Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Aug
27
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Well, We Wouldn’t Want To Have…The Janitor Walking Around Behind You In The Halls…”
“Well, we wouldn’t want to have to have the janitor walking around behind you in the halls, mopping up your amniotic fluid!” -L&D Nurse/Childbirth Educator to a mother who asked in class about walking in labor.
There are 34 comments to this post.
Alyson Miers had this to say,
Aug 27, 2010 @ 4:21 pm (Quote)
Yeah, right, because childbirth is supposed to be elegant and tidy. *eyeroll*
I’m not hearing any “what’s best for the laboring mother and her baby” evidence here.
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Gee, even 30+ years ago, we figured out that a sanitary napkin or diaper in the underwear would absorb amniotic fluid and keep things “neat and tidy”. Surely people are as smart if not more so today.
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Robyn Reply:
August 28th, 2010 at 12:10 pm (Quote)
You’d be surprised. I had some room mates that thought this one movie, “Idiocracy”, was the greatest movie in the world. It took two perfectly average people from our time and put them into time capsules. The project got forgotten about until a few hundred years go by. Their capsules get broken open and due to the evolution of man, these two people are the world’s greatest geniuses. Essentially, the way it showed the evolution was that the intelligent people tried planning their pregnancies until the time was “just right” and had few, if any, offspring while the stupid people were breeding like rabbits. I felt like I lost IQ points just watching the movie. And what scares me most is that I think this is truly the direction that our evolution is taking us; increasingly stupid people. If not, then why the hell is stuff like “Jackass” so popular?!
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Heather Reply:
August 28th, 2010 at 12:25 pm (Quote)
You know, that line of thinking is partly why my husband and I are trying to breed like rabbits–my IQ is 138 and his is in the 130s, too. Not geniuses, no, but gifted. And part of that gift was realizing the fallacy in waiting–because the future is uncontrollable and unpredictable. Just like birth!
Of course I have issues getting pregnant, lol. Of course.
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Krista Reply:
September 8th, 2010 at 1:23 pm (Quote)
To be honest, that’s one of my favorite movies. lol! It’s a horrible, sadly realistic principle and I like that they’re able to portray it in a way that appeals to a lot of people. All I can hope for is that things make a big turnaround so it doesn’t come true. 
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Hahah! Reminds me of my labor. My waters broke in a huge gush at home and continued to gush when I walked at the hospital. Despite my pad some of it got on the floor… but what are janitors for? They clean up the messes, and if they are hospital janitors, they’ve seen worse. Not a valid reason for restricting women to their beds during a very uncomfy time.
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Oh my word really? My water was leaking well before my contractions started and when I finally made it to the hospital I just wanted to sit ina nice warm shower (which was allowed), but before that I was up walking all around the mall and my house with no issue because I put on a sanitary napkin. Not to mention that most women do not have their water leak like I did any way.
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The hallways of the hospital that I gave birth in the first time had carpeted floors. My husband and I weren’t the only couple walking the halls in labor either. It was encouraged. They did tell us to let them know if my water broke, but its not like it was a big deal.
Besides? Every hear of this great invention called a Maxi Pad? The L&D unit should have big post-partum sized ones available. They don’t just work for blood and urine.
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With my 1st birth I was a homebirth to hospital immediately post partum for complications with the baby (he fully recovered) and, even though I was wearing 2 pads I soaked through both and left a trail of blood from the ER enterance all the way up to the mother/baby unit. I felt bad for the janitor myself but nobody said anything, somehow I doubt ppl who turn a blind eye to copious amounts of blood will get squeamish over a little amniotic fluid!
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Dear.. you do know that the fluid doesn’t just keep on leakin’ right?? For me it didn’t anyway. It broke initially, leaked for about a half hour then I guess baby’s head was blocking the rest!
Not to mention, they didn’t invent pads for nothin!
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That’s stupid reasoning, but in my case it would be true. I gushed like crazy, and even with THREE heavy-duty pads, I still leaked through my PJs and left a trail behind me, and that was just from one room to another(I spent the night overnight in the hospital for a different reason, and just happened to go into labor). But you know what? I didn’t care. If anyone is so grossed out by amniotic fluid (a pretty benign substance in comparison to some bodily fluids, all in all), maybe a hospital is not the best place for them to seek employment.
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Lady Anne Reply:
September 2nd, 2010 at 7:36 pm (Quote)
For what it’s worth, sanitary napkins wouldn’t work well with amniotic fluid because – well, blood is thicker than water. The fluid would simply go right through the pads. However, Depends or something specifically made for urinary leakage will do the trick, though. The two products have different densities. BUT – that was a darned stupid remark for the so-called Childbirth Educator to make. Surely the hospital has incontinence products on hand. Yeesh!
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Isn’t that what a janitor gets paid for?
Out of all the things the average hospital janitor has to clean up, amniotic fluid would probably be the least unpleasant (says the person who used a roll of paper towels to soak up her friend’s amniotic fluid from the car seat after her water broke on the way to the hospital)
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Well, this was my story, and the entire hospital childbirth class was a bit of a joke. I asked about not having an epidural, and was told that 98% of patients get one. Okay, but what if I don’t want one? She put some Lamaze principles on the PowerPoint but pretty clearly did not adhere to them in her discussion. There were other, infinitely more awesome and accommodating L&D nurses in this hospital, but this one was a little crazy.
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They said something similar to a friend of mine when she was in labor and desperate to get out of the room and move. The nurse told her she could walk in the room. HA! Yeah, whole lot of moving getting done in that 4′x4′ corner over there. Wish I had known then about the undies they supply and let her know she could tell the nurse off. Also, WHY don’t more hospitals have the wire-less monitors? Seriously! Oh, wait, then they couldn’t tether a woman to a bed, thereby making all their interventions “necessary”.
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I don’t know… I had PROM with two babies. One gushed, the other trickled. The gushy one only gushed if I rolled over in bed or moved from sitting to standing. Once I was upright, baby’s head pretty much stopped up the leak.
And pads worked just fine for me, too.
Looks like nurse was trying to excuse her own laziness or the hospitals policies, aka Arbitrary Rules that Ensure Adequate Influx of Cash.
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Stephanie P had this to say,
Aug 30, 2010 @ 6:45 am (Quote)
And THIS is why I didn’t want to go to the childbirth classes. I was afraid of what kind of craziness they’d be telling me. I took the tour the hospital offered so I would know where to go, but at no point did the nurse give us any ‘advice’ except that when the warming bed came out, that meant baby was about to come out.
When I arrived at delivery for my first and they asked me I’d taken the classes and I said no, the nurse just smiled and said that I obviously didn’t need it because I was doing great on my own. Of course my hospital is pro-breastfeeding, pro-mama/baby in the same room, anti-c-section except in emergencies, anti-intervention except when necessary, and anti-elective induction. They also have midwives on staff now. I had no fear that I could trust the staff and doctors.
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Honeybee Reply:
August 30th, 2010 at 8:15 pm (Quote)
I want to know where your hospital is. And can we clone it and put it here? Two hospitals in the area, and neither are mid-wife friendly.
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Stephanie P Reply:
August 31st, 2010 at 6:24 am (Quote)
I live in Eastern Canada, as I believe I may be one of few Canadians here. I definitely think the model of my hospital and the Toronto Sick Kids hospital is excellent and the jewel of Canadian healthcare. Whatever people say about our system up north, I can’t imagine what I would do without the kind and dedicated staff here at our hopsital. Now, there are certainly some docs who would be worthy of MOBSW, but like any where if you know your rights and are clear about them with your healthcare team, even the worst doctor can work to help you give birth to a happy, healthy baby.
Also, something I love about our system which I only discovered during my 3rd delivery was that before any intervention can take place, a supervising doctor has to be called in to assess and allow permission. This means no vaccuums, forceps, pitocin, epidural, shots of any variety, and most of all C-Sections. Our OBs are not also surgeons. They have no interest in unecessary C-sections because they don’t make more for performing them (nor do the surgeons!). Same with ALL our interventions. It’s financially sound for Canadian hospitals to use less interventions as it isn’t coming out of my pocket, but their budget.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Aug 31, 2010 @ 1:40 pm (Quote)
The janitor? Certainly not. Janitors are not hired to provide labour support. Here’s a mop.
You *probably* won’t need it. Well, not unless the bag of waters has popped dramatically and early in labour, and the labouring mother in question has been deprived of her underwear as part of the ritual Changing Into The Gown you like to do. Or has been artificially popped for some reason or other (most likely a silly one).
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Add Your Comment.
Um… that’s what pads are for, mkay? Really, if L&D has stopped providing them for some odd reason, Mom can bring her own (better yet, Depends! Much more comfy and secure). This is unbelievable.
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