Mum in Labour Uses Uber Instead of an Ambulance to Get to Hospital

A mother in labour has decided to use Uber rather than an ambulance to get to hospital because she knows the car’s location and arrival time.

Rati Sinuraya, 31, wasn’t expecting her first child not until next month, but last Tuesday morning, she realised she was going into labour and must to get to a hospital.

She woke up to severe pains at about 2:30am at their Richmond home with her husband, Jip Brouwer. The couple thought of calling an ambulance, but Ms Sinuraya told news.com.au that she’d never called an ambulance before, so she didn’t know how far away it would be or how long it would take.

“We were tossing [up] whether to call an ambulance or Uber, but not sure how long it’s going to be, and it’s 2.30 in the morning, so the roads are not going to be busy,” she said.

So, the couple decided on the Uber for transport to hospital, because they could see the location of the car on the map and saw that it was only five minutes away, Ms Sinuraya told 3AW radio station. “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…I was in so much pain…and I didn’t want to risk the ambulance taking a long time to arrive,” she said.

The couple told the driver to take them to the Royal Women’s Hospital. A few moments after reaching the hospital, baby Jasmine Alicia Brouwer arrived safely at 4.35am on Tuesday, weighing 2.4kgs. She is doing well but had to remain in the ICU to ensure she grows to a healthy baby weight before going home. Ms Sinuraya was discharged from hospital two days later.

According to a screenshot of the Uber receipt on news.com.au, their driver Daniel was given a five-star rating and the journey cost $22.70.

Meanwhile, Ambulance Victoria Acting General Manager Emergency Operations Anthony Carlyon said in a statement that Ms Sinuraya would have been well taken care of had paramedics been called.

“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. 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,” he said.

The emergency services also said that the average response time for a Code 1 emergency – the most serious kind – in Melbourne was between 0 and five minutes at the start of the year.

Uber also welcomed the news, with David Rohrsheim, the company’s General Manager for Australia and New Zealand congratulating the couple and was happy that Uber helped welcome their baby into the world.

Sources: 9news.com.au, News.com.au, Au.news.yahoo.com and Dailymail.co.uk