I know a lot of ppl that deal with getting sent home. And that would be pretty stressful!
So far, even if all of my births would have been hospital births, they wouldn't ever send me home bc my water breaks before labor starts. lucky me! *sarcasm* (here in the states they almost always refuse you to go home if you have PROM).
I never know where im at in labor either. I mean, i know the emotional sign posts, but that doesn't really work for me. I also can never go by the 4(or 5)-1-1 rule bc my contractions are never ever regular-ever. i dont know why that is, and a lot of times they go from like 5 minutes to 3 to 1 minute to 4 minutes to 20 minutes to 15 minutes, etc. then they double peak, last 2 min, get a 5 second break and then have anoter 2 min contraction...ouch, Even when im in transition they dont come regularly. It's the strangest thing, but clearly if i had to figure out to go to the hospital based on contration timing, id probably be sent home a million times and then probably give birth unassisted haha My contractions are start off very very very painful, even at 2CM and i think thats bc my water always breaks first and there isn't any cushion between my spine and the babys head...i would love to have just one birth that this didn't happen! I hear it would be much less painful.
EDIT:...well so far 100% of the time i've thrown up at 5CM...so maybe that would be a good time to ring the MWs? Dont know if that is reliable since every birth is different, but it seems to be the only consistant thing w my labors. ...well that and pushing at 8CMs both times.