Guardian article about women being turned away from hospital when in labour

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www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/i-knew-i-was-in-labour-why-are-women-being-turned-away-from-hospital-during-childbirth

This article is about women being told by midwifes that they are not in labour and being sent home from hospital when they are in labour and the baby is born shortly afterwards.

Is this something that happens a lot? I am pregnant and people with the medical condition I have are more likely to have fast labours.

I had the tutting and the rolling of the eyes from the MW with DS1 years ago when I knew I was in labour. Sad to read nothing has changed. My best advice to DIL when she was pregnant with GC, was not to think that the MW are your friends. They are not there for you. Their goal seems to be to get your baby out of you and you out of the door ASAP. With no pain relief if possible. Less paperwork.

@MissDuke 48 hours and
@Cheby that may be so but on the evidence and the fact they said the Same thing to me and tried sending me home and I had a baby just over an hour and a half later with my second I think not. I honestly believe I was so stressed and uncomfortable getting in and out of the car it made it a lot worse for me.

DD1 My waters went (I had to convinced them that I hadn't just wet myself in bed) and I was 36 weeks so had to stay in. Contractions gradually increased through to evening.

I got in a bath and started getting weirdly miserable and self-pitying. I asked the midwife for painkillers and she said she'd check how far dilated I was in a few minutes. I asked if she'd check now as I was having funny contractions. She started to dismiss me and them looked at me sharply and ordered me out of the bath. Yup 10cm and pushing. She and my husband pushed the bed to the labour room where the delivery midwife started to argue with the ward midwife about me not even being in labour. I grabbed the side of the bed as I bore down. Three contractions later DD1 appeared.

Ward midwife said that on subsequent children I was to insist on coming in when I felt ready.

DD2... Labour established, waters went at home, felt things progressing. Called the ward to be told I didn't sound in labour. I told them I was coming to them now if there was a space, otherwise I'd head to the other nearby hospital. First midwife said I could wait until after shift change to be checked. I knew the oncoming midwife who asked MW1 how far she thought I was and her guess was 1cm. My guess was 7-8cm and I was 8cm. Had DD2 somewhat later as she turned as she descended and it got complicated, but I was 8cm on arrival.

My community midwife introduced me to my next door neighbour (with NDN's full permission) as she was on DC4 and her previous labour had been 35 minutes. She was to have a home birth so not to be in a vehicle with midwife or ambulance called. But I was the back-up plan (nurse with obstetric experience). Luckily the midwife got there in time so I didn't have to get involved.

Toolonglurking ditto . Twice....midwives adamant not active labour i couldn't be. Insisted.....upon examination always changed their demeanour quickly. Both times 20 mins after this babies were born. Sadly they seem to forget everyone Labours differently.

Missduke it was actually quite enjoyable until I was rushed into theatre, which was quite scary at the time.
Second birth was genuinely amazing throughout. I would do it again, but another newborn would break me

I was booked in for induction, DS two weeks overdue, there were a lot of emergency cases so I was kept in over night before being induced the next morning.
According to a just qualified midwife I was ‘an older mother’ (32) she took one look at my natural as possible birth plan and chucked it on the bed saying this won’t work (pessary) you will be on a drip by tonight and still here tomorrow in agony. You older NCT mothers are all the same.
Within 10 minutes I was having severe pains, asked them to call for my husband to come in, they refused. The Horrible midwife came in and old me to stop breathing in through my mouth, that I’d be exhausted by the time the baby arrived , and to stop making a fuss. I explained I was on my own in a small, boiling hot room, and the pains were severe and that I though labour was quite advanced. She just laughed and walked out.
Fortunately my husband arrived anyway, they told him to take me for a walk around the hospital grounds, You can guess my reply to that suggestion. About 10 minutes later I began to push, just up on the ward, fortunately I was in a side room. Husband rushed out to get midwife, fortunately a lovely young one and all hell broke lose. Insisted that I be taken down to a delivery suite. I was put into a wheelchair, legs acimbo, told not to push or baby would be delivered in lift. I went into shock, whole body shaking. Anyway, baby born 10 minutes later, with lovely midwives and all perfectly fine. On my exit interview I was told that had an experienced midwife been there they would have delivered baby on the ward. I changed hospitals for my second, also a very quick delivery, 8.5cm at booking in examination. I was told if I had a third I should have a home birth.
I think that had there been just one experienced midwife, rather than the young dragon I wouldn’t have had such a difficult experience, as actually the birth was really rather easy, painful because there was no gentle build up, but simple delivery.
We joke with our DS that had we followed the midwife instruction to go for a walk , he may well have been born under a gooseberry bush.

I had an unattended home birth with DC2 because the midwife told me to phone back in half an hour rather than coming straight away. Apparently I sounded too calm and coherent to be an hour or so away from giving birth.

Happened to me too, had baby in the waiting room in August last year as they couldn’t give me a bed as said I wasn’t in established labour and they were too busy with shift change. They finally came to see me when my husband told them I was pooing and when they looked babies head was out

It almost happened to me with my first. My waters broke and I was told to come in for a check as it wasn't busy. When I got to the hospital, which was an hour away, I was 2cm with irregular contractions. Half hour later they were going to send me home as "first labours are always long and it takes hours to fully dilate front 2cm" but luckily examined me first as I was 9cm. It was less than 5 hours from waters breaking and first contraction to holding dc1 with 6 minutes of pushing.

I always go very quiet when in labour which led to almost being sent home with dc1. Apart from right at the beginning of needing to push when I throw a tantrum that I want to go home because I can't do this . I agree that although experienced midwives can probably get a very good indication of whether someone is in established labour just by looking and their behaviour 90% of the time, there's always that 10% of women who will be calm, quiet and behaving differently than most when in established labour.

I can see why they send women home though. A friend of mine called her dh home from work and rushed to the hospital every time she had more than three contractions together with her youngest dc, she was convinced she was in labour. She was sent home at least a dozen times from 37 weeks as she wasn't dilated at all and finally had her scan at 41 weeks.

No one should be sent home without being examined and properly checked though. As with pp the possible consequences of being sent home without being examined or monitored are too grave to be dismissed as not being in labour.

One of my friends was turned away from the delivery ward; 20 mins after returning home they had to call an ambulance to rush her back to hospital as baby was coming very quickly and was actually born about 2 min after her re-arrival.

Another friend called the hospital to say she was coming in as she believed she was in established labour; was told she couldn't be as she was speaking on the phone and 'sounded too calm'. Baby arrived shortly afterwards, delivered on the bathroom floor by her less-than-calm DH!

Both times mum and baby were basically ok, but in the second case my friend tore fairly badly, which might not have happened if she had had a midwife to help her. So it does happen!

I can see how it could happen tbh. I was nine cm needing to push and the midwife felt my stomach and said I wasn’t having contraction baby was born within the hour. I think try not to worry and if you feel you’re in labour refuse to leave without being examined.

This is something that worries me greatly, although it is a long time since I had my children.

I was told to come in at 9.30am when the day staff were there when I rang at 4.30am with contractions every 3 minutes in labour at 35 weeks with twins I had previously had a 3 hour labour with my first, that no one was interested in, no matter who I told.

I told them I was coming in at that moment which I did and there was space for me - they just wanted the day staff to handle it.

It is worse now, as they routinely get full and close units.

What do you do when they don't let you come in. I was supposed to be a High Risk labour with previous PPH, and no way would they let me deliver on the GP unit, but the car on the way there is fine???????

Badgerthebodger it is good to hear a positive story that is probably more common than babies being born in the car park.

I got sent home from the labour ward, got as far as mcdonalds (i was craving, don't judge) and had to turn round and go back, I only just got through the door before out DD popped! So glad i made it and my daughter wasn't born in a fast food carpark!

Here in the U.S it has been my experience that when you go into labour you go and see your obstetrician or his mid-wife and if they believe you are in actual labour they send you to the hospital, where you will be admitted. It’s nice because by the time you get there they are expecting you and have room ready.

They wanted to send me home for both of mine. Had the 1st in 5 hours and the second in 2.

It was a bit annoying really but there was no way I was going home!!

With my first I had to shout at the consultant I was ready to push as I went from 6-10cm in under ten minutes.

I was induced & baby came out less than a hour after waters were broken.

My midwife for DS2 was terrified id have to have a hospital birth because my hospital keep you home for as long as possible/don’t sound like in labour.

I was told that I had to say how fast my first was when I did go into labour.
Luckily DS2 was a home birth & was a longer pushing stage but only because the midwives changed my position.

It does seem to be happening more & more that women aren’t being listened to or examined.

I had my 4th section 3 months ago. I was booked in for an elective as not allowed vbac but went into labour at 38+4. My waters broke at 2am and contractions started. They left me to labour for almost 12 hours, contractions were every 5 min in thhe end and at 1 point they lost baby's heartbeat on monitor and couldn't find it with the wand thing. Unfortunately they didn't use the ultrasound they wheeled in as older midwife said she found him, when I finally got in to theatre he had turned and was stuck turning the surgery into a "traumatic section" it was awful. But I'll never know how dilated i was as in that 12 hours they didn't check me once. They were busy. A midwife told us later that they deliberately didn't check me because if I was documented as dilated they would have to "do something" and they were busy. We didn't know but baby was presented shoulder first, it took them 25 minutes to get through my scar tissue to the uterus and then it took a team 6 minutes, a vertical cut and a lot of manhandling to pull him out non responsive. My case is different though because if they had taken me for a section on the first 7 hours because i was in labour the surgeon was alone until shift change so our baby wouldn't have made it and I don't know what would have happened to me. So I'm glad they were too busy to deal with me that day. It's awful for the women who weren't listened to and those who birthed alone. I hope everyone is ok.

A lot of people I mkow , if they are worried about being sent away say they can't handle the pain (which is the truth ) usually yiu get monitored at least xxx

My friend has had six children in five pregnancies, and says that she has yet to have a contraction - she got excruciating backache instead. With her last she was already in being monitored when she told them that she had started with the backache. A lot of scoffing till they checked her, then all hell broke loose. They literally told her to cross her legs until the paediatric emergency team was there in case baby slipped out.

My mother was induced with me in the early 1960s as she was so ancient at 40 they didn't want her going full term. The consultant had apparently timed the two inductions that day to be delivered after his golf round the next morning. I turned up at 4.30am and the other wasn't far behind; Mum said that he had a rather busy night as his calculations of labour went very awry. I think her first labour in the early 1950s, in a local hospital in Iran, was less fuss.

My first labour was 2hrs 45 mins, second labour 1hr 30, third labour 35 mins. Labours 1 and 3 ended up in crash sections after getting to full dilation, baby's heartbeat decelerated in every labour, plus meconium everytime.

I'm naturally quite a quiet and reserved person and I don't like making a scene or a fuss but in order to be admitted to the labour assessment ward each time I've had to have essentially an enormous tantrum to be listened to. It's always been justified as the baby has been born within an hour or less and I've been terrified throughout as I felt completely dismissed by the midwives.

Yes, I am a quiet person, and quiet in pain and had to make a huge effort to get noticed when I would have preferred to get on with it.

I did get into hospital with my twins, but DH nearly had to deliver the first as we were left on our own whilst they got the trolley, and DTD2 - no one (except DH who alerted them) was actually looking at what was happening, and that was in the delivery room you would have thought that having been caught out once, the midwife would have been a little more vigilant.

I was at the hospital for an antenatal appointment when I went into labour - saw the consultant who was very blase, said to go home and wait a few hours, see how things went...

This was when I was having contractions back to back with no break, maybe 30 seconds if I was lucky. With ds1 I had been induced due to PE and although he had been slow to get started, he came very suddenly and was a surprise to all the medical staff around.

With ds2 the mw was well aware of my previous history, she and the other midwives had already ordered a porter to take me up to the delivery area (no way was I walking anywhere!) and rushing around digging out an emergency birth kit in case ds2 came before the porter arrived and I gave birth in the outpatient area... I made it upstairs to the delivery unit and ds2 arrived 25 minutes later.

MWs were not surprised to hear that the consultant had sent me away despite being in very obvious strong labour. Which was great that the MW had recognised that I was in labour and dealt with me appropriately - but very scary that the consultant hadn't, even when I had said I thought I was in labour, when the out patient mw's had said so and that they had ignored his instructions not to admit me. Sadly later read in the local paper about how he had been hauled up in front of his professional body and at a coroners court after his actions/lack of actions had led to the unnecessary deaths of a couple of babies

Oh and dsis when she was having dc3, she felt like something was going to happen, told mum (who was staying with her to look after the other dc) who had then gone up to put the other dc to bed, dsis called her dh who was working (they live on a farm) - he came straight back, jumped into the shower, then delivered dc3 on the kitchen floor...

They had called the emergency services for help - the ambulance couldn't find the house initially but eventually did and took dsis and niece into hospital - where despite the fact that dsis was hemorrhaging they were very reluctant to admit her, as she hadn't given birth there and that home births weren't supposed to go in afterwards as it screwed up their numbers or something. They completely missed the point that it was not supposed to be a home birth - there was no qualified anybody there to help or check that things had gone properly (they weren't by the time she got to the hospital) and she needed help. She ended up staying in for several days as she was really quite ill afterwards - who knows what would have happened if they had refused to admit her as they were trying to do or if she had taken their 'advice' and gone home without being checked out

I have another positive story with lovely midwives. I went 6 days ‘overdue’ and on day 5 my community midwife offered me a sweep, she said I was 4cm and could have broken my waters if needed - this meant nothing to me at the time and I hadn’t had a contraction so I toddled off to someone’s work leaving do . The next morning I woke up with cramps and sent my husband off to work, at 11am I figured they were contractions and called him back home. Rang the maternity unit who told me to go for a walk, have a bath and call them back when the contractions were 3 in 10 mins or I couldn’t cope without pain relief. At about 5pm in the bath I decided enough was enough and I couldn’t cope anymore so I called them back, the midwifes response was ‘I’ve been thinking about you, you still don’t sound that far gone but it’s been a while, come in’. It’s about 30 mins to the hospital so after faff got to the midwife unit just before shift change around 6.30ish they checked I was OK and happy to wait until shift change to be examined, which I was. When the new midwife came in about 45 mins later my waters promptly broke in front of her, she found I was 6cm, which I though was pretty depressing having been at 4cm over 24 hours earlier. She agreed it was enough to get in the pool though so more faff while they ran it, as soon as I got in the water I totally relaxed. Being midwife led they left me to it aside from 15 minute checks, at the first one I demanded gas and air, she warned me that it might be a bit early but respected my wishes and gave it to me, at the next check she said ‘that sounds a wee bit pushy’ at the third one she said ‘ooh a head’ and rang the buzzer!
I never did have 3 contractions in 10 minutes! But they listened to me, I knew when I was in the bath at home that something had changed and it was time to go. The midwives respected my request and fortunately my main one had seen hypnobirthing before and wasn’t totally swayed by the fact I was making almost no noise. The other midwife who was in for the delivery was really surprised.