Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
5
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“You Don’t Have The Right Equipment.”
“You can’t have your baby at home, you don’t have the right equipment.” - OB to mother planning a homebirth who was seeing the OB for a bladder infection.
There are 26 comments to this post.
Great minds think alike! 
I’m wondering exactly what equipment the mom needed…? Scalpel? Nope, not necessary. Urinary catheter? Um, no.
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lol
It’s a shame the entire species never really got a chance to make it, but eons ago all those poor women just couldn’t have babies for lack of the right “equipment”. Sad. The human race could have gone so far.
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My doc for my first birth said the same thing to me, too. He meant oxygen and resuscitation equipment just in case.
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Jane Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 7:35 am (Quote)
He doesn’t realize most midwives do carry that equipment?
As far as the baby’s concerned, the only thing the hospital may have that the midwife doesn’t is an ECMO machine, and most hospitals don’t have that either. So unless that particular doctor/hospital possesses that one very special piece of equipment, the doctor doesn’t have the right equipment either.
And of course, most midwives are with the patients constantly and assessing the laboring mom all the time and will pick up on problems where the mom needs medical attention. Whereas the doctor isn’t there. So if the right equipment is “a pair of eyeballs and a labor partner,” the doctor is lacking that.
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jespren Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 6:56 pm (Quote)
when our at home baby had to be transfered via 911 call to hospital the paramedics didn’t have an infant face mask, had to borrow it from the midwife, and didn’t have the correct size tube for intubation, had to wait until they got to the er (also took him off the positive pressure O2 the midwives had him on and bagged him, with the borrowed mask, on room air). Then we ended up having to transfer from that hospital to another specialized children’s hospital because the first hospital didn’t have ECMO. (baby made full recovery) The hospital was required in our case, but the home birth didn’t cause the issues, and, had the starting issues happened in a hospital the outcome might have been worse!
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Do these docs even know that the midwives who catch babies at home are actually trained? With degrees, and apprenticeships and all sorts of REAL schooling and information, not just book learning. They’re not those mythical witch midwives who didn’t wash their hands. (Please, no yelling – I said mythical!)
My midwife comes with oxygen and resuscitation equipment, an IV pole, and who knows what else! If necessary, she can prep a woman for a C-section at home and on the way to the hospital, and have her ready to be wheeled straight into an OR as soon as they get to a hospital! That’s faster than some hospitals prep.
So, doc, please, don’t make me laugh.
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Jane Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 7:37 am (Quote)
Yeah, they make it sound as if they have the whole OR prepped and ready to go, the surgical staff standing by, to perform a C-section on a moment’s notice. But most of the time it takes at least 30 minutes from “decision” to “incision.” In that time, the mom could be transported to the hospital even as the doctor is transporting himself or herself to the hospital.
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I had an unassisted birth with my youngest little man. I spent $7 buying the right equipment (2 sets of hemostats, 1 pair of shears, and a pair of shoelaces). I sure didn’t have any problems…and I even caught him myself. Yep, I did the job of like 20 hospital employees (including the janitor) and it cost me $7! At the insistence of my hubby (he’s a little terrified of childbirth-lol), I went to the urgent care to get checked out. After getting the pediatrician to calm down, a transfer to the hospital because apparently pediatrics doesn’t cover newborns, an irritating visit with DFS, and signing the AMA form to let him go home with me, I let the nurse (a friend of mine) weigh and measure him and just do a once-over. Everyone seemed genuinely surprised he was even alive, let alone healthier than 99% of the babies born in the hospital. I got the first of the many bills I’ll receive from this 6 hr. hospital stay where they didn’t do anything except weight and measure him. It’s $1800. Next time, I’m overruling the hubby.
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Heather (qtberryhead) had this to say,
Jan 5, 2010 @ 4:32 pm (Quote)
Hilarious! Had I not planned my homebirth, I would have still ended up with one…or delivered my baby in the car. She didn’t care at all whether we had pitocin, monitors, or a crash cart. She was completely unburdened with the fact that my midwife wasn’t there yet. It’s all so bizarre…I feel like we should notify authorities of our ability to defy the scientific “odds”.
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Guggie Daly had this to say,
Jan 5, 2010 @ 5:05 pm (Quote)
Well I went overboard on the equipment teehee. I bought all kinds of googies from inhishands. I even bought a little onesie that says “I was born at home.” And I got a bunch of herbs.
But seriously, it’s not as if I NEEDED all of it. I just wanted to have fun.
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baby? check.
vagina? check.
nope. im good.
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susan Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 4:46 am susan(Quote)
That’s exactly what I was thinking!
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Aron Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 5:56 am Aron(Quote)
me too!
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Kat Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 9:20 am Kat(Quote)
Same here! It’s like you read my mind!
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Meg Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 3:23 pm Meg(Quote)
LOL! “What do you think I am, a MAN?”
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Mistie Reply:
January 5th, 2010 at 8:07 pm Mistie(Quote)
My husband wanted to add..
towels? .. check
hot water? .. check
“What? That’s what they do in the movies!”
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Heather P Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 6:03 pm Heather P(Quote)
That was my thought exactly. lol at this comment, how rediculous.
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sandi Reply:
January 8th, 2010 at 5:51 am sandi(Quote)
when they start loaning out birth canals to women delivering that is when i’ll say that a normal birth HAS to occur in a hospital…
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