Mel, I don't know if i have told you about my labour (or if you have read my birth story!) but i truly believe that my mind was stopping me from going into labour. Brittney was going to be at the birth... we had spoken about it, she was excited but a little fearful about seeing me in pain. I asked her over and over if she wanted to be there and she always replied yes. I was having pre labour for weeks before i had Archie. I am talking full contractons that would start and continue for hours then stop. After about the 10th time of this happening, (after i had been having contractions 10mins apart for about 1.5 hours then Brittney - who was in bed - called out to me and they suddenly stopped) i sat down and spoke to my midwife about it. She suggested that maybe I was fearful of having Brittney there and that maybe i should give her permission to not be here if she so wished. Brittney is a sweet little thing, she thought i would be disappointed if she said she didn't want to be there, so imagine her relief when i told her that she didn't HAVE to be and that i didn't NEED her to be! She decided that she'd prefer not to be there and all was well! I totally relaxed after that and went into labour 2 days later! I really do think i was holding back all that time.
My midwife was also telliung me about another lady who was in full blown labour (8cm's dialated) when her two year old woke up and was crying and calling out for his mummy. Her labour completely stopped. She had the baby a few days later.

Very clever, our bodies.