Before home pregnancy testing was available you still must have known you were pregnant?

[Skydiving]

I have a colleague, almost 60, who claims that when she had her dc, 30-40 years ago, pregnancy tests for home use weren’t really available, and no one knew they were pregnant until about 12 weeks.
Supposedly, the gp wouldn’t see you to ‘confirm it’ until you had missed two periods. So according to her, you just continued as normal (drinking, smoking etc etc) until you had missed at least two periods, and could get a gp appointment, making you about 10-12 weeks.

Now I know times were different, but, I think even if this business about the gp not seeing you was true, you would still know that you were pregnant. You would have to have a serious lack of awareness of your own body not to notice the tiredness, sickness and every other bloody symptom. And even if you are the one in a million that gets no symptoms, the missed period would give it away surely?

I don’t know if it’s just a different time now, and people get over excited about very early pregnancy, and very upset when they miscarry (I’ve had one myself), whereas in the past they didn’t take things as a given so much.
Or is it because if you don’t know you are pregnant by test confirmation, maybe the symptoms seem less because you aren’t fixating on them.
Or is my colleague just talking bollocks?

Could have been at the doctors surgery though?

I remember using a pregnancy testing kit from the chemist, in 1979. I went to a well-woman clinic to have my pregnancy confirmed one week after the home kit tested positive and they did the test on the spot, and it was positive :)

why is it bollocks-there was no test to buy so u had to wait

some people knew some didnt

I only knew I was pregnant the second time because I went off the taste of coffee - normally I love it.
I don’t think most women made any real lifestyle changes before the 1990s. You just carried on as normal, smoking and drinking if that was what you did, unless it made you feel sick.

I think very early testing has created lots of misery around miscarriages which weren’t really a thing when I had my family unless it was a late miscarriage
. I did pregnancy test but at about 8 weeks. I didn’t book with GP until about 15 weeks. With first I went to maternity unit and spoke to Midwife about booking at 10 weeks and they laughed and told me to come back when I knew I was going to stay pregnant.
I had a Midwife friend who was in labour before she realised.
I had bloods at 16 weeks and scan at 18 weeks.

Thinking about it, I’m not sure I’d have even known my MC was a MC. I bled for two-three times as long as a period but no pain, passed no scary clots... just a late period.
Mine was two gestational sacs that never developed but somehow hung on for ages as a MMC (I had had scans before so knew it was almost certainly coming) ... Alternatively, if I’d been having regular cycles (and remember, historically or “naturally” with more women breastfeeding for longer regular cycles are not a given at all) I’d have known but thought I was actually having an 11 week loss and would have expected to see something that looked like a baby pass?
I am glad I know exactly what happened to me but it’s not necessarily done me any good, maybe thinking of it as a late period wouldn’t have been so bad.
But anyway, yeah ... could have well not known. Except I was trying and able to test obsessively.

My MIL refused to believe I was pg, because I’d only missed two periods (yes she did ask) and hadn’t had an internal at the dr. In fact she refused to believe it for months. She was horrified I announced it to family at 8 weeks. How could I know? Why didn’t the DR give me an internal? Obviously not pregnant if this hadn’t happened.

I could have easily got to 10 or so weeks without realising, and to be fair, maybe even 12-14 weeks.

Yes i was tired, but lots of things make you tired, including having a toddler.

One thing you forget is the lack of information generally available, many women didn't know the minutiae of detail that we do about early pregnancy. Often the only clue was the missed period, and the nausea.

But many women aren't sick, and I get terrible boob ache and bloating with periods, and so would just assume I was hormonal and pre-period, not necessarily that I was pregnant

My mum is 75 and she often remarks on how our current early testing. She doesn't think it does us any favours, just causing lots of heartache. because she had late periods, but we have a miscarriage, and that is much more traumatic, as you knew for sure you had a baby. (and I speak as one who had had mcs)

My mum says in the early seventies you didn’t really ‘know’ until you’d missed two periods and had a doctor feel for uterine swelling ( not sure if she meant internal or not)
There weren’t any tests or scans then apparently

My DM was told she would not be able to have any more children after me. Then at 43 she had a pregnancy test, and the positive result came through on the day she miscarried. She said in retrospect she realised a number of heavy late periods she'd had had in fact been miscarriages.

So although the last one she'd clearly suspected she was pregnant, in all the previous ones she hadn't felt pregnant at the time.

The first time I ever did a pregnancy test 30 years ago it was like a weird little chemistry set!

Do you mean like this?

www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1AZAA_enGB745GB745&biw=1366&bih=635&tbm=isch&sa=1&ei=FasuW-jlJo-vgAa5h6zwDw&q=1970s+pregnancy+tests&oq=1970s+pregnancy+tests&gs_l=img.3...86040.90643.0.91205.16.10.0.0.0.0.175.1003.5j5.10.0....0...1c.1.64.img..9.2.319...0j0i67k1j0i7i30k1j0i8i7i30k1.0.yw6Z7vnCqfs#imgdii=5eaugzevkJXtXM:&imgrc=Ikl_hfBS7z5DoM:

DS was born in late '83 and yes I had to wait until I'd missed two periods before the doctor would test. And missed periods were the only symptoms I had. He was a (very welcome) surprise so I really wasn't 'watching' for signs anyway. And there was an internal exam at the first visit to determine how far along I was.

With DS2 in 1988, the doctor had a free 'drop by pee test' where you just went by and gave them a sample and they called you with the results later that day.

The 'POAS' type test didn't come around until 1988. Before then it was a bit more complicated.

Brief history of the home pregnancy test:

www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/magazine/who-made-that-home-pregnancy-test.html

I miscarried at 8 weeks. I had few signs other than the missed period, but there would have been no way I could have mistaken my miscarriage for a late period. I would have certainly known I had been pregnant.

My mother was the last woman in our local hospital to give birth having had no scans at all! She was 36 and they were disgusted with her for having such a late baby.
She said she had to miss 3 periods before the drs would test, and the test involved a toad. Not sure if it’s the same toad.

I would have known. I get very early symptoms.
I have children in their mid twenties. Back then pg tests were really expensive (I know some still are but you can also get them in the Pound Shop ). You had to wait until after your period was due. So by the time it was a week late you knew you had a pretty good chance of being up the duff.
GPs had only just stopped confirming home pregnancy tests. I know it was around that time because everyone still believed you had to get the doctor to test you again.

I worked in A&E when I was pg with my DC1 so one of the nurses did my test on the very sensitive medical grade kids. Can't remember what they were called but they were a little round pot with a disc at the top. You would get a spot if it was positive. I still have it in the loft somewhere.

My mum's 58 and described early pregnancy tests to me. You initially had to go to the chemist (when she was in her teens) so frequently poor girls went on the bus to different towns lest Mrs Smith from number 92 overhear them in the local pharmacy.

Home pregnancy tests were available by the time she was early 20s, but were a complex mini Chemistry kit that had to be left on a windowsill for hours and checked for a ring to appear. Again, very stressful as mums would find them and cats would knock them over!

My grandma is in her late 70s and had lots and lots of miscarriages at 10-12 weeks. She definitely knew she was pregnant and grieved each baby, but it wasn't possible to have had the pregnancies confirmed until 12 or even 14 weeks, as you had to be several days past expected period date to count as "missed".

This is fascinatinghistory.nih.gov/exhibits/thinblueline/timeline.html although I think it might be American. Amazing science though.

I wouldn't have known without a test as I sailed through both my pregnancies without any symptoms - no sickness tiredness, achiness, cravings - I only knew I was pregnant as I had a huge bump! When I had DS1 nearly 15 years ago, we didn't have 12 weeks scans so I just carried along presuming I was pregnant until I had my 20 week scan (by which time I did have a bump!)

Lots of women were in tune with their bodies and would have strongly suspected or been pretty sure they were pregnant....but the official confirmation obviously came much later back then.

Other people, then as now, had irregular periods and could go several months without suspecting they were pregnant.

Perhaps then, people did less 'trying' for a baby and more just seeing what happened....so less timing everything to the nth degree, so then they were less on the look out for every little symptom on a particular day.....everything wasn't so precise because it couldn't be, and because of that, fewer people knew dead on 4 weeks, and another week or 2 or 3 could slip by pretty easily. And if you weren't officially pregnant until 10 weeks then perhaps people didn't think about it so much early on as now, especially bearing in mind people got married young and so some if the fertility problems of today were less likely....they were in their late teens and early 20s and having children was just the norm and would happen at some point, so where was no need to chart everything and test on the first possible day, because most of them were highly fertile and pregnancy just happened quickly, and miscarriage was very much a part of life and although sad, expected and those young women just expected to get on and be pregnant again in a few months because there was plenty of time. And if you haven't tested at 6 weeks and then have a heavy period, you might wonder if you had actually been pregnant, but you hadn't invested 4 weeks since sex in weeing on sticks and 2 weeks planning a new babies wardrobe. It was just different.

And the smoking and drinking....lim always surprised by how quickly people forget what normal culture a few years before was. Yes, it was totLly normal to keep smoking until perhaps the 1970s and even then when it was discouraged, it wasn't seen as a shocking harmful thing to do to your baby. And as for drinking, it's pretty recently thath S advice has been Not to drink at all. Women would certainly have been drinking, often heavily whilst trying to get pregnant and bearing in mind many didn't know they were pregnant until later, they didn't ease off until later.

Again some of it comes down to most women having kids in their late teens and early 20s....women were more carefree because they were young. Motherhood didn't seem a big thing you needed to read 8 books about and go to loads of classes for and plan 3 years in advance for....it was like 18 year olds going off to uni today...they just do it.

Times change. You only need to watch Call the Midwife to see the Doctor smoking in his surgery whilst seeing patients, the very young wives and the culture of smoking and drinking to see how 50 years can change a lot. We all do the best with the information we have available to us at the time.

I don’t think most women made any real lifestyle changes before the 1990s

They definitely did! My daughter was born in 1989 and my friends' babies were born before her, but none of us drank or smoked from the minute we were trying for a baby - that was normal in our group.

DM didn't know she was pregnant with me till 3 months gone - she'd missed her period and felt a bit queesy but tests kept coming up negative so she assumed she wasn't pregnant and went rock climbing and did ski school before getting a positive test. It was the 80s so tests were probably a lot less sensitive.

I believe that internal exams are still (now) the norm in USA all the way thru pregnancy (for what purpose I do not know).

Sets of surprise twins in my family, born 1942 & 1958. My mother's diary is fully of entries doctor saying she was getting too fat in her pregnancy in 1958.

Puzzledandpissedoff Yes! That does look familiar - I remember the plastic box in which you balanced the test tube and a dark ring appeared at the bottom if you were pregnant, which you could see reflected! Thanks - what a trip down memory lane I'm calling my DH to have a nostalgic look!

I miscarried at 8 weeks. I had few signs other than the missed period, but there would have been no way I could have mistaken my miscarriage for a late period. I would have certainly known I had been pregnant.

I am very sorry for your loss. But every miscarriage is different. I have had 4, all at different stages, and only the later 2 would have been recognisably a miscarriage. The earlier ones (8 weeks and 6 weeks) could have been a heavy period.
I do have very heavy periods anyway, so maybe that makes a difference in noticing it.

I am very sensitive to changes in my body, to tastes, smells and hormonal surges. I knew immediately with both of my pregnancies, my breasts hurt, I felt sick, I had heartburn and my favourite cup of tea and coffee tasted so vile that I was immediately sick! I also was so sensitive to smell, to the point that my dh had to scrub his aftershave and deodorant off before coming near me as the smell made me sick!

In fact, with my second (dd), my two year old ds told me I was pregnant with his baby sister, he was so sure and never changed his stance! He was 100% right! I had implantation bleeding and thought I was losing our baby, I hadn’t had a period since before ds was conceived due to extended breastfeeding (ds was 18 months), so was sent for a scan two days later, I was 4 weeks and 5 days pregnant. The sonographer actually asked how I knew I was pregnant as most woman wouldn’t have/ realised they had missed their period yet.

Because of how sensitive I am, I do find it strange that women can be pregnant for sometimes nine months and not even realise! Especially once baby is moving! I would imagine that most women were aware that they were pregnant, even if they couldn’t actually confirm it with their G.P until 12 weeks. I guess it’s similar in that when I contacted my local midwife to say I was pregnant, I was advised to make an appointment for ten weeks.

This post has just made me realise why my DH's birth does not add up. He was told he was born 6 weeks early and was a honeymoon baby. But he weighed over 8lb at birth. This has always bothered me but it's only just occurred to me reading these posts that my incredibly straight laced strict Catholic MIL might have been pregnant when she walked down the aisle