Seriously, what answer was the OB looking for?

Question is: how does HE think it worked?…..

I’m confused about this one..

Heh heh.

Um, through their vaginas?

Yes, doc. The plan is to give birth the way women have for millenia and if we need the benefits of science, we’ll call in the surgeons. Win-win! So glad we are on the same page.

This one’s mine. It wasn’t a required OB visit, but I had chosen to see an OB for the ultrasounds/tests they could do that my midwives did not. Since it was my first pregnancy I thought I was getting the best of both worlds. After my first OB dropped me at 22 weeks (upon finding out I was planning a home birth), I switched to a doctor the midwives recommended because he is supportive of the choice to birth at home. I had trouble getting in to see him for my 30-week appt/glucose test, and his receptionist assured me that ALL of the doctors in the practice were supportive of home birth patients (even though my midwives had warned me otherwise).

Um, she wasn’t. LOL. She came in, greeted me with a smile, listened to the baby’s heartbeat and proceeded to rip me a new one. She called me names, yelled at me, told me I was selfish and only choosing a home birth for my own benefit…that I wasn’t considering my baby’s safety or happiness–accusations that couldn’t have been more wrong! She told me she wouldn’t be responsible for my care if something went wrong and I transferred. I was travelling an hour each way to get to the office, so obviously it was not the closest hospital to me, and I told her so. I told her I hadn’t come for a lecture, that I didn’t care to hear her personal opinion and wanted to get on with the appointment. She said “well I’m not interested in having you as a patient! We’re done here.” So I left (without the glucose test) and never went back. My midwives provided all the care that I needed, and now that I’m pregnant again I am only seeing them.

Oh, and for those wondering, Cam was born safely at home, under water, just a few weeks later.

I’m laughing and crying at the same time.
Yes – what answer WAS he looking for?!
And, did no one teach him about the birds and the bees?? I would have thought they’d at least TOUCH on it at OB school!
Spingirl – you get the prize!!!
Sheesh.

As an OB, I’m embarrased for that OB just hearing that. That’s not doctoring as far as I’m concerned.

Well if there wasn’t a way the human race would be SOL!

Trouble is, we’ve created a society in the West where everything is seen as a problem to be solved, and we can’t possibly do anything without somebody (preferably with a supporting text) to tell us how.
Women are amazingly well designed to labour, dilate, push out a baby, birth the placenta and feed the baby without bleeding to death. Women don’t need to be told how to breathe in labour, how to mobilse in labour or how to push. If they listen to their own body and instinct they will just KNOW. They find the right position for birth, and push spontaneously. They don’t ‘put their chin on their chest, hold their breath and push right into their bottom either. Midwives and doctors don’t deliver babies (pizzas are delivered). They birth them, and do all the work. We are just the health and safety people.
A brilliant book, which all maternity professionals should read, is ‘Evidence based care for normal labour and birth’, by Denis Walsh. You can get it off Amazon for about £18 or $27.
Andy

I would have said, “I always assumed the stork brought babies!” I really have no idea what this doctor is asking and expecting in reply.

I think her point may have been that before doctors & science, women went thru hell to have babies and you certainly didn’t want THAT. I think it was more of a “why would you put yourself/your baby thru that” type of thing.

Maybe. But then again, I think some OBs (then and now) like to consider themselves as ‘rescuers’ who are trying to save us from ourselves, especially if we refuse medication, etc. There have been a number of disparaging remarks on here made to women who have declined an epi, for instance.

And I wonder if this OB bothered to look at facts and figures that suggest that even though we have the highest rate of medical technology and medications, interventions, etc. available to us, our newborn death rate is not improving. Thus making most of us believe that science isn’t helping as much as it likes to think.