Unlike the song from My Fair Lady, getting to the church, synagogue or temple in time for your wedding can be a piece of cake compared with timing your arrival at your chosen birth location. Arrive too soon, and you run the risk of somebody getting impatient, which can lead to interventions -- IV, Pitocin to strengthen contractions, even a cesarean section -- that you didn’t really need. Arrive too late, and you may end up giving birth in a frantic, Keystone cops atmosphere or becoming one of those “police officer delivers baby” filler articles in your local newspaper. This, while it may make a funny story later, is neither pleasant nor amusing at the time.

The advice you get often runs along one of two lines: “Stay home as long as possible,” whatever that means, or “Come in when your contractions have been five minutes apart for an hour (or two),” which isn’t helpful either. What if you can still read a magazine or chat with your husband during a contraction? What if you live five blocks from the hospital?