were you told you weren't in labour?

Your second experience was exactly like my D's second Labour.
Baby was about 10 days late and just like you she went into labour the evening before induction was planned. They said you had better stay and baby was born within 2/3 hours, they had told her husband he may as well stay otherwise I don't think he would have been there.

Yes !with my 5th , was given sleeping tablet and put to bed in a side ward , half asleep and out of it I shouted and luckily someone heard , came in to reprimand me and 10 mins later I was sucking gas and delivered DD3 , then I fell back to sleep causing great panic as the afterebirth had to come , she was 40 last week

no but I was told I wasn't pregnant! Had a heavy blood loss 4 weeks later and told it was an early miscarriage .Still had symptoms that couldn't be explained so was taken into hospital for tests.Eventually at over 4 months they decided I WAS pregnant with the twin of the baby lost in the "early miscarriage" baby two was born early too...lived 4 days and died .I used to wonder if I'd known for sure I was pregnant if things would have turned out differently

A similar story for me paddyann
I had a bleed with clots at 13 wks which lasted a week. I was sent for a scan when the bleeding stopped fully expecting to be told I'd miscarried as my GP told me but I was still pregnant with what was assumed to be the remaining twin.

While in the delivery room I was told I wasn't having contractions (clearly the midwife new better than me!) so I decided a bit of serious groaning was called for - worked a treat!

I was told I wasn’t pregnant - I was three months pregnant at the time. Then I was told I wasn’t in labour. Well, the baby came from somewhere and I’m pretty sure I was involved!

Yes with my first...told to stop making a fuss ....on examination 10cm dialated....and born hour later

I was also told I wasn’t in labour I told them I definitely was and needed to push I was told not to ( I was still in the main ward because they KNEW. I wasn’t ready to go to the labour ward ) anyway I did have to push and out came my third much to their amazement so I never did make it out of the main ward

Had my first at home (home equidistant from maternity home which only had midwives). Had second in hospital as she was breech. Went in night before to be induced knowing I was already in labour, told them but I was put into a large ward. Told a nurse then a young woman doc I was already in labour. Her reply "you don't look like a woman in labour!" Examined me, said you ARE in labour. She humphed and said I would have to be moved. It was made quite clear by everyone that I was an absolute nuisance! They seemed put out that I was actually having the baby! She was born next day. Treated appallingly, as was DH. I could weep now thinking about it. I feel we-myself, DD and DH-were all treated badly. It was old hospital which was closed not long after. Some local Mums did a splendid job of making sure that things would be different at the new hospital and they were too.

Yes I was told all day I was not in labour and was given all my meals which I managed to eat. Had tea at 6pm then when DH arrived at 7pm for visiting told him to tell midwives I wanted to push! Baby born 45mins later. Good thing I didn't need a C section.

Both my midwife's were of the older generation, could tell by heartbeat what sex they were going to be, within 1 ounce of weight and correct on length. They only used a manual listener(don't know what they are called). 30 odd years later with all technology DD was told it's going to be a girl
and guess what it was a boy. Dil was told she wasn't in labour and to go home come back when waters break. Home she went 30minutes drive got in house and collapsed with pain DS phoned an ambulance and when it arrived baby came out with sac intact.

I told the midwife that things would be quick..yes dear she said in ‘that’tone. Then she turned round and delivered our son!

Rather the opposite for me; 1966 and I was booked into a 12 bed maternity home for the birth, went for a Tuesday antenatal clinic a fortnight before the due date, and I and five other women were told to come back that evening as they had 6 empty beds and needed something to do...
Four of us were settled into a ward that evening, and the woman in the next bed to me said she was already in labour (it was her fifth) and was moved to the labour room. Next morning, the matron came on her rounds, got us out of bed and her and a nurse showed us how to strip our beds and remake them. We had to do this every morning of our two week stay, and they were inspected! When we were all back in our freshly made beds she examined us, two more were in labour, I wasn't, so was dosed with orange juice and castor oil and told to get a move on. Thursday morning, same again, nothing doing. Friday morning, I was examined and pronounced to be in labour. It was news to me as I couldn't feel anything unusual, so she made me put my hands on my lump and feel for myself. When lunchtime came round, there was none sent for me as it had been reported to the kitchen that I was in labour and wouldn't want any. I soon put them right on that score and a plate duly arrived and I finished it with a nurse getting twitchy saying that I wouldn't make the labour room in time; I think she just wanted to get the shave and enema bit over before she went for her lunch. About an hour later I felt the first twinge, and delivered at 8pm, wondering what all the fuss was about.

It's beyond me how they can get it wrong so many times! Any midwives/doctors on here who could explain why that is? Also, why are so many women treated as if they are children and told they are making a fuss? My DiL had an undiagnosed UTI and had to go to hospital three times before her GP finally made the diagnosis. My daughter is a few days over due (hence my preoccupation with all things labour) - hope she gets better treatment.

Cherry your lost reminds me that when I was pregnant a colleague - a generation older* advised me to make sure I had plenty of books to read when I went in, as both her babies were taken to the nursery and only brought to her for feeding, in her 2-week stay - if only!!!!!

*post sorry

Yes, humpty, babies only brought to you for feeding and at visiting times. However, matron did not believe in having idle hands on her wards; every afternoon we had to choose between rolling STs up and packing them into tins for sterilizing or making cotton balls from hanks of cotton wool. Six years later I was in the same place, and everything had changed; ward maids to make the beds, and babies hanging in cradles from a frame at the bottom of our beds from first morning feed until 10pm feed. No afternoon "forced labour" but a smoke filled TV room for entertainment.

I too was told I'd had a miscarriage and taken by ambulance to hospital for a D&C. There was no bed for me and I was taken to another hospital. Two days later, I was told that I would have a scan before they did the proceedure. My daughter is now 33.
Like others here I was told that I had probably miscarried a twin and my daughter was the surviving twin. She nearly died at 35 weeks, as she was being strangled by the cord. I was in and out of hospital during the whole pregnancy. I kept saying that something was wrong, but it wasn't until my consultant came to see in the ward, that he listened to me and I was rushed down to the labour ward my daughter was born after a traumatic labour and had to be resuscitated. A mother's instincts always kick in.

DD2 was sure she was in labour although it was her first baby. We went over to look after her stepdaughter. Three times her and her husband went to the wretched hospital over 12 hours, Three times she was sent away as not far enough in labour.
Eventually we went out with our stepgrandaughter, and DD felt she needed the loo. Discovered the baby was coming. Her husband put a dustbin liner on their bed and healthy babygirl appeared.
He phoned 999 and an emergency midwife luckily was nearby, and attended to everything else.
The midwife put in an official complaint to the hospital.
DD said the maternity unit was not busy and every time she was there, the nurses were doing their Christmas card lists, etc.

No quite the opposite! I drifted in for my usual appointment and was told by the nurse I was in Labour. I drifted home and daughter was born the following day within an hour of arriving at hospital

Son was born within half an hour or even less I suppose. I got onto the delivery table and only seem to have a couple of contractions and he was born. We were both in shock, but survived ok.

Not me but a family member was in hospital with high BP. She thought labour had started so told a midwife, who said she hadn't been in labour on the last ward round so couldn't be in labour now.

After 45mins of increasing contractions, staff finally believed her and she asked for some pain relief. She was told it was too late and that she should have asked earlier!

She had the baby shortly afterwards - her entire labour was 90 minutes. Her second baby arrived in just 35 minutes. I've always been vaguely disappointed that they never went for baby No 3.

With my second child, in the 80s and living in London, I was allowed to go 2 weeks overdue. The hospital focused on ‘Natual’ births wherever possible and wouldn’t induce me.
I wasenormous and just about exploding, I could not sit or lie comfortably, so in the early morning DH and I went to the hospital determined not to leave without the baby being born.
They hummed and hahed, and decided to examine me. DS was just about to arrive, so they punctured the amniotic sac and there he was!

1st labour, my waters broke but only came out as a trickle because the head was so tightly engaged. Young Doctor decreed that I was not in labour and was sending me home until I jumped down from the labour bed and he saw the trickle. Send DH home, saying the baby would arrive sometime before Christmas (this was in January) but I spent a painful, lonely, long night on the Labour Ward until the older Consultant's rounds in the morning. Consultant put her stethoscope on my back instead of my tummy, announced that I was in advanced labour and should be encouraged to push rather than pant.

They lowered the end of the bed, went to get some stands? for my feet and DD1 arrived with my first and only big push, shot off the end of the bed, bungy jumping on her cord. It was quite surreal and nothing like I had expected, no pethadine, no gas and air, although they did give me gas and air for the extensive stitching as I could not stop shaking.

Same sort of scenario for birth #2 although I did tell them that my contractions were all at the back. I was told that I had a 'rat trap' pelvis which did not dilate slowly just opened and closed for a few seconds - hence a baby 'shot from guns' like puffed wheat.

As we didn't have transport I had to phone the hospital to say I was in labour and ask for an ambulance. The midwife asked if my waters had broken. I replied that they hadn't. She then asked how I knew I was in labour. I told her I was crippled with pain and couldn't stand up. She hummed and arghed for a while then said that she'd send an ambulance but I'd better be in labour because they were very busy and had better things to do than look after mums who only 'thought' they were in labour. By the time the ambulance arrived I was having contractions every couple of minutes but told the paramedic that I was scared that I wasn't in labour. He told me I was so far into labour that he was scared I'd have the baby in the ambulance. DD1 arrived about an hour after I got to hospital.