Right, because women are not human beings capable of feeling what’s going on inside of them. If a computer doesn’t confirm it, there’s no possible way it can be true! grrrrrrr

I love how medical professionals think that equipment knows better than a mother. Like when my water had been gushing like a water balloon every time I stood up, yet they were “checking to see” if it “really broke.” I’m like, if my water didn’t break, I have a serious medical problem!

This makes me laugh not because its funny, but because they tried to brush off my contractions too. I started having them around 36 weeks and they were a bit intense though they were spread out. Since it was my first kid, this worried me. All they did was say “Oh its too early for you to be having contractions, most new mothers go past their due date.” Well not me! I had my son at 38 weeks.

Its annoying that they rely on machines instead of what the mother is feeling and her body language. I always love those comments “I don’t need to check you, I can tell where you’re at.” Its so true, with a little observation you can get so much information!

I never got that stupid belt to stay on me correctly, so heaven only knows what it would pick up. I’d say, ‘That was a strong one,’ and the midwife with her hand on my abdomen would say, “Yep,” whereas the machine said there was nothing at all.

So….the stupid belt’s fault? or no contraction whatsoever? Hmm.

And then once the monitor is on, they start treating the monitor rather than the mom. THey walk in, look at the monitor, look at the chart, say “Everything looks good” and walk out again.

(On the other side of the spectrum, during my one induction, the midwife came tearing into the room in a panic, and I looked up from the book I was reading, and my husband looked up from the book he was reading, and she skidded to a stop, then looked at me, looked at the monitor, looked back at me, and then said, ‘You’re a lot calmer than I thought you would be.”

Apparently the monitor was telling her I was having contractions enough to deliver the moon, and I was sitting in bed stupidly thinking I was experiencing no pain whatsoever. LOL!

(No dilation was taking place. I guess the uterus was just….flexing? No clue.)

w/ my 2nd, the doc told me i was too happy to be in labor for real and that my contractions weren’t following any kind of pattern, so they might send me home. i told him my water had broken, so he couldn’t. it took a few more hours, but i laughed and talked and joked the whole time, even during transition, and my contractions never got regular, but my baby was born that morning. women really do know their bodies and it annoys me when docs think they know better just b/c they have a medical degree.

It’s as though the monitor’s supposed to have the baby, the mother is just there as an afterthought. So what would a computer give birth to when it’s ready, anyway? A miniature Casio calculator? A Blackberry with a built-in PDR?

In all fairness sometimes women who are tired of being pregnant fake contractions to try to be admitted and induced when it’s not necessary.

This is when a little palpation and observation goes a long way!

::snort:: THIS is why I always tell a client I believe them over the monitor and try to distract dads away from looking at it like it is the score at some sporting event. Gah!

The ONE thing the monitor did for me was help my husband support me. He was clueless about birth at the time, but he loves computers. So he would watch it like a hawk, and as soon as it started going up, he would remind me to take a deep breath, and then he’d turn to me and support me through the contraction, while keeping an eye on the monitor. That way, as soon as it peaked, he would tell me, so I would know the worst was over. This was an induction, so it was hard. But I enjoyed my home births much more.
**I do not condone routine use of monitors. I am just sharing a story!**

Granola you are so right. There have been times I’ve had to physically stay at the bedside for 20-30 minutes palpating contractions to gather information about the contractions so I could report to the physician or before increasing Pitocin prior to placement of an IUPC. Palpation is almost a lost art in this computer age. If a woman is sitting up straight, the best location for the tocodynameter and transducer, AKA: monitor is at the top of her abdoman. The ledge we all develop. I’ve had the most success there.
PS….I had a woman deliver with contractions q 5 minutes. She had several children. Prior to that I wouldn’t have believed the powers (force) of the contractions would give us a baby. Haven’t seen it since. I’ve learned anything is possible.

Jane, you needed to include she has beads of sweat on her upper lip and she is irritable, B/P is rising along with moving about the bed frequently trying to get comfortable. I’d like to think all of you had new, inexperienced nurses versus an oldtimer. Jane, if anyone breaks into your house, you don’t need a gun, just use that sharp tongue of yours. You’ll verbally anilate(sp) the intruder. LOL/ smart***

After I had baby #3, my doula told me she’d thought, after getting to the hospital, that we’d gone there too soon because I seemed to be handling contractions so well. When the nurse checked, I was at 10m and ready to push.

Since they seem to think the monitor is the one in labor, why don’t they give it the exams, the epidural,episiotomy and the c-section and leave the mom alone and in peace?

Lisa, ,I am sorry you had this happen. I really wish nurses and doctors/midwives (not all midwives are good ones) would listen to women and not the machine.

I was told that I was not in labour either because once on the machine my contractions slowed right down, even though I had like 3 in 5 minutes while the nurse was setting up the machine (she believed me, it was the resident who didn’t) The funny thing was a couple minutes later he witnessed a contraction and in a panicky voice asked if I wanted an epidural (but I thought I wasn’t in labour!? lol)

I also had a friend, also a young first time mom, who was in labour and the midwife didn’t believe her because she (the midwife) wasn’t “feeling them in the right place” and tried to give mom a sleeping pill and I think Tylenol. Another midwife, hearing mom screaming in pain came to check and she was pretty much ready to push. The first midwife got in trouble for not believing mom just because her labour wasn’t “textbook” (this was in the UK, where most moms are under the care of midwives)

Just goes to show that care providers really need to look more at how the woman is acting than the machine, which is known to not be very reliable.

I had something similar happen to me with my second. My husband called the midwife to tell her I was having contractions every 5 minutes and when I got on the phone she told me they werent real if I could talk through them but to go to the hospital just in case since her attending dr was on call. They hooked me up to the monitor and the nurse tells the dr “she says she’s having contractions but they’re not showing up on the monitor” To his credit he actually said it didnt matter what the monitor was saying, it only mattered if I was dilating. Aside from that the dr was a total @ss!

Several years ago, I was called in to work on a very busy Saturday night. It was one of those nights that I ended up in every patient’s room and couldn’t tell you what my original patient/patient’s assignment was/were. Everyone was delivering or being sectioned. I was told at 2330pm to cover room 13. Her nurse was going to the OR with her other patient. My report was, she was 7cm. We normally give a better report than that, but it was that crazy. I walked down to the room, opened the door and lying on the bed is a very, very large woman in a pink tube top, a sheet covering her, flat on her back with oxygen on. This woman being flat on her back with O2 is an oxymoron. so, I mentally pushed up my sleves to turn her on her side. The turning on her side became just wedging on her side. The scalp electrode came off so I tried very hard to pick up heart tones with the external monitor. No go. i hate placing scalp electrodes inless the baby needs it. So I placed another scalp electrode. In the process, I found she was complete at a -2 station with absolutely no urge to push. She had an epidural that was more like a spinal. I explained she was complete but the baby was high and I was going to let her labor down before pushing, explaining what laboring down meant. I then click onto the computer to get to know my patient. It’s her first pregnancy, she has hypertension, gestational diabetes, obesity, and GBS+. Did I mention she had one of those summer colds. The deep congested sounding kind? Well, about this time, she coughed and I heard this sound. Now, I knew what the sound was, but I was in denial at that point. the patient said “I think there’s something between my legs”. You know the horror flicks where the person has to look under a sheet?, well, that was me. The baby not only had shot out like a bullet, but had made a 90 degree turn between her legs. He looked like a little fish that landed on a pier; arms and legs moving, mouth going, he was beautiful for a human cannon ball. Sadly, when I’m extremely upset I will fall short and say a curse word. So, the first word this little fella heard on a Sunday morning was “Oh S*@#”. The little guy went straight to the breast and like the little professional he was, immediately latched on. I delivered the placenta, gave her pitocin IM (our protocol) and had her cleaned up before the doctor arrived. The doctor said “what happened?” Before I could give a report, the patient piped up and said” Well it’s like this Doctor —–, I coughed and farted and the baby came out”. I could just shake my head in the affirmative motion. Never in a thousand years would I have thought a first time mother at a -2 station could deliver within 15 mins of me coming into the room. Mom and dad were estatic. I’m sure I have PTSD.

I ALWAYS believe the mom…I don’t care if it turns out she is one cm or completely dilated. Only the MOM knows what her pain is like. I have seen so many deliveries where they go from zero to delivery in a few minutes.
I hear those stories about the nurse/MD not believing the woman….but I don’t understand it. I have nursed for 33 yrs and most of them have been L&D and I just don’t understand the need for the external monitoring other than doppler for a normal delivery.
Outcomes are shown to be no different than with all the machinery. So…why not make it simple for the mom? I tell the mom’s I look after : you are the queen of the room…just so there is no mistake….
btw Thea: that’s the kind of delivery I like to have! nice and simple!

Having been in OB for a little over a year, I’ve learned quickly that, for unmedicated mom’s at least, it’s more accurate to judge where she is in labor by how she’s acting than by her exam. If she’s laboring like she’s in transition but her exam says she’s 4, she’s probably moving quick. I’ve seen moms go from closed to complete in an hour and a half in spontaneous labor and I’ve had to catch the head because the docs were moving too damn slow. (don’t even get me started on cytoblast, I mean cytotec)

But back to the OPs original topic. If that birdbrained nurse had any experience at all, she’d know that the first rule of nursing is “look at the patient, not the monitor.” Equipment isn’t foolproof, especially those contraction monitors. If they’re not lying flat against the skin, or they’re over a knee, or a butt, or they’ve flipped up, they aren’t going to pick up contractions. When there’s a discrepancy between what the monitor is telling you and what the mom is saying (and doing), lay your hand on her frickin belly and feel what it’s doing! (It also irritates the ever loving snot out of me when I read comments on here about contractions “not looking very strong” on an external monitor and mom’s birthing soon after; the external doesn’t show strength, and that should be common knowledge).

It’s not just an OB thing either. We’ve become waay to reliant on the machine that goes ping in healthcare. In short, OP, I’m sorry you fell victim to the ever increasing reliance on technology. Nurses as a whole would do well to remember that our most valuable tools are our eyes, ears, hands, hearts and brains. A little critical analysis never hurt anybody.

Sorry, this is a huge pet peeve of mine. It does such a disservice to the people we care for when we forget that we care for people, not machines.

Okay, rant over

the telemtry monitor i had broke because i took it in the shower. the heart monitor worked, but the contraction monitor didn’t.

i loved my nurse because she said “you’re working hard and want it to register!!” lol but then again, I had friendly nurses who respected me.

That was EXACTLY what I was told when I was in labor with my son. I went from 4 to 7 to 10 while I was “not having” strong contractions. Oh yeah, and that progress happened in less than 20 minutes.

Cmat you racist