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.

Was induced with DD and because I was handling the contractions well, the midwives didn't think I was in labour. It was only when I pretty much jackknifed in pain that they decided to check, and within minutes I was in a wheelchair being rushed to the delivery suite.

Yes. I was told I had wet myself (they were proven wrong when they actually examined me). First baby. They were trying to send me home despite me saying the baby was coming. Thank goodness I didn’t try to as the baby was then born rapidly in a 12 minute labour and needed support to breathe. I’m very anxious about this pregnancy as a result and just hope I am believed this time.

Not exactly, but they were very reluctant to examine me, went through a shift changing, faffed... when they got round to it an hour later the speculum touched DD’s head, I was 10cm.

I was very calm, quiet etc and I think a few judicious screams wouldn’t have gone amiss.

Rest of my care was exceptional.

I'm in a slightly different situation. Am awaiting medical induction due to GD and possible early plancetal failure and my labour ward is too busy to admit me.

Of course I'm pretty frustrated (and scared) but appreciate that someone in actual labour needs to be prioritised.

I went in with DC2 and was 4cm upon admission. I must have been handling it well as there was debate about whether or not I could take the last birthing suite as there was someone else who ask needed it (3cm and first baby, the MW's unprofessionally discussed it in front of me)..... I had baby about 5 mins after getting in the room and yes I made sure I had the room

"We purposely dont check so we dont have to meet the deadline times that are laid down once we find they are dilated" is deeply disturbing. Talk of "buying time" makes me wonder who is paying the bill for the time you are buying.

I went to hospital at 6.30pm and was worried that I was going to get sent home again because I was answering the midwives questions (I'd kept reading that if you could talk through the contractions you were sent home)

But my contractions were about 3 mins apart and I was 5cms dilated when I was officially booked in at 7.20pm

I then had DD at 10.22pm.

When I was in labour with my first,, 40 odd years ago, a woman came in screaming and carrying on enough to scare the life out of me. Midwife said she wasn't in labour and sent her home. She went home on the back of her husband's motorbike and was back within the hour in labour.

Don't know if she was in labour the first time or if the motorbike did the trick.

This is all very terrifying, I'm 35 weeks pg with my first. I'm not very assertive and usually believe that professionals know best. Some of the advice given here is very helpful, thank you.

I had this with Ds2. No idea if I was in labour despite frequent and increasing contractions because my waters hadn't broken. Midwife wanted to send me home for a bath . But I stayed and gave birth 20mins later with waters intact.
Ds1 was induced and took chuffing ages.
A friend gave birth in the corridor on the way in.

As some other posters have said, we are generally only going to hear about the occasions where someone is sent away in labour, and gives birth very shortly afterwards - we aren't going to hear about mothers who are sent away and who aren't about to give birth imminently - so we don't know whether it is a big percentage of women who are sent away who go on to give birth within minutes or a couple of hours, or whether it is a very small percentage of those who are sent away. I'm sure there are also cases where the midwife decides to keep a woman in hospital, because she thinks birth is imminent, and that decision is wrong - but no-one minds them erring on the side of caution.

I think it is also a result of the cutbacks in the NHS - fewer staff and fewer beds means more people being turned away, and also means that the staff may not be able to take enough time to make the right decision every time - not that that makes it any better when the wrong decision is made.

But I am sure that no midwife wants to send a woman away, to give birth in the car park or a hotel room or on the bathroom floor.

Went into labour at around 8.30pm, rang hospital 10.30pm and told them I was as having contractions 4/5 mins apart, was told to have a bath and take paracetamol. Couldn’t get out of the bath because of the pain, ex DH drove me to the hospital at 11.30pm, arrived at just before midnight, wheelchair to labour ward as I felt the baby was going to be born if I stood up. Laid on the bed in delivery, midwife popped the waters, 2 pushes later and DS was born at 10 minutes past midnight. I wish that they would listen more to pregnant women, most of us have the intelligence to know when we are in labour.

Pengggwn

Thank you, you're 100% correct. I feel much better now :)

We simply don't have the resources to cope with admitting every woman whose convinced she's in labour

Most people convinced they're in labour are frightened and in pain. I think hospitals should be there for those vulnerable women.

I think we should be paying for those women to be looked after. I want to pay more tax for that to happen and for the nhs to be set up to cope with that.

The alternative is belittling, demeaning, and rubbishing a pregnant woman's feelings - I'd like to fucking avoid that at all costs.

For balance @aahbidah86, I had my first on New Year’s Day. Apart from my top tip being give birth on a day with no scheduled inductions or caesareans :) , I experienced no problems being admitted. In fact, I was trying to birth at home and was with the homebirth team. I was only a few cm dilated when the home birth midwife left me, but then a few hours later had thick meconium. I walked into the ward, was admitted straight away, they knew I was coming, straight onto wireless monitoring and someone was with me the whole time. It does happen that women get sent away then swiftly give birth, but it is still an exception rather than the rule. Of course this thread will have people’s similar experience which makes it seem like it happens to everyone. It does happen, but not always everywhere as a rule

You can see why some people go the unassisted route, tbh. (Please note, that is not me recommending unassisted birth!)

Reading this thread and the article has made me so angry and catapulted me back to that awful feeling of impotence and resentment that comes when, as a pregnant woman, you are treated as a complete idiot who cannot possibly know anything about what is happening with your own body. And I think I've had good experiences overall- god knows how traumatic it has been for women whose concerns were roundly dismissed and then went on to have those awful experiences. And then the added insult of people brushing off that trauma and doing that horrible "but you and the baby are both alive and that's really all that matters, how you felt and feel are just not important" thing.

reetgood I gave birth on New Year's Day. When I phoned late on NYEve they told me they were very busy and to leave it as long as I could. When I got there, as the clocks were striking in the New Year, it was really quiet and midwives were sitting round with tea and cakes. My labour was long, they always were, but all going well when my midwife left at 8 am and she said she was sorry she couldn't hang on as she had childcare issues. Midwives and doctors coming on were moaning about handovers, headaches and tiredness. Shortly after my midwife left I had an emergency section. Dreadful shortage of linen on the wards, no physio to see me. Definitely my worst childbirth experience. So it shows how things can vary.

What did give us all a laugh was the father who was so drunk they had to wheel another bed into the room and he woke up to find his wife had given birth while he slept it off. Actually I don't think his wife found it that funny.

This happened to me in 2016. Went in after contractions started, put me on the monitor, said nothing was happening and to go home. I refused as was my second baby I knew she was wrong.

I was in agony and went to the toilet and could feel the babies head. Pulled the cord midwife came in ready to tell me off. Told her I could feel the head and she bundled me onto the bed and he was born shortly afterwards.

@reetgood

Thank you for this :)

@grannytomine I wish it wasn’t such a lottery! I also ended up with a c section, 36 hours after waters went (undiagnosed breech detected when I was 9cm dilated). But the difference was the care I got prioritised my ability to make decisions. They gave me the option of continuing with vaginal birth for example. I was knackered and opted for the c section, consultant afterwards said ‘that was a good call’ :), I agreed! But the thing of listening to me made a big difference in my experience. It could have been a distressing experience, but it wasn’t. I sense that’s a big thing for women who are turned away. If midwife said ‘we would advise x, you can do x or y’ it would probably feel better than point blank ‘no you are not in labour etc’

To those saying "oh it affects a minority of women, this thread is attracting those who had the same experience" I think you're completely wrong. I would happily wager it affects a vast majority of women in the UK - as I said, so many of my friends had the same experience. These are well-educated, articulate people who were being ignored and brushed off because of incompetent midwives.

Here's yet another article about two doctors who were in the same situation which resulted in the stillbirth of their baby: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5264471/Mourning-couple-open-legal-battle-NHS.html

There is a reason the UK has an unacceptably high number of stillbirths.

For first timers reading this, another point you must be aware of - only ever told to me by a doctor friend btw, not a midwife - is if it's been more than around 24 hours since your waters have broken the chances of your baby picking up an infection rise considerably and this can lead to stillbirth.

So insist. Make a fuss. Scream. Moo like a cow if you have to. Do whatever you have to do to make sure you get the treatment you need.

I think it's a tricky thing. For every person who has a quick birth there are plenty like me - Spent four days in labour, eventually was induced, I was told to come to hospital after 3 days of contractions as soon as my waters broke.

It's not reasonable to keep every woman in hospital when it might be days before they give birth.

better maternity care could save the nhs a whole lot of money

My job literally consists of talking to women who've been through the maternity system in my county in the last two years about their experiences and it's most definitely not the majority of women who experience this - perhaps this county is better than others, but I doubt it's significantly different here from other places. It does happen, but it's not even close to happening to most women.

I agree that it's important to trust your body and advocate for yourself, but the suggestion that the majority of women who experience childbirth are fobbed off and ignored is simply not true in my experience. That's not to say it's acceptable when it does happen of course.