Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Mar
6
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Do You Have Any Tattoos?”
“Do you have any tattoos?” – OB Hospital volunteer to a mom naked, shaking and moaning loudly during transition in labor, when the volunteer arrived to ask questions as the mother was donating cord blood after birth.
There are 41 comments to this post.
Becca had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 5:27 am (Quote)
Beat = best. Stupid iPhone
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 4:35 pm (Quote)
No, no, “beat” is a perfectly appropriate word to describe what I’d do in that mother’s shoes. Tattoos? No. But the cord blood collector would be about to get a really nice shiner…
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road2vba2c had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 6:30 am (Quote)
@Meredith (can’t reply on iPod), when I went in for my second c-section, the pre-op nurse found out our first was a girl and the one I was having was a boy and asked, “So we’re tying your tubes today?” I was so freaked out I nearly canceled it all!
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Mama Wrench Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 9:56 am (Quote)
MOST OBs think this way. When I tried explaining to mine that I wanted to avoid a c-section because I plan on having a large family and didn’t want the increased risk, he told me, “Well, just hope your next one is a girl, then!” since I was having a boy.
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Sheva Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 11:55 am (Quote)
How is that even an answer?! Since when does ‘one of each’ make it a big family, or a complete family?
I think ‘big family’ is relative, and ‘complete’ is when your heart says so!
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Susan Peterson Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 10:14 pm (Quote)
I think maybe you have to get really specific with them, such as “I am planning on having at least six children.” Or “I am hoping to have six or eight children.”
A woman once said to me in a grocery store “Now you have your boy and your girl and you can stop.” I said “No, I think I will have a baby every 18 months for the next ten years. ” She turned white, turned on her heel and walked away without a word. Which was what I wanted to accomplish.
Oh, and I came pretty close to doing just what I said. I had one ever 17 to 22 months for the next ten years, then one more three years later, adding up to nine.
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Charity Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 5:35 am (Quote)
I get that a lot too! I have a boy and two girls. After the first girl everyone said I should stop since I had one of each. When I found out the next was another girl I heard, “Oh you poor thing! You’ll have to try again for another boy!” And now that I’m preggo again, everyone’s saying, “The family needs a boy!” What’s the first boy? Chopped liver? It bothers me so much when people think 2 kids is a big family, 3 is just unmanageable, and 4 warrants entry to the insane asylum! Who are these people to judge? Just because they couldn’t picture more than 2 kids doesn’t mean I haven’t always wanted at least 4!
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shannon Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 12:49 pm (Quote)
I agree. I have 4 boys and am currently pregnant with a girl due in July (hooray!) but I think everyone we know thought we had enough at 3. People seem to assume that I’ve been “trying for a girl” and this will be our last. Honestly we weren’t “trying” at all really, just not preventing. Letting our family grow naturally I guess, lol! But it bugs me that while I’m pregnant people keep asking if this is my last, or if I feel like I’m done now. I don’t think my husband and I really know if this is the last or not. I’m not even 30 yet, so it seems a bit early to make a decision of such finality, especially when I consider my ability to carry and bear children to be a blessing. Why do people think our procreation is their business?
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Heather P Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 8:54 pm (Quote)
Even having a two kid family I get this. I had a complete stranger walk up to me out of the blue in the grocery store to inform me that my two daughters needed a brother. I was livid. I spluttered something angry out and promptly left. I would be overjoyed to have a son too, but its not going to happen and not some stanger’s business.
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jespren had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 8:39 am (Quote)
Clearly this person isn’t in for a long career as a…well anything that requires interaction with people.
On another note as followup to above comments (can’t reply from my cell either) and yet whenever someone claims they were sterilized against their consent or without their knowledge ppl always insist it NEVER happens or even COULD happen without a signed consent form 30 days from the surgery date already in the notes. Yet how many times have we heard just on this site of doctors and nurses asked DAY OF ‘so you want your tubes tied right?’ Is it really that difficult to believe that every once in a while some god-complex doctor just does it without the obligitory ‘tying your tubes right?’.
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Jane Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 9:12 am (Quote)
It depends on the form of payment, actually.
From here: http://fructusventris.stblogs.org/archives/2005/05/read-it-and-wee-1.html
An interesting tidbit – the Federal Family Planning law has for several years required that consent for any sterilizing operation (including a hysterectomy pre-menopause) be consented for at least 30 days in advance. This can be waived to 72 hours only in very specific circumstances. A hospital that ignores this law will not only not get paid for the operation, but for any other bills incurred duing that hospital stay. But private insurance has no such safety clause.
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Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 4:38 pm (Quote)
The sOB that kept badgering me to schedule a repeat c-section rather than “make” him attend a VBAC that probably wouldn’t go well anyway also kept pushing to have me tie my tubes while I was there. Probably because I was just a Medicaid patient. Jerk.
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Summer Reply:
March 2nd, 2012 at 4:53 am (Quote)
When my mother had me, she had planned on getting her tubes tied when she had her repeat C-section, but changed her mind at 6 months pregnant and got it off her records… they tied her tubes anyway. Well she had her C-section under general, The doctor just thought she was to young to be having babies, he “fixed” the “problem” saying he “forgot” after her reminding him at every apt there on out. (She was 15 when she has my sister and 16 with me) She was young and did know she had the right to sue the living sh*t out of them, so all she pushed for was for them to un-do it for free. Well after 17 ectopic pregnancies/ miscarries, she realized she would never be able to have more children …. So its just me and my older sister.
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Liz Chalmers had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 10:25 am (Quote)
A friend of mine, after a long labor, was just getting in the shower at the hospital when a student came in and said he wanted to ask her questions as part of a survey. She politely said no, she wanted to have a shower, and he replied “That’s OK, I’ll shout the questions through the shower door”.
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tattoo question makes sense.
you can’t donate blood if you got a tattoo in the past year.
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Kat Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 10:57 am (Quote)
The question makes sense, it’s the TIMING that is off. At least wait until the contraction is over, yeesh!
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Aleyna Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 1:19 pm (Quote)
Actually, it depends upon the state you donate in. As long as your state regulates tattoo studios, you can donate whenever.
From the Red Cross website:
Wait 12 months after a tattoo if the tattoo was applied in a state that does not regulate tattoo facilities. This requirement is related to concerns about hepatitis. Learn more about hepatitis and blood donation.
Acceptable if the tattoo was applied by a state-regulated entity using sterile needles and ink that is not reused. There are 32 states that currently regulate tattoo facilities. You should discuss your particular situation with the health historian at the time of donation.
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Not the best time, but still, an absolutely essential question to ask as it is very relevant for baby’s health, the procedures done during some births, and donation of blood.
I suspect there’s rarely a good time between arrival at the hospital and when it’s too late, so the staff started just asking whenever they possibly could.
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Jane Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 11:47 am (Quote)
I find it most interesting that in order to pre-register at my hospital, I was required to fill out a six-page form will many questions, such as whether I had any tattoos, my blood type, my date of birth, if I’d ever been to Mars, if I had a history of cancer, etc.
This was submitted to the hospital six weeks in advance. I confirmed that it arrived at the hospital. A copy was in my obstetric records, which were also sent to the hospital when I let them know I was coming in to deliver.
And yet during labor, I had to answer every single one of those questions over again.
Yes, those answers may be essential. But get them BEFORE and then once those questions have been answered, go back to the forms to get the answers again rather than bothering the laboring mom.
In the OP’s case, since she was donating the cord blood, most likely the arrangements had been made far in advance and all those questions could have been answered earlier. Or afterward, after the cord blood had been drawn and labeled. But when the woman is naked and moaning?
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Marissa Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 5:06 pm (Quote)
have you been to mars? cause that would be extremely cool.
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Jen Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 6:48 pm (Quote)
When I was on hospital bedrest for 3 weeks, I had to answer the darn tattoo question (and all the rest) EVERY SINGLE DAY! Yes, I snuck out of the hospital and got a tattoo last night AND finished my doctorate…no wait, my answers are the same as yesterday. Don’t those computers have a save button?
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Elysiarenee Reply:
March 9th, 2011 at 4:53 am (Quote)
Due to our baby having gastroschisis I have a lot more prenatal appointmnets than usual and in a hospital with random OBs everytime -basically the opposite of what I wanted- just to make the situation more annoying every time i have to answer some question or other about my medical history that I have already answered and seen them write in my file. None of them read each others comments or my basic info and it drives me nuts.
At my most recent appointment they even spelled my name wrong on my ultrasound printout. Surely that’s hooked up to the same computer system that the appointments and all my other records are on?!?!
hopsital admin fail.
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JoAnna Reply:
May 26th, 2011 at 8:37 am (Quote)
I had the same experience with my 3rd daughter. I was so annoyed because I’d pre-registered, and I arrived at the hospital 10cm and ready to push. I’m on the bed, waiting for the OB to get there and huffing through contractions in the meantime (my choice, I really wanted him there and he was on his way), and they’re asking me what my religion was and the same stupid questions I’d already filled out on the form. Madness!
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Heather Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 1:30 pm (Quote)
I don’t see how getting a tattoo when I was 21 affects my baby born when I’m 26, several blood tests later, sorry. NOT an essential question.
Now, at a totally different time, and the question “Have you had a new tattoo or piercing in the last six months?” Yes, that’s essential to donating blood. It’s not bloody likely that you got a tattoo while pregnant, though, especially since most tattoo parlors won’t do it as you have an increased risk of scarring/rejection from the reduced healing factor.
However, even my most recent tattoo, at 29, is not going to affect the baby I’m going to have in November, at 31. It’s the minuscule chance of developing a blood-borne infection that poses a hazard, not the tattoo itself.
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So mom is naked as the day she was born and in the middle of the contraction? Volunteer, use your powers of observation and note whether or not she has any tattoos!
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devil is in the details Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 7:29 am (Quote)
But what if there is on on her butt?
Heather, I’m so sorry this happened to you. What hospital has volunteers strolling around naked patients. That seems like two very serious problems. Your husband might want to learn the phase Get the F out NOW! some people just don’t take hints.
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My butt was pretty visible too. I was on my hands and knees leaning over a birth ball.
Sada had this to say,
Mar 6, 2011 @ 12:52 pm (Quote)
@Jaci (another “can’t reply on my phone” issue here, sorry)–not all tattoos are visible, no matter how naked a person is. People get tattoos between toes, inside of their lip, on the back of the neck or scalp where it could be covered by hair…so to put on a medical form that they don’t have one because you don’t see one…well, you’ve heard the little joke about what happens when you “assume”, right? 
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This was me. I wouldn’t have minded so much the question but she was going on and on asking stupid routine questions during the friggen contractions. I moaned louder to drown out her voice and she talked louder. I couldn’t even answer her during the contractions. The nurses and OB knew to keep their mouths shut during contractions. My hubby tried to get her to shut up but he was ignored.
I had no prior intention to donate cord blood. This lady showed up when I was in transition and wanted to know if I wanted to donate. They must have really wanted the blood because she was quite pushy. We told her no because we wanted to wait to cut the cord until after it stopped pulsing. The OB was present and said that we wait to cut the cord and still donate. (blatant lie) So because of the OB saying that we agreed.
After she asked if I had any tattoos, I waited until that contraction was over and looked at her and said “You see any?” I was completely naked.
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Jane Reply:
March 6th, 2011 at 6:05 pm (Quote)
That’s awful. If collecting cord blood was so important, they should have cleared it with you before labor began. In retrospect, when the woman showed up and refused to quit asking questions, you could have told her you retracted consent and would no longer be donating the cord blood.
You did a good thing and were treated terribly. 
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Charity Reply:
March 7th, 2011 at 5:40 am (Quote)
I’m sorry you had to deal with that. Sometimes people just don’t care enough to pay attention to what’s going on around them. I’ve had nurses do the same thing to me when I went in while in labor. Routine, unrelated questions during contractions. With my second I told the nurse to pull my chart and use the same answers from my last birth and refused to answer any more questions. She started asking my husband the questions. He ignored her too. LOL
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Really? Now is the beat time to ask that question? Or any question?
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