Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Mar
11
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…Everyone With A Birth Plan Just Ends Up With A Cesarean.”
“Don’t give me your birth plan. Everyone with a birth plan just ends up with a cesarean.” – OB to mother.
There are 30 comments to this post.
Erica Douglas had this to say,
Mar 11, 2011 @ 4:54 am (Quote)
This is why I refuse to write one. I know what I want from my hospital birth (delayed clamping, no eye goop on my baby, no shots, no circumcision, no episiotomy) but that’s why I’ll have a doula – to help tell anyone and everyone who comes near me what I want.
I keep telling my husband that the only things he really needs to know about labor are that whatever I do, it’s normal (ie, puking, crying, laughing, singing, it’s all good) and that I can do it. Other than that, his job is to keep me company.
[Reply]
Cattaca Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 5:11 pm (Quote)
I’m kinda thinking the same thing. I’ve got a doula hired to be with me in the hospital. She’s going to be my walking talking birth plan that will get in the hospital’s face when they try to get around the plan.
I really wanted to do a birth center birth, but am “high risk” (don’t ask) so I couldn’t bring that liability to the center. I totally disagree, but this way everyone but me is happy because they think I’m safer in the hospital.
[Reply]
Louisa Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 5:42 pm (Quote)
Just a word ladies – at least in Australia a doula can not be the voice of a mother/patient and if she tries to say/do anything that the medical professionals see as interferring they can have security remove her from the building and ban her from coming back, even for future clients. My doula encouraged me to have a birth plan because then she could loudly say to me (between contractions) “in your birthplan you stated blah blah blah, is that still your wish or have you changed your mind?” and I could then give verbal consent to do follow my birth plan (or not consent to a procedure) or consent to my plan to be changed. But, she could not go up to them and say “hey, I know my client and she wants delayed cord clamping.”
[Reply]
Wendy Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 6:01 pm (Quote)
I’m in the U.S., but my doula just speaks in code. “It’s getting cold in here” is code to my husband for “The Dr. is about to do something to to your wife. Find out what and why.”
Perhaps I have the wrong impressions, but Australia seems like a repressive environment for having a baby…
[Reply]
Sarah Dorrance-Minch Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 6:25 pm (Quote)
One of the things I noticed about DONA when I was a member (before I came to my senses and realized that no one as tactless as I am has any business becoming a doula) was that DONA guidelines prevent doulas from offering medical advice, obstructing medical professionals in any way, or trying to interfere with hospital procedures. So if you want DONA certification, you can offer hand-holding, back massages, and a whiff of clary sage in a scent ring, but you could get in trouble if you were reported for saying, “That Pit drip wasn’t in your birth plan, and your labour doesn’t seem stalled to me,” or, “My client refused to be a practice subject for med school students, and she’d remind you of that now, only she’s in transition.”
[Reply]
Erica Douglas Reply:
March 12th, 2011 at 5:41 am (Quote)
No, a doula couldn’t stop the doctors, but she can say, “Hey, Erica, the doctor is about to perform an episiotomy. Is that what you want?” Or “They’re getting the pitocin ready. Is that okay with you?”
[Reply]
Charity had this to say,
Mar 11, 2011 @ 5:11 am (Quote)
If everyone with a birth plan in your care has a c-section, you should reflect on your practices because you’re doing it wrong! Maybe this OB meant to say, “Don’t bother giving me a birth plan because I won’t respect your wishes anyway.”
I know my first one never made it to my file and my second one never made it out of my bag. First delivery: hell. Second delivery: a dream. Third one was at home, so it didn’t really matter, did it? Lol
[Reply]
road2vba2c had this to say,
Mar 11, 2011 @ 5:31 am (Quote)
Do they etch this one on OB’s brains upon graduation? How many times do we need to hear it? My OB was quite accepting of my birth plan and, with minimal edits, said she’d sign off on it and put it in my file right next to her large note that says “I WILL LET HER VBA2C”. I love her.
[Reply]
Funny, my OB said that he wanted me to make a birth plan with him so we would be on the same page about how to *avoid* a repeat c-section. Then again, he also says low risk women are great at giving birth if the doctors and hospitals let them.
[Reply]
genniemom Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 6:13 am (Quote)
My OB is also very pro birth plan. She suggested that I write one, and I was like, “Um…I’m transferring care to a midwifery service. It’s not you, it’s me. I want to deliver at home.”
I still recommend this OB because she’s not so bad, as far as they go.
[Reply]
That’s why I never handed mine in for my VBAC. I was terrified of it ‘causing’ a RCAC 
even though I had no reason to feel that way with that OB. But I was so traumatized from my first, I felt that way about everything with my VBAC pregnancy
[Reply]
devil is in the details had this to say,
Mar 11, 2011 @ 9:42 am (Quote)
If you click the topics list under Birth Plan you will find that we have 61 comments mostly similar to this one. When we get to 100 can we have a party? 
[Reply]
Plumpish Older Woman had this to say,
Mar 11, 2011 @ 12:28 pm (Quote)
I have a good friend who is an RN who used to work L&D. She *has* said things like this and when I asked her about it, she stated that the unit where she worked had a lot of patients who had written detailed birth plans but had not prepared themselves in any other way for the experience of labor and birth. They knew what they did NOT want and had an adversarial and suspicious attitude toward staff, but did not have good support or skills for working with the birth experience. That’s a good way to have an awful birth experience and also to leave a bad taste in the mouths of the unit that unfortunately may spill over to the next mama. I don’t have a solution but it is a piece of how things go terribly wrong. Add that to an American hospital setting where staffing is often pretty low so that nurses are running like crazy and patients are experiencing delays in having needs addressed and then the cascade of interventions and yikes.
[Reply]
shannon Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 1:15 pm (Quote)
Thanks for this. I’ve heard this same kind of comment so many times that I’ve thought there must be some grain of truth to it, and also some reason for it. This makes a bit of sense. If women write up the birth plan but aren’t truly prepared (well… as much as one can be) they could end up in a situation where they aren’t having the experience they expected but don’t know how to deal with it. The sad thing is there is actually cause for women to feel “adversarial and suspicious” or at least skeptical, toward hospital staff. Perhaps if these women felt they could trust the nursing staff more to help them achieve a birth they could live with (that day AND later, looking back at it) they wouldn’t be afraid to deviate from the plan as it became necessary, and they could remain relaxed. I also agree a good support for mom is a MUST. For some women their husband can fulfill this role (mine has for me) and for others a doula or just a close friend, but someone who knows what you want, what you don’t want, and who can speak words of affirmation to you when you need it. This reminds me of my first birth actually. I was really young, and single, but I had my aunt with me and had a great midwife. I didn’t have a written birth plan, but a definite goal to labor without an epidural, which I’d discussed with my aunt. When I got to that point in labor where I realized it was harder than I ever expected, my aunt held my hand and told me she KNEW I could do it, that I was almost there, that she was proud of me. And the midwife echoed her reassurances. That’s what mama’s need to hear.
[Reply]
laura grace Reply:
March 12th, 2011 at 5:45 am (Quote)
Yes, exactly. When every pregnancy website out there has ten articles on writing the perfect birth plan and ONE on taking a non-hospital birth CLASS, there’s going to be a problem.
Education is so key.
[Reply]
I think this one was mine. I know that a lot of similar things have been said by other OB’s.
I was a back-up doula at this birth. I found this out after she had her baby. I couldn’t believe the OB said this.
They still went with this doc because over a series of appointments, they felt that they addressed their desires to her and she was agreeable to everyone.
Well…. …..One of their big things was to be able to push in whatever position she decided at the moment. The OB said she didn’t have a problem with that.
Day of birth comes. Patient is squatting on the bed and OB comes in and starts ranting about how she can’t deliver her in that position that she needs to get on her back. I was a little infuriated because a couple of hours ago, they put her in that position on the monitors and heartrate started decelerating. OB gave her O2 of course, then left for a sec. I turned her over to her hands and knees and heartrate went right back up. OB comes back in and expresses how O2 did the trick.
SO….she puts her on her back to push and guess what. Heart goes down. Everyone panics. She’s yelling at patient to push hard. Baby comes out and needs to be assisted in order to breath. I was banging my head on the wall.
There’s a story for ya!
Good thing we didn’t give her a birth plan! And avoided a cesarean.
[Reply]
Doula Sue Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 1:26 pm (Quote)
Afterwards, even though the mother was happy that she was able to have an unmedicated birth, even after 45 hours of labor……she realized that because the OB didn’t want to accept her birth plan, that she should have realized things would end up being the OB’s way. It was the OB’s plan on how to deliver and not hers. She wants to go with a midwife next time.
[Reply]
Being the eternal optimist I have managed to find the good in this comment. At least this OB seems to see c-section as an undesirable outcome and would like the mom to be able to avoid it. Now he/she just needs to work on more effective ways of achieving that goal than eliminating birth plans.
[Reply]
Add Your Comment.
Previous Post
« Thoughtful Thursday! “Let’s Just See What Happens Naturally.” Next Post
“You’re Young. You’ll Bounce Back.” »
« Thoughtful Thursday! “Let’s Just See What Happens Naturally.” Next Post
“You’re Young. You’ll Bounce Back.” »
Why is that? Since you’ve observed this trend perhaps you can explain it. What is it that you do differently with birth plan mamas?
[Reply]
Jane Reply:
March 11th, 2011 at 5:48 am Jane(Quote)
I’m not sure if doctors and nurses are consciously aware that they attempt to sabotage birth plans, but if “everyone’ who has a birth plan ends up with a cesarean, that’s a difference of statistical significance, and they ought to come up with a reason for it.
They’d say it’s that women with birth plans are “just so stubborn,” but stubborn doesn’t mean “can’t dilate.” And since most things in the birth plans are fairly normal (ie, walking around) OR cannot change the birth process (ie, delayed cord clamping does not interfere with the act of birthing the baby because the cord can’t be clamped first) then the difference has to be in the way doctors and nurses treat women with birth plans.
[Reply]