I had a like scenario with my first child. A 45 minutes drive and add to it my then husband having no cash and wanting to stop at an ATM to get money for coffee and the pay phone. The pain was a bit of a shock and the ride lasted forever but I still had 8 more hours of labor before number one son arrived. She’ll most likely make it but it will not be a pleasant ride.
I had a ten hour labor with my first and a five hour labor with my second. 45 minutes would have been plenty of time in either case.
Yeah, that’s what I was taught also, but I grabbed actual numbers from here for the sake of argument.
Christopher, what would you do in your current house if you had a heart attack? I’m assuming there are emergency services that could get to you quickly.
Unexpected baby exits qualify as emergencies. Are you considering residing somewhere else closer to the due date or switching hospitals? (mostly just curious)
Don’t do what my dad did to my mother (and hasn’t been able to live down in 30 yrs). Her water broke at the drive-in. She labored all night while he slept. In the morning she said it was time to go to the hospital. He showered. He shaved. She paced.
She said, “Let’s go!”
His reply? “Aren’t you even going to pack me a lunch? This could take all day!”
There is a small town nearby, so if an emergency like a heart attack came on, I think we would be OK. I would rather the major hospital do the delivery. I am definitely going to require that my wife and I take genuine first aid classes if we were to get this place. I’m not the one that is pressing for this house, my wife really likes it. I would rather have something closer. I can assure you, at the first sign of labor, we would be hovering around the hospital. Maybe getting a hotel or something for a few weeks near the due date is a good idea.
Keep in mind that 2 weeks before the due date is considered term, and babies can be as much as 2 weeks late. That’d be a long month in a hotel.
If you’d be satisfied having the baby in a smaller hospital in the event of an emergent delivery, it sounds like you’d be covered.
I’ve seen this dilema several times on a pregnancy group I used to read. You’re not alone. And good luck getting the house!
My Mom was too – my brother in one hour, me in a half-hour. Luckily they lived around the corner for me, but she walked in with blood running down her legs. She stopped after us two–no need to push her luck 
Funny(ish) story.
One of our Obstetricians was working as a Reg (senior resident) in a small hospital and was the only senior OB/GYN on-call in the hospital the night his wife went into labour with their first baby. Of course, as they lived near to the hospital, that’s where she came.
He left the room to attend another delivery because his relief hadn’t arrived and “it’s our first, there’ll be plenty of time”. He got back just in time to deliver his own baby!
It’s been thirty years and I don’t think his wife has forgiven him.
Did anybody else have the mental image of a Doper posting this via laptop from the delivery room?
I was dilated to 5 cm on the Monday before my son was born. I wasn’t in labor or anything, I was just already dilated – halfway there! My first contraction hit at 11:00 Wednesday night, we arrived at the hospital (maybe a 10-minute trip) at 2:45, and he was born at 4:22 Thursday morning, after a very easy labor.
So quick labors do happen, but even in my case, 45 minutes would have been plenty of time to get to the hospital. And this is our first child.
We (my midwives and I) suspected I would go quickly, because my mom’s labors were 4 hours and 2 hours. I agree with the previous posters who said to talk to your doctor/midwife and develop a plan. It seems to me that, instead of staying in a hotel for a month, you could go to a hotel near the hospital at the first sign of labor, and then go to the hospital when your wife is closer to delivering.
[hijack]
I completely identify with this! I had my husband and a friend in the room with me, in addition to the nurses and my midwife, and they didn’t have anything to do – I didn’t want my hand held, I didn’t want my back rubbed. They handed me water and chapstick, and we chatted in between contractions. There wasn’t anything they could do to make the baby come faster, or to lessen the discomfort of the contractions – neither could I! This thing was just happening to me, and I had to ride it out. It felt very primal, and my body knew what to do. I just listened to it and then there was a baby!
It’s not like it was so fun that I’m just dying to do it again anytime soon, though… 
[/hijack]
Were you at my first birth? This is precisely how it happened.
I’m hoping for a VBAC this time around, but it’s not easy to find a doctor who will agree to let me try. Apparently women who pushed for four hours and couldn’t get the baby out are considered poor risks, even when they were induced weeks before due date and their bodies weren’t anywhere near ready to birth a baby the first time around.
Fucking preeclampsia. Now my blood pressure goes haywire whenever my OB takes it because the memory of it all is so upsetting. (Which is not to say that my daughter is not worth it, of course.)