Tell that to the mom I was with who had contractions 10-15 minutes apart, lasting no more than a minute, all the way until it was time to push.
They were intense, but really – 4 an hour? I’m so glad the nurse she was assigned with knew that the “3-5 minutes apart, lasting 90 seconds at least” rule is the average, with plenty of women on either side of the curve.

Wow, I’d like one of those! A magical nurse that can tell you whether or not you are in labor! Instincts are overrated, anyway.

This totally happened with my client. Actually, I’m not sure if this was my submission. hahaha. If not, it happened to us too. Our nurse was so out there, I wanted to bang my head against the wall. Not only did she tell her that things had to get a lot worse for her to be in real labor, but she told her to get in the most uncomfortable positions in order for contractions to be effective. ONE hour later, my client was dialated to a 9.

I just laugh when people say things like that… because apparently I am not “in labor” until I’m ready to push. Wow, magic!

I went to the hospital a week overdue, contractions were textbook 5min apart blah blah blah. I was 19. Told them I was there to register and have a baby. They told meI was too calm to be in labor. I told the nurse I was having contractions like I had beer had before and I wasn’t leaving until the baby was born. Funny, he came that night. I guess she figured because I wasn’t crying or hysterical I couldn’t have been in labor. No way someone that young could know her body. That was 16 years ago. I have never forgotten. It’s a shame these “care”givers treat mothers so badly.

That’s funny. I was only getting 2-3 contractions an hour and was walking, talking and laughing through them…but I was 8 centimeters dilated walking into the hospital.

Same thing happened to me. My daughter was born a couple hours later.

This was my submission. The nurse was watching the monitor as she said this, gauging my contractions by the machine. I was being induced with my first child, and it turns out I am blessed with short, intense labors. My daughter was born 6 hours after this exchange.

I was still a teen when I had my first child. I started having ctx, and after about 3-4 hrs I called L&D to talk to a nurse to tell her what was up. She told me “your not in labor because you are still talking to me through your ctx and its your due date, no one has their baby on their due date”. Thankfully my step mom had the brains to take me up to the hospital, albeit a few hours later. I arrived, was checked in at 10 cm, they broke my water and I had my daughter 20 minutes later!

My first two would have been unplanned homebirths if I’d followed this advice. Too bad I didn’t.

My contractions never lasted longer than 45 seconds and went from 6 mins apart to 2 almost instantly after 3 hours of what I thought were pre-labor contractions based on what my books said. Now I know to trust my body more than books!

Haha — this reminds me of the nurse in triage when I was admitted. “Well, you’re still able to talk through contractions, so we’ll just check and make sure you’re in active labor.” I was 7 centimeters already! I barely even “felt” like I was in labor till right about transition.