OK, am not in revising mood (exam tomorrow, eep) so will tell you why women stop contracting when they get into the ambulance, or when ambulances arrive on the scene. When you're in labour, your body tells you to find the safest place to have the baby. If you are threatened, embarrassed, scared, knackered, any negative thing, you produce catecholamines- the body's defence (so if you were 'in the wild' and threatened by a lion or something you could stop being in labour and run away). So the labour slows down. This is why women have great contractions at home, and come in to hospital and... nothing. And I look after them, make them feel at home (all the while they sit looking perplexed, going 'but they were there...' and I say 'give it half an hour and they will be back'. And sure enough, half an hour and they have relaxed from the change of scenery and the fear of coming in to hospital, and they go back to contracting strongly and they have a baby. There's lots of research on it, but I think it's something you need to talk to midwives about because it's not a 'Mother and Baby Magazine' topic, really! Claire Nearly Midwife