I guess the OB should have thought of this type of situation BEFORE he went into med school!

Being that doctors are so well-versed in statistics, I’m surprised the OB didn’t consider that only about 4% of women actually give birth on their EDDs.

I was born on Christmas Eve (the German equivalent of Christmas Day in terms of family time) AND it was 6 days past the EDD…ah, the good old days…babies came when they came (and there were apparently 5 other babies born that day in the same hospital).

Ugh, what a bastard. It’s your job doc! Babies arrive when they are ready, so deal with it! Was it Bradley who commented he’d never met a baby who could read a calendar?

Seriously?
And what was the ‘medical indication’ in her records?
Failure to conceive at doc’s convenience?
Emergency induction due to schedule conflict?

At least you’re not Jewish and don’t have 8 days of family time?

(Not said against Jews. I love Jews and when I have my own family I’m giving some serious consideration to adopted a couple celebrations.)

Okay, I can understand, who wants to work holidays? But come on! I was born by a scheduled Cesarean on New Year’s. Suck it up. You’re in a bad field if you want things to be predictable, dude.

(It just now occurred to me, 28 and a half years later… I sure hope the doc had nothing to drink the night before.)

I kind of got the same thing when my due date was the friday before labor day weekend. (Oh, the irony) Luckily my baby was born while my OB was on vacation.

I don’t feel sorry at all for an OB because they don’t want to work on Christmas. I don’t want to work on Chirstmas either, but I do. I just plan to do family Christmas stuff on a different day. But my job doesn’t involve risking somebody else’s health.

I was due on Christmas Eve with my first. My midwife was awesome about it and said to call her if I do go in to labor, no problems!

She did go on to say that I probably wouldn’t because in all the years she was practicing, she never had a Christmas baby. She was right, he hung in there until the first week of January.

I have a question for the doctor: When you signed up for the OB track at Med School, didn’t you realize that you would be on call at times that might not always be convenient for you, like Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving?

“Sure, doctor. Would you mind putting that in writing first, though? This *is* standard of care, right? To induce because it’s Christmas?”

Dude, if you want to work banker’s hours, don’t be a doctor. Be a banker.

Maybe he should be reminded that there are 12 days of Christmas. It’s just a fact of life that an OB or midwife might need to work on a holiday. I know my uncle, who is a retired OB, always had his pager with him at family functions in case one of his patients went into labour, and it was understood that he’d have to leave if that happened.

Babies are inconvenient by nature. If you don’t want to put up with inconvenience and interruption, certain careers are contraindicated, including:

Obstetrician
Pediatrician
Hospital nurse (any floor)
Nursing home nurse
Birth doula
Midwife
Mother

(All nurses other than those that work in office settings are included due to rotating shift work. Most nurses can count on having to work at least several holidays out of the year, if not all of them.)

Good grief.

Points for honesty, but this doctor is clearly in the wrong profession.

At least he was honest. I hope the mom had the sense to say no!

With my 3rd child, my midwife brought up the idea of induction when I was only 17 WEEKS along!! Are you kidding me?! I told her there was no way I was letting her induce me, unless there was a valid medical reason for it, and guess what….there never was, and I went into labor on my own.

But I’m Jewish!

My little sister was born on Christmas Day. The doctors and nurses left my mother and father -alone- for hours. They didn’t feed them, even after my sister was born. They were so hungry. Doctors and nurses that have to work on Christmas day are mean and bitter! It’s their chosen profession….they should have more respect and compassion.