Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
6
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“The OB…Is Going To Be So Pissed!”
“If you come in and that baby isn’t head down and the OB finds out I didn’t do a pelvic exam, he is going to be so pissed!” -Midwife to mother who would not allow vaginal exams prior to labor.
There are 18 comments to this post.
Ummmm…because there’s no other way to determine if baby is head down? I know OB’s don’t seem to think so but a midwife? Wonder where she went to school?
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Wha…? Wouldn’t a halfway skilled palpation be more effective than a pelvic exam? This sounds more like an excuse to get in there and strip membranes without permission…
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And if the OB is pissed, he’ll be mad at….the patient or the midwife? And will he then beat her? Cast her out into the street? What? Okay, so let him deal with his anger. He’ll have to deal with it sometime, right?
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Judith Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 6:10 pm (Quote)
and why would you want to work with her or him?
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Jane Reply:
January 6th, 2010 at 6:17 pm (Quote)
I’m just wondering why it’s such a godawful event if the OB gets angry. In fact,at that point, I’d be tempted to refuse ANY kind of exam just to see if the OB’s head exploded, or if he turned into the Hulk. “Okay, so he’ll get mad. Then what?”
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Lauren Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 12:59 am (Quote)
Ha ha exactly! It’s almost a game sometimes, refusing something you knew you didn’t need or want, and enjoying it a bit since the dr then trips out. 
Of course, when you’re in pain it can be stressful to piss off a dr, as I found out while in the hospital for a kidney stone at 32 weeks. The OB on call berated me for not having any ultrasounds and for refusing the Gestational Diabetes test. From the way he railed at me, you’d think I was a criminal!! It was horrible.
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Heather (qtberryhead) had this to say,
Jan 6, 2010 @ 6:53 pm (Quote)
My doulas favorite line, which she spouted off in regards to everything from eating during labor to actually showing up at the hospital was “What are they going to do? Take away your birthday?”
I would take this midwifes comment as a challenge…”Ooohhh, let’s see what happens? I can’t wait!”
*wrings hands and cackles*
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**NOT that I’m siding with the doctor or the midwife on this one**
But depending on the laws or politics of the state of residence, it’s possible that the midwife is only able to practice if she has OB backup or collaboration, and if the OB gets mad at her, he might pull his agreement, and then she’ll be unable to legally practice in the state. And, yes, while it’s up to the patient to consent, the OB might think that the midwife should have “sold” the intervention a little harder in order to get the patient to consent.
I agree that there are other ways of determining fetal positioning. However, if the midwife is unable to determine for sure that the baby is vertex (I’m no expert at palpation, but my mw was sometimes unsure due to the belly fat she had to feel through), a cervical exam *might* yield that information. But that mw didn’t do a cervical exam at all prior to labor.
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Jane Reply:
January 7th, 2010 at 6:17 am (Quote)
I agree with what you’re saying. But surely you can hear the difference between, “My backup OB requires that I perform a vaginal exam on my patients beyond 38 weeks in order to confirm a vertex presentation” and “The OB will be PISSED!”
The second puts the mother in the position of being responsible for the doctor’s feelings. What’s that all about? If it’s the doctor’s policy, fine, tell me it’s his policy and then I’ll take it up with the doctor. But don’t tell me to be responsible for the doctor’s precious feelings, because as it just so happens, I too have feelings, and I fail to see why the doctor’s feelings need to override my feelings.
Like a lot of comments on this site, this one might have been okay if couched professionally. “Dr. Smith finds it very important to perform a vaginal exam on every patient at term” wouldn’t have made it onto this website.
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Even IF she did a vaginal exam, how will that ensure the baby is vertex during labor? Babies turn during the last week of pregnancy and during labor all the time.
I also agree that the doctor’s emotional stability is NOT the responsibility of his patients. However, respecting their choices on accepting a procedure with little to no medical evidence supporting its routine use IS his job, and the job of each member of his staff.
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…and then he will pull up his big boy panties and realize it is my decision.
well, as long as we are thinking in hypotheticals…
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