for someone. Your partner will be in quite a bit of distress in that time if she is alone.
.

They don't actually give you a due date to the exact minute. All mine came at least three weeks early - what are you supposed to do - take a month off work, stock up on essential foods and get a stack of DVDs in. So long as you are within an hours travel I don't think you can realistically do more - if your wife is worried about it then that's another matter - but if she's relaxed about it then why not. If you phone the hospital when contractions start they just tell you to call back in a few hours when they get a bit closer together anyway.

davelakers

I missed the birth of my daughter (1st child) due to cycling the Manchester 100 in 2007. Everything was planned because the ride date was 2 weeks after the due date and was done with the full blessing of my wonderful wife. I had raised quite a lot of cash in sponsorship and the morning of the ride my wife had no signs of labour at all. Again with her full blessing I set off to Manchester.

52 miles in, furthest away from my car, I get a phone call to say her waters had broke. My mate had been tapped up to pick me up at a moments notice and take me back to my car so I gave him a call. He picked me up in Nantwich and by the time I got back to my car in Manchester my wife had given birth to a beautiful healthy daughter.

I was heartbroken and pissed off that the labour only lasted 2.5 hours, another hour and I would have made it. My wife wasnt alone, her mum was with her the full time and all I got was a lot of piss taking from the nurses and my family when I arrived at hospital.

My advice would be not to risk it!!!!

Le Commentateur

Robmanic1 wrote:

Gav, I think the OP probably has more than a little tongue in his cheek on this one.

Or her cheek, possibly!

phil s

cougie wrote:

I'm thinking this is a loaded question....

APPARENTLY - its also not the done thing to fit in a quick turbo session the day after the birth whilst they are still in hospital.

Oh and also you need to get a card to say well done or congrats or something. Apparently....

Why not? Mine gave birth to our first baby two months ago. I came home after being awake 29 and a half hours and knocked out a threshold session on the turbo. Then I had a short kip and went back to hospital. Nothing wrong with that. We had an early induction so no fannying about waiting for labour to start, so training before the birth was all fine but if she hadn't been induced I'd have trained no more than fifteen minutes from home.

nwallace

My mum tells me that when I started escaping my dad was busy doing an engine transplant on one of his mates transits. I was 6 weeks early though.

My brother spent 2, 6 day weeks waiting for his daughter to turn up while working on electrical installations all over Angus. in the end she was induced.

Due dates are estimates based on assumed date of conception and can be wildly out

If you take a worker doing 8 hour days 6 days a week with a 1 hour commute each way, who sleeps for 8 hours a night then there are 6 free hours each day.

So unless your normally at home all day you probably have someone on standby should you not be there when it starts. So as long as the standby is available when your going to be out on the bike what's the problem? To reduce the chances of missing it you could also do an out and back on the route the standby woudl be driving to the hospital.

Tootler

As it happens, it all turned out fine and dandy.

The original question was not in relation to me but a mate of mine.
Not only did he nip out for a 2 and half hour ride on the due date, he nipped out again a few days later with me and another mate for 3 and half hours - his wife gave birth the day after this ride.

Apparently he wanted to name her "Bradliette" after his cycling hero Wiggins, but fortunatley he got overruled.