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?

Oddly nappies cost more per pack in 1995 than they do now. They were at least £5 a pack and packs were smaller.
We used to buy huggies in bulk from Toysrus, they came in a plastic storage box, which were great for a toy box.

Yep in 1994 I had one scan at about 21 weeks. DH was being totally ambivalent about the baby at the time and really pissing me off because baby was very much planned.

After the scan he was very excited and commited like it had only just become real to him. It was extremely annoying. An earlier scan would have saved us no end of bickering.

Dh missed the first scan in 95 as he had a car accident that morning. Although ended up in hospital with pre eclampsia from 32 weeks and was scanned weekly from then on. I was sent for a dopler scan at UCL at 36 weeks which monitered the blood flow to the baby

My mum knew she was pregnant with me and my siblings about a week after getting pregnant she said when she was 6 weeks with me she was up a ladder painting the nursery pink because she knew it was a girl she is a bit eccentric though

One of my friends didn’t know she was pregnant until she went into labour. The signs were all there but misinterpreted. Her short bout of morning sickness coincided with our whole house taking it in turns getting a vomiting bug (we were living together at uni) missed periods were due to stress as her bf had been attacked and very seriously wounded, weight gain was due to comfort eating after said attack when bf was in hospital. Baby didn’t really move a lot so missed kicks etc. Then one afternoon she went into labour.

Not everyone misses periods. My mum was almost 5 months gone before she knew she were pregnant with me - no symptoms, still bleeding monthly.

Some peoples periods are all over the place! When I was having dd (2001) there was a woman in next bed with pcos, fertility struggles, didn't know until she was 8.5 months! And yes 12 week scan for me then.

Even my first pregnancy in 1991 pregnancy tests were still quite expensive, not everyone bought them, I did as I was scared, I was single (had broken up with father a few weeks before), young (18) and living as a lodger. Women still didn't completely trust home tests (which were a bit more complex than poas then too) and went to dr for 'confirmation'. Home test was positive, but yes it was still very much the norm to go to dr to confirm. In my case I had confirmation one week, the following week had to go back to confirm mc. Definitely not like a "late period" very painful, lots of bleeding and clots. Not pleasant. But yes, I know not everyone's experiences are the same.

When you add in - women/girls not being taught about puberty, sex, conception it's really NOT surprising.

You may find this enlightening:

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clearblue

It was chemistry lab style test I had to use with first pregnancy.

"A quick Google says the first home tests were available in the mid-70s." Doesn't mean:

A They were available everywhere - look how long it takes even now for a newly designed/invented product to reach everywhere

B they were affordable for most, new products tend to be quite expensive until they become popular enough to justify mass production which reduces cost

C women were still quite self conscious about buying such products, they weren't just on a shelf in the supermarket like they are now - I went into the next town rather than buying in my village pharmacists - where the assistant KNEW EVERYONE - and worse Gossiped!

"For what purpose I can’t imagine." Changes to the cervix can indicate pregnancy, stage of pregnancy.

I was born in '72 my mother was told to stop smoking 'if possible' which she did - but she bf me for 6 wks then started again, stopped again when pregnancy confirmed for bro & sis, bf them for 6 weeks & Re-started. She was never a big drinker.

Interesting comments @ChocolateWombat. In my family - big poor Irish background - I imagine there was some of what you describe in terms of a grim sort of relief (sorry if that's not a good paraphrase). Unacknowledged grief is only one aspect and it is naïve if me to think that's the whole story. Life was very different from today. Well for most of us. I know there are still huge difficulties around education/contraception/poverty etc for many.

I wouldn’t have known without a test (and didn’t until I was 16/17 weeks!) as I didn’t have any symptoms. No bloating, sickness, tiredness, weight gain. Was on and off the pill so periods were irregular.

I read a really interesting academic article about reactions to miscarriage in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries - while it was a lot, lot less certain, people did at least suspect quite early losses - there was one account of a miscarriage 'one week after conception', which obviously isn't possible but the authors took to mean one week after a missed period. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there was a general feeling that miscarriages were much, much sadder if you had been married for a while without children or were desperately hoping for a child - there was a moving account of a man who wrote in his diary about how devastating it had been because he and his wife had been married three years and this was her first pregnancy. Their main source was spiritual diaries though, and so people who were upset about it (and literate, well-off to wealthy people) - I'm sure people are right that for many more people, who already had all the children they wanted, were unmarried, etc., it was a relief.

I knew 'something' was happening with all 5 pregnancies before a test would even have been effective. I always get a weird intermittent vibration up my bum within days of conception. It's a very strange sensation and it's never steered me wrong yet!! Never met anyone else whose had the same, but then 'bum vibrations' aren't really something you just drop into conversation, I suppose!
So yes, I would have known immediately after the first pregnancy, once I'd put 2 and 2 together.
My grandmother swore she knew ladies were pregnant in her day by the shape of their nose changing very subtly. My mum tells me she was bob on too...

You could have a prepregnancy test at the chemistry in 1980 but it was quite expensive and the GP still wouldn't have wanted to see you until 12 weeks.

I had a scan at my first hospital ante natal but that was a London teaching hospital. I know they weren't available where I live now.

a weird intermittent vibration up my bum within days of conception that's perhaps the most unusual sign I've heard of yet!
I was aways hit by the smell of the kitchen bin in the morning as my first sign of pregnancy. Just before period was due.

I always worry these discussions head down the route of women should be kept in the dark because they can't cope. ( Pretty sure I've seen "hysterical" mentioned.) When perhaps what might help is for it to be acceptable for a range of reactions to be valid - and emotions to be expressed, support given if necessary.

Interesting reading MargaretCavendish.

I was 14 weeks pregnant before I knew.
And it was OH that noticed, not me.
Only then I took a test.

I always think it's a mistake nowadays when people tell very young children that they are having a sibling as soon as they have done a home test. It makes the wait very long and things can go wrong at such an early stage.

I didn't know until I was nine weeks and that was this year with access to home testing. My periods are always irregular, and whilst I felt a bit tired, I'm in a newish job that requires a lot of travel. I also had flu for a week so put some of it down to not being over that. Even the thirstiness, peeing and slight dizziness I thought might be diabetes. I have PCOS had been told I am insulin resistant, wouldn't conceive without help and family history of diabetes. There's a two week wait for a non emergency appointment at my gp, so without a home test I could've been over eleven weeks before knowing.

No home tests when I had mine, but I knew very early on (apart from missed period) because of tingling in one boob - had never had it before - same both times.

However some people have no symptoms at all, and if they're still BF-ing a previous baby so no periods, may not realise for some time. Happened to a dd - by the time she twigged and had a scan she was over 14 weeks! But at least it meant no anxiety during early weeks, which had been a major thing before after a couple of misses.

And there are still people now who go into labour having not realised - which I still find extraordinary, but it does happen.

I have always had irregular periods sometimes only two a year. With my first I only guessed after googling 'period pains no period' so got a test. Think I turned out to be 8 weeks at that point.

I had a miscarriage in March and I'm now pregnant again but due to not fitting the standard 28 day cycle I don't actually know how far I am. Somewhere between 7 and 12 weeks!

Had campylobactor for three weeks last month so I put a lot of symptoms down to that.

I'm struggling a bit (DOI: have had 6 miscarriages, taking place between 6 and 9 weeks) to go with the sort-of consensus on here that knowing about pregnancies and therefore miscarriages earlier is a Bad Thing and leads to 'hysteria over miscarriages' (nice one, whoever posted that). As I posted further up, I had clockwork periods and would have known, or guessed. And then there's the issue of missed miscarriages, which are really very common. I only had one complete mc without any need for intervention. In two of my miscarriages I never bled at all (and in one of them, a blighted ovum, the hcG was still rising blithely) and at least two would not have completed on their own without intervention (had four ERPCs and one medical management). All the risk of infection, pain and out-of-whack subsequent cycles attached to that would have given almost any woman an idea that something had been going on. It's often not a case of a 'late period' and then straight back to normal cycles. And untreated incomplete mc can have serious consequences for health and future fertility. All this considered - alongside the emotional impact, which, sorry to say, is real - does mean I find the idea of the desirability of going back to the Good Old Days where women were none the wiser and didn't get 'hysterical' over 'losses' rather distasteful and actually not a little misogynistic.

1. Home pregnancy tests could be bought from chemists in the early 1980s ( bought and used them) so she must be talking about much earlier than that.

1. Most of us anyway have always known as your period was late even a few days and you probably usually knew plus then most people feel a bit sick too and your breasts swell up so you don't need to be Einstein to know it's likely

I'm struggling a bit (DOI: have had 6 miscarriages, taking place between 6 and 9 weeks) to go with the sort-of consensus on here that knowing about pregnancies and therefore miscarriages earlier is a Bad Thing and leads to 'hysteria over miscarriages' (nice one, whoever posted that).

Yes, I posted upthread saying that, personally, I am glad I knew I had three miscarriages as I think I did need some help to stay pregnant (and I'd point out that, even though mine were all very early - all before seven weeks, depending on how you count the missed one - the NHS does think that's an issue worth investigating). And mine all completed naturally (though the missed one took its own sweet time about it). I suppose if I'd not known the first one was a pregnancy then I might not have known about the others - once I knew I was right about what those symptoms meant, I knew about all my other pregnancies before I took the test. I also think that for me personally - and again, mine were all very early - I could only have thought they were periods with a lot of denial. They were very different to my normal periods, and indeed I think I'd have seen a doctor if that's what I thought they were.

People didn't tell anyone till 12 weeks because of early miscarriage, but they knew

Incidentally, my boss told me his wife miscarried their first pregnancy at 8 weeks, and his oldest child is 50.

Yy elderly - there will have been so many women who died or had massive complications who wouldn't have today, because we have better testing and monitoring over these things. Ectopic pregnancies particularly scare the shit out of me after having one.

So I always feel a bit pissed off at the smug "you're hysterical/obsessed" crew. Easy for someone who hasn't had a big problem to say.

My nan is 92 and she said the only way she knew she was pregnant was when she couldn't stomach a cup of tea. This happened all 5 times

MIL (88yo) had her first DC in 1962. She said you weren't confirmed pregnant until you'd missed two periods. She was one of twelve and had a good inkling of symptoms as her mother was so frequently pregnant.

The only loss her mum talked of was a full term loss of one of twins. Given she had no contraception it's very likely that she had some miscarriages.

My mum said she knew when she couldn't bear the smell of coffee.She didn't drink as she didn't fancy it in pregnancy, she didn't smoke but worked in an office full of smokers when pregnant with me in the early 80s.