Star of Life

I tried a google search again, better terms I guess! I found this off the Source:

"He said it costs St. John residents a total of $1,000 for an ambulance ride on St. John, a trip across Pillsbury Sound on the Star of Life and an ambulance trip to the hospital on St. Thomas."

It's not as bad as I thought....wonder if it's accurate?

You better tell that baby delivery times are between 6am and 11pm only 🙂 🙂 🙂

Pia

Why do we even have a boat? :S A helicopter would be much more effective- a quicker, smoother ride directly from Myra Keating to RLS.

You got me Pia! Starting to get a little worried that the baby is going to decide to get things rolling at the ridiculous time I have been waking up since I've been pregnant 🙂

East...yes, helicopter is faster, but I would imagine a LOT more expensive. For those of us who don't have insurance....an emergency helicopter ride could be devastating financially. Of course, if you are in need of immediate trauma care, the $$ isn't your main concern. I'm having a baby, and even if I did deliver on St. John, and we both are healthy, they push you to go to the hospital on STT directly. They do not have a pediatrician or any kind of labor/delivery/baby care doctors or facilities on island. Also, if you go to the clinic here, and they think there is any way possible they can get you over to the hospital to deliver, they'll send you.

Julie: Maybe you should come over here and get a suite at the Reef until due date! Cheaper than the boat! LOL. I really was thinking about trauma. The quicker you get to the care you need, the better. I think the BVI uses leased helicopters. If there could be an arrangement with one of the helicopter companies, it seems it would be better and cheaper than the territory owning a boat (not even a go fast boat) to use once in a blue moon. They could even have an arrangement with the water taxi that surely would be cheaper and quicker than the current situation. (Stepping off my soap box to greet your new addition!) :@)

😀 The thing about babies...they kind of come when they are good and ready. A full term baby is between 37 weeks and 42 weeks....so I don't think staying at the Reef that long would be cheaper, but it would be a great pre-baby vacation!!! I considered a home birth, but I decided I'd rather be safe than sorry. You just never know what could happen, and I would like to be near some professionals to be on the safe side. With my first son, I knew the very early part of labor had begun, so I went to STT on the last car barge and got a hotel room. Even though my midwife was sure I wouldn't deliver until the next day sometime, I'm glad I went. He was born at 4am. I was on the noon barge home. So hopefully this guy will give me enough warning, at a reasonable hour, to get to St. Thomas on the barge, or at least, people ferry 🙂

It would be great if a water taxi company, or someone else, would be on call. I had someone tell me a story of them trying to 'reserve' a person to take them on their boat. The person told them they would need $50 per day, until the big day, to 'stay sober'. Ha! Ummmm, no thank you?

Hey Julie, maybe you could find out about Dohms and how much time they need (meaning can you call and them be ready to go in the middle of the night?) they are $40.00 pp minimum of 5 people - so $200 - for a trip to RH between midnight and 6:15am - might be worth a call and cheaper than the $1,000 for the Star

Pia

Good idea Pia! See...you aren't a P-I-A at ALL! You tell your hubby I said so 🙂

My wife and I induced labor at 39 weeks which might be the cheapest option for you. Over here on STX they do inductions on Wednesday's and it was great because the doctor's were all prepared, she was able to guarantee that she'd get an epidural etc. In smaller hospitals like ours where they don't have the same ecomomies of scale in terms of staffing scheduling your birth can make things go a bit smoother I think.

We ended up inducing with both our children, the first one was 10lb 9oz so we were lucky we did, the second one we induced to avoid such a large birth and he came out at a healthy 8lb 14oz.

Sean