Where I live we are given very clear advice - for normal pregnancies that are full term we are told to ring the Delivery Suite when contractions are five minutes apart and lasting about a minute, then make our own way to hospital. If in doubt, ring the your midwife and see what she advises. At the antenatal classes we were told that in the majority of cases labour is a natural, non-emergency event, and we shouldn't be calling an ambulance, and that if we don't have a car we should make arrangements with a relative or friend, or make sure we have money for public transport or a taxi. They also give guidance on when you SHOULD call an ambulance (eg heavy bleeding, birth imminent) and discuss what to do should you find yourself about to deliver without a midwife or ambulance crew on hand. This in itself usually gets most fathers-to-be announcing that they'll get their partners to hospital in plenty of time. The midwife reinforces all of this at the clinic visits as you reach your due date, and will give additional advice where necessary - for example, we've been advised to leave extra time for getting to hospital because of the heavy road congestion at the moment, and because my previous labour was rapid. Seems like common sense to me, and it's what we'll do anyway as getting to hospital in good time is FAR less stressful than having to leave it to the last minute. Every expectant mother I know is clear on the guidelines - some just seem to expect an ambulance by right, and choose to ignore them. For the most part these are intelligent people. I find it staggering that they can be this blind to the situation, even when I ask them to think about the people who may genuinely need the ambulance that they're calling.