Most of this guide is written for the days after a crash. This article is written for a quiet day before one, which is hopefully every day of your pregnancy. It asks you to do one small thing at your next prenatal visit: ask your obstetric provider where they want you to go if you are ever in a car crash, even a minor one, and write the answer down somewhere you will find it with shaking hands.
Why ask now, not later
After a crash, nobody thinks clearly. The adrenaline that lets people trade insurance cards at the roadside also scrambles short-term planning. People in that state tend to make one of two mistakes: they drive home because they feel fine, or they spend twenty minutes searching a phone for a number they could have saved months ago.
Obstetric practices handle this differently from one another. Some ask patients past a certain point in pregnancy to go straight to labor and delivery triage at the hospital where they plan to deliver. Others want the emergency department first. Some want a phone call before you go anywhere. This desk cannot tell you which applies to you, and neither can any other website. Your OB or midwife can, in about thirty seconds, at an appointment you already have on the calendar.
The four questions to ask
- After a crash, even a minor one, what do you want me to do first? Write down their exact words.
- Where do you want me evaluated? The hospital name, and whether that means the emergency department or labor and delivery.
- What is the after-hours number? Most practices have one. Save it under a name you will recognize, like "OB after hours".
- Does the answer change as the pregnancy goes on? Many things do. Ask again in the third trimester.
Two things are not in doubt and do not need a question. If anyone is hurt, call 911 and tell the dispatcher you are pregnant and how many weeks. And anything that belongs to the pregnancy, meaning bleeding, leaking fluid, contractions or cramping, abdominal pain, a change in the baby's movement, or a direct blow to the belly, is an immediate call to your obstetric provider or emergency services at any hour.
Where to keep the answer
A phone is a good place and a bad place. It is good because it is always with you. It is bad because phones break in crashes, slide under seats, and die at the worst moment. So keep the answer in two places.
- In the phone: the after-hours number saved as a contact, and the hospital name in that contact's notes.
- On paper in the car: an index card in the glove box, next to the registration, with your name, your due date, your OB's name and number, the hospital your OB named, and any allergy or condition a stranger should know.
Tell your partner, or whoever drives with you most often, where the card is. The partner's page walks through what they do when they get the call.
What the card is for at the roadside
If you are in a crash and able to talk, the card saves you from remembering. If you are not able to talk, it tells responders something important in a few words. Either way, it moves the first and most important step, your obstetric provider, from something you have to figure out to something you only have to read.
It does not replace 911, and it does not replace judgment. If something feels wrong, it is wrong enough for a call. Nobody at a labor and delivery desk or in an emergency department will think less of you for coming in after a low-speed bump. During pregnancy, taking a minor-seeming crash seriously is the standard, not an overreaction.
Then the rest of the sequence still applies
The card handles hour zero. The crash sequence page handles the hours after: follow your OB's instructions, get their clearance, and then remember that the back and neck took a hit too. Crash strain in soft tissue often shows up over the following days, and the 72 hours page explains why. Pregnancy already asks a lot of the low back and neck, which is one more reason that strain deserves a documented exam once your OB has cleared you.
Missouri Injury Clinic takes auto-injury patients at three offices in the metro, and publishes that lane as diagnosis and a treatment plan after a crash. When you call, say you are pregnant, how far along, and what your OB told you. The O'Fallon office on West Terra Lane is open Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 9 to 6, with Wednesday and Friday by appointment, (636) 280-0990. Hazelwood, (314) 627-1411, and South County on Tesson Ferry Road, (314) 530-5480, are open Monday through Thursday 9 to 6 and Friday 9 to noon. Every office closes from 12 to 2.
One more line for the card
Add this at the bottom, in your own handwriting: "OB first. Then the rest." It is the whole guide in five words, and it is the order this desk will always put things in.
The emergency line. Chest pain, a sudden severe headache, weakness or numbness on one side, trouble speaking, a loss of bowel or bladder control, or a head injury with vomiting or worsening confusion is an emergency room trip right now, not a call to a clinic. During pregnancy, add to that list any bleeding, leaking fluid, contractions, abdominal pain, a change in the baby's movement, or a direct blow to the belly: those are immediate calls to your obstetric provider or emergency services, never a clinic booking.