Waking up early last Tuesday morning to severe pains around 2.30am, the first time mum was going into labour.
But instead of calling an ambulance, Rati and her partner Jip decided to book an Uber as their hospital escort,simply because it meant they could track the car’s location and arrival time.
“I was thinking it was so early in the morning and there was no traffic, I didn’t know how long the ambulance was going to be,” she told 3AW Breakfast this morning.
“When we looked at Uber it said five minutes away, so we were like let’s just Uber it.”
Going into labour one month early, Rati and Jip didn’t want to take any risks — and because she had never called an ambulance before, she opted for the ride-share service.
“I’d never called an ambulance before, so I didn’t know how far away it would be or how long it would take,” Ms Sinuraya said.
“I was in so much pain, it was 2.30am in the morning and I didn’t want to risk the ambulance taking a long time to arrive.”
Rati and Jip said because they could see the location of the car on the map, they knew exactly how long it would be until it arrived at their doorstep.
“An ambulance couldn’t give me an exact time of how long they would be, but with an Uber we could just see on the map where they were and get updated estimations,” she said.
Rati, who gave birth to her daughter just hours after being picked up, wasn’t expecting to go into labour with a month to go until the due date. For this reason, the couple had to make a snap decision while she endured horrific pains.
“If I was picked up five minutes later, I would’ve been pushing out the baby in the car,” she said.
“I wasn’t expecting to go into labour, I thought it was just me in pain. But when I got to the hospital, they said I had to start pushing straight away, and the next think I know my baby was born.”
Speaking of the driver, Daniel, Rati said he was very “relaxed like nothing was really happening”.
“He didn’t look panicked,” she said.
“My husband was having a chat with him and looking at the map and how far we had to go.
“If I didn’t know the distance to the hospital, it would be very frustrating because of the pain I was in.”
Rati’s daughter, who is still in ICU after arriving early, is “doing well” after being born at just 2.5kg.
“Because she’s so little they decided to keep her, but I was discharged two days later,” she said.
While Rati and her partner opted for Uber — which cost $22 for the journey — Ambulance Victoria said all their vehicles are tracked from their control centres — and provide “emergency pre-hospital care” for women in labour.
“Ambulance Victoria paramedics are highly trained to provide emergency pre-hospital care and this includes the management of an unplanned birth prior to arrival at hospital,” Ambulance Victoria Acting General Manager Emergency Operations Anthony Carlyon said in a statement.
“However, expectant parents are urged to carefully plan the arrival of their baby and don’t leave it until the last minute to go to hospital.
“All ambulance vehicles can be located and tracked in our control centres through GPS fitted to all our vehicles.’’
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