Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Feb
8
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“I Don’t Want To Scare You But…”
“I don’t want to scare you but you might as well get an epidural since you will need one when you end up having your cesarean.” L&D Nurse to a first time mom, 2 hours into a 4 hour start to finish labor. Cesarean was not needed.
There are 23 comments to this post.
Moshermama had this to say,
Feb 8, 2010 @ 4:56 pm (Quote)
OMG, this SO reminds me of the nurse who was with me all day. She was FREAKING OUT because I didn’t want an IV, and kept saying, “Oh, what if there’s an emergency and I can’t find your veins?”
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atyourcervix Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 6:42 am (Quote)
Then perhaps someone who can find a vein in an emergency would be called for? (PS – I can find veins easily, even in “emergencies”)
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Moshermama Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 7:25 am (Quote)
No kidding. What was really sad was that when I finally consented to a heplock she said, “well that wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.” Ugh. Fortunately, the nurse that relieved her was 100000 times better.
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erin Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 10:02 am (Quote)
Moshermama: OMG, this SO reminds me of the nurse who was with me all day. She was FREAKING OUT because I didn’t want an IV, and kept saying, “Oh, what if there’s an emergency and I can’t find your veins?”
“Then you aren’t qualified to be a nurse. Please find me somebody who is.”
I hear this one a lot. If finding a vein in an emergency is so incredibly difficult, then EMTs are severely underpaid.
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“I’m afraid you have me mixed up with someone else, because there’s no way you could have possibly just said something so rude and unfounded to me. Why don’t you go back to the nurse’s station and think about who you should be saying that to.”
I hope the nurse apologized after the baby was born. Although when I had a baby in only a few hours, they complained that labor had gone too quickly! LOL!
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Jess Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 5:49 pm (Quote)
I have a friend who is being induced this week for her third (and was induced for her second), because her first birth went “too fast”. She labored at home not knowing she was in active labor and delivered about 45 minutes after arriving to the hospital. It makes absolutely no sense to me. Sigh.
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Jane Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 5:54 pm (Quote)
Third baby was born about 10 minutes after I got to the hospital. They called her the BulletBaby.
I get that precipitous labor is a problem. And I totally understood why a friend-of-a-friend was induced for that reason when she was an hour from the hospital and her husband worked an hour from home…and she’d only labored two hours with her first baby. 
But yeah, it seems as if everything we do is wrong in labor and delivery. Either you’ve labored too long or not long enough, etc.
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This sounds like the hospital I toured when pregnant w/my first (in case I had to transfer) — the L&D tour guide acted like everyone would get an epidural, and most if not all would get an episiotomy or a C-section. And this was just 5 years ago.
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The Deranged Housewife had this to say,
Feb 8, 2010 @ 6:18 pm (Quote)
Jess, I know a few women who had truly precipitous labors. They were trying to induce her and I believe she did go in and have her water broken (the old ‘baby is measuring small’ scare) and her son was born within the hour. Another woman gave birth in the doctor’s office LOL! and for her last baby, said screw it and had a lovely homebirth.
Moshermama, your comment about the veins reminded me of my last labor – I showed up at 10, baby was footling breech and they couldn’t get a needle stick on me. LOL Needless to say, the tension in the room was pretty high. We were hoping baby would turn, and he did, but just went the wrong way. I looked like a victim of domestic violence when they were done with me (six needle sticks in all, I think). Funny, the phlebotomists at blood draws *never* have any problems finding a vein…
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Melissa Reply:
February 8th, 2010 at 8:43 pm (Quote)
That’s because phlebotomists use tiny little needles. The needle for an IV (especially one you would need for potential surgery) is comparatively a garden hose.
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erin Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 10:13 am (Quote)
Yes, but I still think it’s reasonable to expect nurses to be able to place an IV, even in an emergency. We expect it of EMTs and they only make half as much.
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Heather P Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 6:36 pm (Quote)
When I had to transfer to the hospital via ambulance for a hemmorhaging miscarriage the EMT used a huge needle and had no problem getting it in.
When I got to the hospital a student nurse turned my other arm into a pincusion using a tiny needle. My veins are not hard to find in the slightest. My whole arm was black and blue from his bungling. Oh, and my hubby caught him typing my blood at the sink in the men’s room. (Yeah, hospitals are more sanitary)
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Meliss Reply:
February 9th, 2010 at 8:49 pm (Quote)
To be fair, starting IVs is a skill that requires a lot of practice, something EMTs have because they regularly have to get lines in people who have lost a lot of blood or are in some other type of shock (which decreases peripheral circulation). Student nurses don’t have much opportunity to practice (though I’m not saying anybody has a responsibility to let them practice on them…)
Finding veins can also be a lot more about luck than skill some days. It’s just not that simple.
That student was a jerk though, and so was whoever was in charge of him. Whoever was supervising that student should not have allowed him to poke somebody who lost a lot of blood and was going through such a traumatic experience, and he should have known his own limitations and stopped. What happened to you is unjustified and unethical.
And seriously, typing your blood in the bathroom? Hospitals are gross enough. Eww.
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Knitted in the Womb Reply:
February 10th, 2010 at 9:12 am (Quote)
REALLY? Phlebotomists use tiny needles?
It seems to me that IV needles are much smaller than the needle that is used when I donate blood.
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This was said to me with my first. It was so irritating and I did use it as motivation to prove her wrong. No one has said that to me after that birth. I have had two children since.
I would have replied sooner but my computer had to be sent in to be fixed.
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You don’t want to scare me? Then STFU! *bangshead*
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