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.

OP, there are a lot of upsetting stories here - you do have to remember that for every one of these, there are many women who are sent home and don't need to go back for a day or more. Try not to worry too much about this.

I had a higher risk pregnancy because I was having twins. The staff were amazing. They saw me in day assessment because I had a bit of leaking overnight and I wasn't sure if it was my waters, and I didn't "feel right" (I felt very unwell but hard to define). My midwife literally insisted I go in and booked an appointment for me. The first midwife I saw was extremely kind and hooked me up to monitors, doctor came in to do a swab - it became obvious to them (although not to me!) that there was something wrong very quickly. They quickly and calmly moved me to delivery, got a line into me, set up better monitors, did a scan and took me to theatre for a section. I arrived at the hospital at 17:30 and my twins were out by 20:45 (and it only took that long because there was a major issue getting my spinal in). They honestly couldn't have done any more. It's not always like this.

Maternity care in this country is seriously lacking. Women in labour are not listened to, and are often treated as if they know least about what their bodies are doing.
I have a cousin who was turned away repeatedly in labour, and in the end her daughter was still born. It was such a devastating experience for her, and all the while she knew her body was trying to push, but something was wrong, and instead of checking her properly, they sent her away as being too early in labour. There has been similar cases in the media like this too.
My sister rang the ward to be told she was 'too soon', yet half an hour later gave birth to her son on the bathroom floor, and the birth of my first child was an horrendous experience, as I was 2 days in dysfunctional labour, refused an epidural until I reached 5cm, and wasn't until the 3rd day they realised this was not going anywhere.
My sil went private both times, she went in as soon as she felt the first twinge. Epidural straight away, no telling her she had to wait another ten hours. Her every word was listened to with upmost respect and care, and she felt very much in control on both ocassions. Far unlike many I know. She would certainly not have hesitated to do it again.

I've just remembered something else that I'll bet doesn't happen any more: when I had my children in the 1970s in hospital, the ward nurses and sister always had time to chat to the mothers and pick up the babies and cuddle them. I remember the ward sister sitting with me and holding my new born and talking to her. I bet that, due to staff shortages, there is none of that any more.

I feel very strongly about this.

I was in labour for four days, with contractions between 3 and 7 minutes apart lasting for 45-60 each.

I went to hospital twice, and was turned away, On the fourth day, having not been able topee for 20hours, I had a community midwife appointment I had hoped she would listen to me but no - didn't take my failure to porivde a urine sample seriously and sent me home. I went back to hospital that evening and insisted on being seen. Only then did one (lovely!) midwife realise my baby was back to back, and blocking my bladder. And that she was distressed and my waters had been slowly leaking for 2 days.

Had I not been bolshy enough to ignore the triage midwives who told me "it's your first, go home, you should have hired a TENS machine" my daughter could have died.

As it was I was then catheterised and monitored and ended up with an EMCS when the SHO finally was able to see me, overruled midwife in terms of letting me continue to labour (or not labour, it was like schrodingers labour) and whipped me into theatre signing consent forms as we went.

At no point in thoe whole process was I trusted. I am well educated and professionally bolshy, and I felt ignored and over powered - midwives must listen to mothers.

One of the problems is, for every woman who is 2cm, is sent home and has a baby an hour later; there is a woman who is 2cm, determined to be in labour making a big fuss but stays 2cm for days. It is almost impossible to predict which of those the woman sat in front of you is and the policy you are given to work with is that you cannot admit a woman who is a) not at least 4cm dilated and b) not contracting regularly because there physically isn’t room for them or the staff to look after them. If you’ve been in a few times and really aren’t coping, then if there is room you might be offered pethidine on the antenatal ward.

It’s a shitty situation but we simply do not have the resources to keep every woman who is convinced she is in labour.

I agree, we can't. But we could try actually listening to their symptoms - and not simply assuming that midwives know better than mothers what is happening to them. The fact I hadn't urinated for 20+ hours could have possibly tipped the 2 midwives I told about this off to the fact something was amiss...

So true whoareyoukidding.
While languishing on my overcrowded ward with DD1, I was next to a lady who had travelled here to give birth to her 10th child. She had travelled here for the other 9 before...no questions asked. Just rocks up and checks in. She had plenty of company too..so yes, there was certainly little time for nurses to stop & chat. But that's another tangent of course...

Sorry Catching babies this post is not against you personally but a midwife writing "if we don't check and don't know it buys you more time" is one of the most disturbing things I have seen written on Mumsnet in a while; also the sincere belief that ignorance is good practice.

Let's not pretend this is about what is best for a mother and baby; it's about lack of resources and inadequate budgets. And women (who generally put up and shut up) getting a raw deal.

I was refused pain relief because I was told I wasn't in advanced labour. After 2 hours of repeatedly asking to be examined and being in an open day unit bay with no privacy they finally did and I was 10cm dilated and pushing.

I'm pissed of at going through childbirth without pain relief against my will.

subtle I quite agree, and while I get what catching was getting at, this notion that 'we're doing it for your own good really' approach to not listening to women is at the heart of what I feel is wrong. We are infantilised through maternity provision with a sense that midwife knows best (I witnessed the stand up argument between my midwife and the SHO about my own labour) Women are considered the last ones who might know what is happening to us.

I was told with my first and second that I didn’t look like I was in enough pain to be in labour both babies born around an hour later.

With my third I was actually listened to and it was an amazing experience, she came just as quickly.

This happened to a friend of mine, almost gave birth in the waiting room as the midwives didn’t believe she needed to push. First baby and all that.

Not me, I have really long labours. My second was four times as long as my first. So much for second labours being quicker.

I agree with lots of what catching babies said and indeed my previous posts cover some of the same points. However I strongly disagree about not examining women who present in labour - I always take time to palpate contractions for 10 minutes first to get an idea of what is happening if she is not obviously appearing as in established labour. So long as she is contracting, then I would examine if the woman wishes me to do so. If contractions have stopped then I would advise she goes for a walk or lunch etc nearby then comes back if contractions establish again.

I am genuinely shocked at how many women here have presented to hospital in labour and been denied an examination, I have honestly never heard of this in my hospital.

I agree MissDuke. I have been told by LWCs not to examine women before though. Although have always found a reason to do it anyway!

Similar stories to here, I wasn't sent away but was strongly discouraged from coming in with the expectation I'd be sent away because I was able to talk through my contractions. I just knew I had to go. Luckily they had space for me to be observed for a bit then when they checked I was 6 cm and could stay. I didn't have a show till I was on the unit and my waters didn't break till I was 10 cm so they were useless indicators for me! I did hypnobirthing too and spent the whole time in the pool with my eyes closed not making a sound till it came to pushing but even then I didn't scream, noise shouldn't be an indication of labour! When I watched the hypnobirthing video I thought it was bollocks and didn't believe that you could have a quiet birth until it happened to me.

Nearly happened to me - 34 weeks pregnant, crying in pain, got to the hospital and some trainee doctor tried telling me I had a urine infection and went to get something to help it! 10 minutes later I'm screaming in pain asking them if i could be in labour "no chance - too early" (like babies are never born early!!) Luckily a senior doctor walked past the room and heard me screaming and came in asked about the situation - was shocked that I hadn't been looked at properly and made him check me - I was over 5cm dilated. Thank god that woman walked past or I could have had my baby at home with no one around.
It's disgusting that they all just try to fob you off and send you home just because it suits them!

I think the problem is there are far too many 'cursory' examinations, and just because contractions are not consistent, does not mean the woman is not in established labour or not in 'enough' pain. Pain is very much subjective, who is anyone to determine that, but the woman herself! I am still angry at being denied pain relief for two days, by a large brash heavy handed midwife, who practically laughed at my insistence that something must be wrong. When I was finally given an epidural on the 3rd day, it was administered incorrectly and did not take effect. When they finally realised what had happened, I was told my daughter needed to be delivered quickly, as she was showing signs of distress. It was a dysfunctional labour I was told afterwards, and from what I can gather, this is quite common. So it is dangerous to simply bracket women on the basis of what 'should' be happening, as opposed to what 'is' happening. And in that regard, the woman herself surely knows best!

On the topic of pain thresholds, it is also common that dysfunctional labours can be particularly painful. I was mocked by my midwife for not coping very well, after 2 days of slow painful dilation, and I knew something was just not right.
With my 2nd, while I had a long labour, it was not dysfunctional, and I had no pain relief whatsoever. I was simply very much in control, and managed my pain by being focused and calm. Just myself and OH all the way through. No derisory midwives mocking me or telling me they knew best. It was wonderful.

It happened to me last year, first baby so didn't know what to expect, went up to hospital after speaking to them and deciding that the contractions were right to go in, was sent home and told I was still going to have to be induced nect day, after a couple of calls where I was told I wasn't in enough pain and the pushing my body was doing wasn't my body giving birth we requested to come back to the hospital so I could get some pain relief,
on the way out the door my waters broke and after a 40min drive I got to the hospital and got to the maternity unit I was told that I didn't sound like I was in labour...

9 mins after we got to the hospital baby was born in the triage room as there was no time to get to a delivery suite so they had to get an emergency delivery kit.

After the nurse that had robbed me off repeatedly earlier in the day and on the phone said that I must have had a high pain threshold and would be a good candidate for a home birth (nearly was if we hadn't been so forceful in the end)

Overall wasn't a great experience, I didn't have the chance for anything to help with the pain and I was really annoyed with being fobbed off and treated as if i was an annoyance, I wonder if all the damage done would have been less severe if I had been more relaxed for the birth.

I think going on pain is barking up the wrong tree.

I had contractions with DS1 every 3 minutes and they rapidly got the the point where I could not do anything but breathe through them and wait for the end, then I did not have enough time to recover to tell DH to call the midwife (I was in hospital as I the midwife told me to come in because my waters had broken, but she said I was not dilated at all).

With my second, early labour with twins, I did not have any pain at all. My waters were intact. I knew I was having contractions every 3 minutes because I had had them before and recognised the 'pulling' feeling around my lower abdomen. There was nothing until I went to the loo and it felt that all my insides were falling out as I reached full dilation with the weight of 2 babies and all their accompaniments. So glad I stood my ground. They were born without problem, but DD1 needed oxygen a while later as her lungs were sticky.

Luckily I was induced both times so was already at the hospital.

First I was induced and had my DD in 8 hours but no one was interested in examining me until I ran to the loo ‘needing a poo’ and a clown car of doctors ran in.

Second time I was induced, I was on antenatal for 3 days without a sniff of a contraction. Dr gave me an aggressive sweep and told me to come back in 2 days time to attempt induction again. I just knew something was going to happen and asked to stay. They weren’t against it as such but didn’t think it was necessary.

Fast forward half an hour I was contracting mildly so they took me to labour ward and broke my waters. 1 hour after that I said I was near as I felt the urge to poo again but the midwife was having none of it so I screamed bloody murder until she did and hey ho, my DS was born start to finish in 2 hrs 46 mins.

If I have a third I’m either requesting induction or camping out at the labour ward from the first contraction!

Doesn't surprise me that it happens a lot. The human body is a law unto itself and impossible to predict. And women know their own bodies best, ignore it at your peril.

I was examined during labour and knew I was ready to push. MW disagreed as was only 4cm at last check about an hour previously but agreed student MW could examine me. She put her hand in and I pushed and out came baby, her head in the student MW hand.