Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Oct
15
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Time For Me To Go Break Some Bags…”
“Time for me to go break some bags! I need to deliver at least one of these girls before I go home for the evening.” -Midwife getting up to leave a L&D staff event.
There are 18 comments to this post.
Wow, just wow. Obviously someone from the staff meeting must’ve submitted this one. I hope this midwife was confronted and put in her place!
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The Deranged Housewife Reply:
October 16th, 2010 at 5:00 am (Quote)
That’s what I was thinking! “Ooh, someone from the *other side*!” Now I’m curious! LOL
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If she was really that interested in attending a birth that day she could have opted to simply put the request in to a few of the laboring women. BUT NOOOOOO lets just storm in and interject unnecessary intervention on women all the while shaming or scaring them into submission. It’s a sad day when any care provider does this to a patient.
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Indi Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 9:10 pm (Quote)
I don’t see how “requesting” that women hurrying up to give birth would be effective?
Unnecessary intervention is bad, absolutely. But I can’t imagine how telling a woman in labor to “get on with it” would feel good to the woman – or do anything other than cause stress.
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Kim Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 9:18 pm (Quote)
I don’t know how you got that from what I posted because the words requesting the mother hurry up and give birth were not in my reply. Also the follow up sentences should have clued you in but I guess you need more of an explanation so OK. She could have requested to attend the births at the MOTHERS approval and not insisted on any interventions. If she was so keen on attending a birth her time schedule should not have been taken into consideration at all. Clear enough or are you still feeling hyper sensitive today?
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Indi Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 10:37 pm (Quote)
“If she was really that interested in attending a birth that day she could have opted to simply put the request in to a few of the laboring women.”
sounded to me like you were saying that her “requesting to laboring women” was the means to the goal of “attending a birth that day” (before she went home). I couldn’t see how that request would accomplish anything, so I asked.
Who is hypersensitive, eh?
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Kim Reply:
October 15th, 2010 at 11:37 pm (Quote)
The process of first asking for permission puts the laboring mother in control of the situation. Then not intervening would mean that labor would take as long as need be. Which means that if the midwife would like to attend SHE would need to adjust her schedule not the laboring mother. Then again I guess some people just don’t understand the simple concept of requests and respect of laboring mothers EH! Sorry to have wasted my time spelling it out yet again. I’m sure this midwife also fails to see where REQUESTING accomplishes anything too.
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Jade Reply:
November 6th, 2010 at 6:18 am (Quote)
I actually understood the quote the same way as Indi did. I too was confused about how “simply putting in the request to a few of the labouring women” would have helped/changed the situation. After your explanation I understand what you meant but I found the initial comment ambiguous also.
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I was all prepared to talk about what an idiot this OB was…and then I realized: it’s a midwife. Or Medwife. Whatever. I just think it’s worse when her very nursing profession is guided by evidence based research and she’s just so damned ignorant to it. I’m so disgusted.
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I’ve had 7 babies and I can tell you, they look much better and I feel much better if the bag is left alone and stays intact until the last moments. Their poor little faces and heads are rounder. With intact bags, I didn’t tear. Every time my bag of waters was broken before the very last moments of birth, I tore (except for baby #1 with the episiotomy). Leave that bag intact unless there is a real reason! If I am blessed to labor and birth again, I will request hands off!
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch had this to say,
Oct 15, 2010 @ 7:35 pm (Quote)
I can think of a few better things to break, the most socially acceptable of which would be an employment record. Please tell me somebody reported this woman.
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I just hate how nonchalant practitioners act about doing things to their patients.
Even if a water break were indicated, it’s still not cool to talk about it like this, like you’re going to go pull some weeds in your garden or something.
Do they even realize that they are doing very invasive and personal things to real people? How numb can you be?
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This one is mine. I volunteer at this L&D unit. We were at a going away lunch for one of the nurses, and the midwife said this to me, the (excellent) IBCLC, and a couple of the technicians as she left the event.
Several things are nearly as obnoxious as the fact that she was so flippant. These ‘girls’ were all grown women, and at least one was an active duty military member. Also, I was hugely pregnant at the time, and would have delivered in this hospital had I gone that route. So she was totally comfortable making it known that the hospital schedule was much more important than the Moms and Babies.
Sadly, this is actually the best hospital in the area to have a baby in. Luckily, I knew the deal, and I recently gave birth to our third child at home. Much nicer midwife there just in case we needed her, Daddy did the baby catching and my closest friend here did virtually all the labor support for my husband and I. 
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Add Your Comment.
WTF? It never ceases to amaze me when midwives choose to abuse.
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Lindsey Carr-Ruck Reply:
October 18th, 2010 at 6:15 pm Lindsey Carr-Ruck(Quote)
I really, REALLY hope this was a hospital/center based nurse-midwife and NOT a homebirth midwife. I can’t imagine myself EVER speaking those words, much less DOING either one: breaking water for sport or leaving a laboring mother.
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