Dec 9

“I Am Not Delivering Your Baby Unless You Get An Epidural…”

“I am not delivering your baby unless you get an epidural because you are hysterical.” -OB to a vocalizing unmedicated mother at 7 cm.

60 people dislike these words.

There are 11 comments to this post.

Heather Payne had this to say, Dec 9, 2009 @ 4:34 pm (Quote)

I’ll bet that OB had never seen an unmedicated birth. Just because someone is vocalizing doesn’t mean they’re hysterical.

[Reply]

Jespren had this to say, Dec 9, 2009 @ 5:10 pm (Quote)

Because making noise is a sure indication of hysteria. Frankly, even if the mother WAS hysterical, that doesn’t keep them from giving birth! Besides, when does an epidural treat hysteria?

[Reply]

Jennifer Z. had this to say, Dec 9, 2009 @ 5:43 pm (Quote)

Everyone knows that hysterectomies are what treat “hysteria”. Silly doctor, he needs to get his types of misogyny correct.

[Reply]

Jane had this to say, Dec 9, 2009 @ 6:21 pm (Quote)

So that’s standard of care nowadays? For the doctor to walk away from a laboring woman and allow her to deliver unattended in the hospital because she decided not to consent to a specific variety of pain relief?

[Reply]

Elizabeth had this to say, Dec 11, 2009 @ 4:41 am (Quote)

Wow, I wonder what he would have done had he had to care for the women pacing back and forth on her bad like a mad woman in Baby Catcher!

[Reply]

Jena Reply:
December 11th, 2009 at 10:57 pm Jena(Quote)

Strapped her down like an animal, of course. Oh wait, that pretty much did happen.

[Reply]

mo had this to say, Dec 13, 2009 @ 8:15 am (Quote)

Jennifer Z is correct. The Greek word for hysteria comes from the Greek word for uterus.

[Reply]

Jane Reply:
December 14th, 2009 at 10:56 am Jane(Quote)

So “mass hysteria” means the whole population is acting like women!

[Reply]

Meg had this to say, Dec 14, 2009 @ 11:44 am (Quote)

“Yes, but it’s far more likely that the *mother* will deliver the baby, without the epidural!”

[Reply]

Krista had this to say, Feb 1, 2010 @ 9:11 pm (Quote)

I know this is way off from the original post, but I find it interesting. Back in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s, doctors used to treat hysteria by inducing “hysterical paroxysm” – now known as orgasm. They started doing it manually, but found that it was time consuming and tiring (lol – I’m going to keep the jokes to myself. haha). Eventually, Dr. J.M. Granville invented a machine that would do the work so that more patients could be treated (apparently hysteria had become an epidemic). The machine was the first vibrator. It was actually one of the first electrified machines (even before the electric iron and vacuum). Like I said, off-topic a little, but interesting and it shows that we shouldn’t just take someone’s word because they’re a doctor.