Have you ever been told by a medic 'you can't possibly be in labour' when you actually are?

[SpeedyGonzalez]

This follows on from another thread in which the OP was told she was 'too smiley' to be in labour , and then sent home. She then gave birth shortly afterwards, at home.

With my first birth my mw gave me a look of gentle doubt about how far gone I was, but to her credit (and she was a fantastic mw ), she examined me and discovered that I was 7cm.

With my second birth (hb), I was asked to stay on the phone through a contraction. Perhaps if I'd 'lied' and screamed blue murder I wouldn't have been told they weren't going to send out a mw. Despite my telling them that the pain levels were similar to when I was admitted to hospital with birth no 1, and that I was doing hypnosis, so therefore in control and unlikely to go in for bloodcurdling screams, they didn't believe me, and when the mw finally came I was in so much pain that I practically bit her hand off (thinking it was the G&A pipe ).

I've heard countless tales like this, where mws seem not to have experience of women who don't 'lose it' in labour. I can understand it more with home births where a woman's on the phone - if they send someone to the home unnecessarily it costs more. But surely if a woman is in your ward and you think she's not in labour (and especially if she's given birth before), doesn't it make sense to give her a pelvic exam before sending her away, just in case? And are there really so few women who don't scream to the rooftops in labour that mws mistake them for early labour(ers)?

I am glad I saw this thread, on ds my waters went and cc started straight away constantly with no break.

Went to hospital and tried to say this was a awful lot of pain and she didn't believe me but because waters had gone had to be strapped to bed and constantly monitered. After 20 hours the doctor started saying I needed a CSEC as I was not having ccs and not progressing my founght him and said is this really neccasary.

After 22 was examined and told no dilation. So they said my mum and partner had to go home because I was not in proper labor I started crying and my mum said 'well if she is not in proper labor then she can come home, if she is then she is not being left here alone'

After a hour I was starting to push so I sent DP tp tell mw and they said I was being silly someone would see me at shift change (which really irked me) I went in and sai I really need to push she said if you were in enough pain to be pushing you would be screaming. So I went to the toilet when I could feel ds head and there was blood everywhere. I ran out said I can feel his head and that there is blood everywhere and she said stop being such a drama queen I will examine you just to shhut you up.

Examined baby was ready to crown. My mum lives 5 minutes away and got there quickly, ds was born 25 minutes after she examined me still looking upo which is when she said oh no wonder we thought you were not in labor he op.

like i say, nothing bad came of my experience but it is a bloody disgrace that midwives are gauging the progress of a woman's labour by how much she is screaming (ie how terrified, out of control and in agony she is). some people just don't get loud in pain. even dh said he knew it was REALLY sore because i wasn't even opening my mouth to swear.

They've always believed i'm in labour but for some reason they never believe i need to push until they see the baby's head

I think they're so conditioned to women screaming the house down at that point if they have no pain relief that they assume I must be imagining it... which is all well and good in the first labour but you'd think when I'd had babies before they would have taken me more seriously!

I hypnobirthed too and had a fairly fast labour with no pain relief. The hospital believed I was in labour, but it was so quick that there was a lot of miscommunication and the obstetrician who turned up right at the end tried to stitch me up with no pain relief at all because she assumed I had been so quiet because I'd had Pethidine. I did scream at that point!

Definitely going to check out shift change times for the labour ward this time around.

20 minutes before shift change I was 'definitely not in proper labour' so was sent away for a walk to 'bring things along'. I was in agony and of course felt like a total wuss for being in so much pain when I wasn?t even in proper labour.

10 minutes after shift change I was 8 or 9 cm...and suddenly, yes yes this was proper labour.

DC2 arrived 40 minutes later.

I asked to find out how far along I was when I arrived but was told that once you are examined you 'go on the board' and are monitored for delivery...WTF? Is it a labour ward or a sales office? If they had examined me when I'd arrived they would have know I was in proper labour.

The penny dropped about the shift changes after delivery.

ElsieMarley RE shift changes that really bugged me they seemed like workers in a office trying not to answer the phone because they want to leave at exactly clock off time, and wanted to relax for the last 20 minutes .

Which is all well and good as long as some woman is not left in agony and to deliver alone so that they leave exactly when their shift finishes

Arrived at hospital with DH and Doula, who had been timing my contractions diligently. Doula was convinced I was in well-established labour, told MW this.

I was asked for a urine sample but was bleeding. On seeing the blood, MW then insisted on hooking me up to a machine for monitoring, led on my right-hand side/back (even though Doula and I said this was very uncomfortable and counter-productive to labour). MW then insisted on asking me many many questions, even though contractions were coming thick and fast and I could barely breathe. I remember saying to my Doula "Is she f*cking joking? This is a joke, right?".

After 45 minutes, Doula finally persuaded MW to do an internal examination, at which point she saw I was 7cm+ dilated and I was rushed to a labour room.

Doula and I were both convinced that the time spent labouring on my back/side got DD out of position. Then had to have obstetrician manipulate DD back into position. She popped out quite quickly after that.

I should mention that had been for a sweep at the same hospital earlier that day and had been told by (another) MW that I was already dilating and that she expected me to give birth that night.

Oh, and they weren't exactly rushed off their feet as I was the only woman giving birth in that unit that night!

Next time will be sure to do some screaming and shouting...

I worry about the same thing at night and on Saturdays crawling! In our area though it is more the fault of the hospital as apparently they have made some rather odd changes that upped the pressure on the MW's (like they need any more). I'm crossing my fingers for a Mon-Tue 3pm birth this time!