Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Mar
5
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“You’re Lucky You Got This Far…”
“You’re lucky you got this far. I don’t let my patients go past 41 weeks 3 days because I don’t want to deliver dead babies.” – OB to mother at 42 weeks.
There are 23 comments to this post.
“Why are you killing all those women’s babies?” (said with total innocence and Great Big Bambi Eyes.)
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Let? LET? You don’t LET your patients? I think you misspoke, doctor, because I believe that YOU work for YOUR PATIENTS not the other way around. You are not the boss of your patients.
Is it just me or is the medical profession the ONLY profession that provides a service and thinks they get to dictate how the people who pay them behave?
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Jane Reply:
March 5th, 2011 at 7:12 am (Quote)
“You’re lucky you got my assistant. I don’t let my clients buy half-page magazine ads because I don’t like the way they look.”
“You’re lucky you drove this far. I don’t let my customers go more than 3000 miles between oil changes because I don’t like to fix seized engines.”
“You’re lucky you waited this long. I don’t let customers of our credit card wait until the payment due-date to pay because I don’t like to wait for my money.”
Yeah, it just doesn’t seem like something that would go over big in any other industry.
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laura grace Reply:
March 5th, 2011 at 9:36 am (Quote)
Oh yes, the “LET” is always the word that sends me into HULKSMASH mode. So infantilizing.
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Kat Reply:
March 5th, 2011 at 12:05 pm (Quote)
Me too!
It’s horrible to hear “We won’t LET you be pregnant past 41 weeks” when you’ve already had one nightmare birth with Pitocin.
It’s troubling when you’re in labor, and after about 3-5 hours the doctor says “You’re not progressing enough, we have to start you on pitocin now” and when you ask to walk they say “We’ll LET you walk for ONE hour and if you haven’t made *enough* progress you have to get pitocin.”
All this for a labor that was 8 hours or less start to finish. I shudder to think what they would have done if I’d been in labor any longer!
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Heather Reply:
March 5th, 2011 at 2:55 pm (Quote)
I get just as mad when people asked why “they” were “letting” me go past 40 weeks *eye roll* or why “they let” me go to 42 weeks. Um, I didn’t “let” them screw up my baby’s timing!
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Holly Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 12:36 pm (Quote)
Not at all. SEVERAL professions provide services and then give you this type of grief.. “I let you”.. dentists, police, doctors, landlords,cell phone companies, etc. These people all WORK for US. WE pay their salaries. Yes, down to the teller at the bank. If no one BANKED there those folks would be out of a job.
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Because none of us are aware that any given statistic is dependent on a number of variable that are often random and unpredictable to the point where an accurate statistic one day with one subject will be entirely incorrect the next day on a different subject.
Because small-scale studies have this flaw, and yet are still used to determine “magic numbers” so doctors don’t actually have to pay attention to their patients; they can just “go by the book”.
Because we’re ALL naive enough to believe that EVERY DOCTOR EVER has our best interests at heart, even though they don’t seem capable of putting their book learnin’ on hold long enough to see what our bodies actually intend to do.
Because, even after years of evolutionary fine-tuning, the human body is BROKEN, and needs to be fixed by a doctor who only understands a small percentage of its actual functions.
Because YOU, good sir, are a blazing fool if you think I’m stupid enough to let you do something to my body that doesn’t need to be done to it. I mean, come ON, it won’t even make me feel better!
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Well, if you don’t want to deliver dead babies then you might want to get out of your profession because sometimes babies do die before they are born- regardless of their gestational age.
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Kat Reply:
March 5th, 2011 at 12:02 pm (Quote)
It’s true. Babies can be stillborn at any time from (whatever age your country defines as the cutoff to call it a stillbirth vs. a miscarriage) to past 40 weeks.
Yes, it’s true going past 42 weeks sometimes increases risks, which is why we do kick counts, non-stress tests, and BioPhysical Profiles to monitor the health of babies past 40 weeks. It’s NOT a good reason to induce everyone at some arbitrary cutoff.
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Jenn Reply:
March 5th, 2011 at 1:26 pm (Quote)
This was actually an on-call OB scheduled to do all of the above mentioned tests for me that day. And, of course, every one of them came back with healthy results.
I made a lot of noise throughout the end of my prenatal care (as I began to hear induction suggestions starting at 38 weeks) that I was NOT interested in an induction. It was noted one my chart several times by various care providers. They did end up “penciling me in” for an induction at 42 weeks. I stalled for several hours past my scheduled check in time, but after numerous calls from the clinic office, I gave into the pressure, packed my bag, and showed up to L&D.
When I got there, imagine my COMPLETE SHOCK when they said, “Now, WE KNOW you don’t want an induction, and I have to tell you that we can’t do anything against your will.” So I said, “Great – how about another round of those tests and then I’ll go home.” Which is exactly what happened.
Baby came on her own two days later, on the eve of the second induction date.
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So glad this topic came up…I have to bite my tongue (or sit on my hands if I’m on the computer) every time someone says “My doctor said he’s not going to let me go past , go visit my parents, etc, etc. I mean, REALLY? And many of these women are ball-busters (so to speak) in every other arena of life. I just don’t get it, and honestly, it pisses me off.
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This was actually an on-call OB scheduled to do all of the above mentioned tests (kick counts, non-stress tests, and BioPhysical Profiles) for me that day. And, of course, every one of them came back with healthy results.
I made a lot of noise throughout the end of my prenatal care (as I began to hear induction suggestions starting at 38 weeks) that I was NOT interested in an induction. It was noted one my chart several times by various care providers. They did end up “penciling me in” for an induction at 42 weeks. I stalled for several hours past my scheduled check in time, but after numerous calls from the clinic office, I gave into the pressure, packed my bag, and showed up to L&D.
When I got there, imagine my COMPLETE SHOCK when they said, “Now, WE KNOW you don’t want an induction, and I have to tell you that we can’t do anything against your will.” So I said, “Great – how about another round of those tests and then I’ll go home.” Which is exactly what happened.
Baby came on her own two days later, on the eve of the second induction date.
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Charity Reply:
March 5th, 2011 at 2:05 pm (Quote)
That’s awesome that they gave you that option! I’ve heard so many horror stories about forced induction at 38-39 weeks I could just cry! With my first, my midwife told me I’d have to schedule an induction if I didn’t have him by my due date. I told her that wasn’t going to happen and I wouldn’t show up until I was in active labor. She left me alone for the rest of the pregnancy and my other two. 
I’m 7 weeks along and she’s already calling me telling me she wants to induce this one since I didn’t make it to the hospital with the last one. Um… No…
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Wow, random much? Oh wait, 3 is a magic number…
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