Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Feb
5
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…She Deserves A Stamp On Her Forehead That Says ‘I’m An Idiot!’”
“She doesn’t deserve a medal. She deserves a stamp on her forehead that says ‘I’m an idiot!’” – OB to nurses at nurses station, regarding a woman who had labored ‘too long.’
This was said in response to the birthing woman’s mother (who said her daughter deserved a medal) AFTER the woman’s mother was out of earshot.
There are 20 comments to this post.
What’s too long? A woman was proud of her daughter and the OB disses her? I can think of a Stamp that OB deserves and it doesn’t go on the forehead.
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What would be to long is after a while even if the Mother is doing fine, labor contractions start to cause stress on the baby. Not to mention since your not allowed to eat the blood sugar drops for both mother AND child. More dangerous for the baby of course.
I’m a mother of 3 and a medic. There is a point no matter how “PROUD” and stuborn you may feel or want to be it becomes dangerous for the baby. Thanks for ‘Dissing” us medical personel who are looking out fo rteh health and wellbeing of the child.
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Jess Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 5:54 pm (Quote)
Do you make a habit of calling your patients idiots to their faces…or just behind their backs like this one?
Last time I checked, someone who calls me an idiot has ceased to be looking out for my well being. Just sayin’
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Heather Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 6:02 pm (Quote)
Actually, plenty of women eat anyway–the ones who follow hospital “regulations” ARE idiots.
Labor can go on for days in a NORMAL birth and mom and baby are just fine–as long as they stay away from people who care more about their obstetric myths than taking care of mom and baby by following practices that have proven obsolete and harmful…
Wait, what are you doing on this site? Just trolling?
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Swan Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 6:07 pm (Quote)
Plenty of women labor for days and everything turns out fine. It’s a normal variation of birth. (laboring with pitocin for days would definitely stress the mom & the baby! but this story doesn’t mention augmentation)
Also, have you considered that many birthing locations “allow” women to eat & drink in labor? It’s scientifically proven that eating in labor is not dangerous.
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Dou-la-la Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 6:28 pm (Quote)
Tams, I’m sure you;re aware of the recent Cochrane review confirming that there is NO benefit to denying women food and drink in labor. And the ACOG itself reversed its position on liquids less than a year ago, though some facilities have yet to update their policies, so laboring women continue to suffer needlessly.
Also, I’m not at all sure why you are assuming there was any sign of distress to her baby. Plenty of labors progress more gradually with ZERO signs of fetal distress. If mom and babe are both doing fine, and the mother chooses to continue allowing nature to take its course, what exactly is the problem??
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Augusta Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 12:12 am (Quote)
Yes, like my four day long labor that went totally fine other than being long? My son was born completely healthy. Obviously, even four days was not “too long.”
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Emma Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 2:29 am (Quote)
Given the obvious lack of grammar skills I’d say this was a troll rather than a medic.
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Jane Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 3:25 pm (Quote)
If the baby was in distress and the doctor was standing by the nurse’s station, then the doctor was an idiot.
Clearly the baby was fine and the doctor was annoyed.
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Jess Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 3:35 pm (Quote)
Excellent point Jane 
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Lauren Reply:
February 7th, 2010 at 2:53 am (Quote)
Tams, I labored at home for days, eating and drinking. My baby kicked well after each contraction. The only reason we went to the hospital was that I began to have trouble staying hydrated, and was confused as to why my contractions were literally on top of each other yet I was stuck at 5 cm for over 24 hours. *Turned out my cervix has scar tissue; once it was massaged out I was just fine and progressed to 10 cm.
Not ONCE at the hospital did my baby show any signs of distress (at the intermittent EFM checks).
Stop giving such outdated information! Do you also believe the cord HAS to be clamped immediately??? *eyeroll*
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Please, Submitter, tell me you’re a nurse who was just there to hear this. I sincerely hope you are. I can’t imagine how it would to hear that if you were somehow the laboring mother or other person associated with her birth. And if you are a nurse, my deepest sympathies for having to work with someone like that.
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Heather Reply:
February 5th, 2010 at 9:09 pm (Quote)
I am the submitter. I was a volunteer in the women’s center of the hospital when this occurred. I was walking by and just happened to hear this said by a doctor at the nurses station. This was one of a few incidents that led me to leave my volunteer position and finish my doula training.
One of the other incidents was that one of my good friends at the hospital, who was a nurse’s aid there, regaled me with the third hand account of how a local midwife has caused the negligent death of an infant. The incident in question had been exaggerated greatly, I found out later. She thinks that anyone who has an out of hospital birth is crazy and negligent, and that doulas just get in the way.
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doulagal Reply:
February 6th, 2010 at 1:20 am (Quote)
Similar incident happened to me. A homebirth hating doctor essentially went to a doula hating head nurse and I was pushed out of my volunteer position in a L&D. Not even sure I want to go back anymore. Oh well, the effort to destroy my doula career has backfired on those particular medical personnel…I have never had more women calling me to serve as their doula! I don’t know how these women found out what happened but it seems everyone wants the doula that got “fired” by the head nurse.
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At the hospital where my youngest was born, eating and drinking aren’t discouraged during labor, in fact the nurse’s station has takeout menus for all the local restaurants that deliver to the hospital, so if the hospital cafeteria food doesn’t sound appetizing, you can get something that does!
As long as the woman was fine, and the baby was not in distress (which would certainly have been dealt with if it happened) how exactly is it “idiotic” for the woman to decline unnecessary intervention in her labor?
That doctor sounds a lot like my doctor for my first birth. He sigh and shook his head, and with a condescending air he said “I just don’t know why women put themselves through this” when I was in the middle of a COMPLETELY unnecessary pitocin induction and had just had my hopes of natural birth taken away due to needing an epidural to cope with my overstimulated uterus and the severe pain I was experiencing.
Oh yeah and the next morning he did the “Well, the IMPORTANT thing is you have a healthy baby” song and dance. He was a real creep.
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I actually have created medals for moms! Because they DO deserve them.
http://www.momsdeservemedals.com/
That OB needs his “idiot” stamp on HIS forehead!
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Add Your Comment.
I would have to agree that when it became apparent I had chosen an OB with a heart of stone and a head to match, I would have placed that stamp on my own forehead. :-b
I wonder who decides this “too long” stuff. It’s not the doctor who’s in labor.
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