Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Mar
2
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Oh For God’s Sake, Why Didn’t Somebody Give This Woman An Enema?”
“Oh for God’s sake why didn’t somebody give this woman an enema?” -OB to woman birthing in 1969. She still remembers these words to this day.
There are 25 comments to this post.
How humiliating! 
And still remembered 40+ years later.
As much as we (rightly) complain about the state of American obstetrics today, you have to admit, things are not as barbaric as they once were. We are, thankfully, making progress, and all the news isn’t bad. It’s too bad that so many doctors today have attitudes that are still kickbacks to this era, and even older. But we’re getting there.
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Everything I’ve read indicates that an enema doesn’t actually ensure that you won’t poop while delivering.
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I submitted this one – this happened to my mother when she was in labour with me. Yes, she was completely humiliated. He also made an unkind remark about the fact she hadn’t been shaved before delivery. Apparently that was the standard procedure back in 1971 – shave all the pubic hair off and give the woman an enema, so the doctor had a ‘nice, clean vagina to work with’.
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Heather P Reply:
March 2nd, 2010 at 7:19 pm (Quote)
Ugh. I feel for your mother. “Nice, clean, vagina to work with” means “So, I can see better to cut”
I have a copy of an emergency childbirth pamplet that my mother was given during her prenatal class in 1976. A few of the juicy tidbits were:
-Have the mother lay down on her back with her knees up.
-Periodicaly clean her external genetelia with a soapy sponge. You may have to do this several times. Be sure to scrub well and keep her hands away from her vagina. Nothing about the attendant washing hands.
-It is important to tie off the cord immediately. If you can’t find anything clean to cut it with than tying it will be sufficient. Use a shoelace if you can’t find anything else.
-Hold the baby upside down and smack its feet to make it cry (paraphrasing here)
It did get right to not pull on the cord and bundle baby up close to mom after the birth. Nothing about nursing the baby to contract the uterus.
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Jane Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:14 am (Quote)
According to “Birth AsAn American Rite Of Passage,” one of the governing principles of obstetrics (at the time the book was written) was that the baby was clean and the mother was dirty.
So just about everything of the mother had to be removed, restrained, sterilized, or improved by science, thus turning the baby into the hospital’s baby, with the hospital then graciously allowing the mother to take possession of her output at the end of the hospital stay once she understood that she was too defective to produce the baby, but now had to parent it.
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And then you go to 1950′s emergency manuals & they say to leave the cord. http://www.umbrellanoize.com/stuff/Emergency%20Childbirth.pdf pg 14/38
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Jena Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 6:13 am (Quote)
How did we go from THAT to THIS: http://myobsaidwhat.com/2010/01/15/ill-just-pinch-it-closed-right-here/
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Heather P Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 7:48 am (Quote)
That manual was revised in 1998. And it was written by Gregory White, who was married to one of LLL’s founders and attended several homebirths, including those of his own children. Still, they knew these simple things in the 1950′s and still are doing stupid things.
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I remember my L&D nurse telling me that this would probably happen, but not to worry because it’s totally natural. She said if it did happen she’d just clear it away and we probably wouldn’t even notice because we’d be too busy enjoying one of the most beautiful moments of our life! Even though her shift was over before our baby was actually born (and it was her last shift ever as an L&D nurse), she called the unit the next day to see how everything went and send us her well wishes. I love how much our world has changed since we were all born. I feel just awful for what our mothers endured at the hands of ‘professionals’.
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mommymichael had this to say,
Mar 3, 2010 @ 9:03 am (Quote)
I think this is the one i submitted (year is 1969). my mom was having my eldest sister. a total 4 hour labor. there was no time for anything.
i can’t imagine the humiliation.
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Trish Reply:
March 3rd, 2010 at 5:35 pm (Quote)
HI mommymichael – snap!! I submitted it, and got confused about whether it was my birth or my older sister’s when I commented (1969 and 1971.) I got an email the other day from the site admins telling me it was about to be published (I sent it several weeks ago). I’m sure this awful thing happened to many, many mothers back in those days! When I was in labour with both my girls I was aware that the midwife was cleaning away the mess during labour, but neither she (or my husband, bless him) had anything to say about it, it was just part of labour. I made a conscious effort not to be embarrassed by it because of my mother’s experience.
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Paper Raisins had this to say,
Mar 3, 2010 @ 10:20 am (Quote)
In 1976 when my mom was in labor with me she had the shave and enema treatment. She said the shaving was the worst because she was healing from a tear and the whole area was itchy with the re-growth. One thing that was great though was that she had labored at a friends house who was a nurse, she stayed there until she felt she had to go in, so great support!
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Wow, when I pooped during my first labor, they just wiped it away, and my husband told me about it later. The second time, the only reason I noticed I had pooped was because my husband suddenly decided to get out of the birth pool. 
Can’t imagine being yelled about over it.
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Karen Reply:
March 9th, 2010 at 7:59 pm (Quote)
Uh, that last sentence was bad English. I blame my pregnant brain. 
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Cmat Reply:
March 30th, 2010 at 6:48 pm (Quote)
I wasn’t told either. I knew one of the times, but the nurse never said anything, just wiped it away and kept going. I can’t imagine being whined at about it either. They tell you to push like you’re having a bowel movement.. its bound to produce something!
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Not mine, but I was talking to a doula friend once, and while she was training, some of the older nurses were sharing some stories from “back when”.
There was apparently this doctor that nobody liked, and he was on for the day. They gave this mom a routine enema, but she still couldn’t go. She was progressing pretty quickly, so they just figured the baby’s head had moved down and was closing off the rectum. They didn’t tell the doctor though. Sure enough, once the baby came out the doctor stood up and he got COVERED from his chest down. The nurses thoroughly enjoyed it, but I would feel terrible for the mother.
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oh my stars!
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