So, I bring you back to anecdotal evidence as you describe it. If this women believe she was having her period then in her mind she was. So, back to the original post, perhaps everything looked and felt normal to this girl yet she was pregnant.

Per definition of period, then yes, this is not in fact a period during pregnancy but it looks, feels and acts like one.

Now that you put it this way, yes, I agree.
Personaly I blame the painkillers I am on for my general slowness right now, first day of physiotherapy on my knee. Felt more like torture:)

As you said though...biology is serious business. :yeah: Did you bring enough of those pills for the rest of the class:O:

Maybe it's because of the context here, but I must say I find that one a little tasteless, Jim. :hmmm:

A little below the belt....

I'll leave now....:oops:

There I was, no $hit,

in 1993, I was riding on a county squad as a bushy-tailed EMT-I. For non-Nebraskians,, Nebraska has three levels of EMT:

- EMT-A which is your basic EMT
- EMT-I (intermediate) which is an EMT that can do everything a Paramedic can do except for issuing medications and interpret cardio. From a practical viewpoint the “I” in EMT-I means IV and Intubations. LoL
- EMT-P Paramedic, the heros that save people's lives :)

Anyway, we get this medical call.

We roll out to this house where we have a woman about 35-40 years old, 130 pounds complaining of cramping and abdominal pain. Quick exam shows no trauma or any external signs of problems. Examination shows flat belly (you know where this story is going).

Well this is what we call an acute abdomen problem and our protocol is to transport. Not much we can do in the field but stabilize and make comfortable. We head to Midlands Hospital.

Midlands hospital has two emergency rooms. One for trauma/medical the other for obstetrics. (You know where this story is going right?)

As part of our patient history, we ask the lady if she could be pregnant. She says no. We ask her if she has been pregnant in the past. She says that yes she has three children. Ok we have a mother who is telling us that she can't be pregnant. I think it is reasonable to take the lady's word for this. She evidently knows what being pregnant means. We also ask her about her menstrual periods and she indicated that she has regular periods.

1. She was mistaken, as we learned later in the hospital her periods were regular in spacing, but not regular in ...uh... production of menses. (and no menses is not a bunch of smart nerdy guys)

2. It is possible for a woman to have “periods” during pregnancy. It is not possible for a woman to have her normal period (normal in all aspects) during pregnancy. Anyway back to our story...

So we have a woman with a painful tummy, not pregnant, “regular” periods. As we roll up to Midlands Hospital we naturally pull up to the trauma/Med ER and not the Obstetrics ER.

We transfer the patient and we are doing the obligatory paperwork, (EMS is 99% paperwork, 1% helping people).

The attending nurse is preparing the patient for examination. As she is helping the patient remove her underwear, the nurse gives a shout of astonishment as the baby is crowning!

We all quickly discovered a peculiarity about Midlands Hospital. Because there is a separate ER for Obstetrics and the hospital protocol is that any patient that is pregnant goes to the OB ER, that the Trauma/Med ER has NO OBSTETRICS EQUIPMENT AT ALL!!!!!

oops. Quite the logistical oversight!

As some of the staff was running to the OB ER and others were running for any other type of OB kit, yours truly was volunteered for leg holding and positioning duty. :salute:

The nurse delivered the baby the old fashioned way and quite successfully I might add (the success was solely due to my superior leg holding ability, I have to humbly admit). In any case enter one healthy baby and that's always a good thing.

Throughout the labor, the lady was screaming that she did not understand what was happening that she was not pregnant, where the hell is this baby coming from?

Three days later I was talking to the attending doctor and I asked her if it was possible for a woman to be nine months pregnant and truly not know it. The doctor told me “only in cases of severe denial”. This lady evidently did not want to be pregnant and thought that good thoughts would make it go away? How she could deny that water thing and why she did not mention this to the EMT's is still a mystery to me.

There are times when riding on the squads makes for an interesting evening.

Shortly after this, Midlands Hospital started including Obstetrics Kits and other equipment in the Tramua/Med ER.

Post deleted....it was never intended to cause offence.

No biggy, if I had a quarter for everything I regret saying... ;)