So……. like if I’d like to stand, or get up high on the bed, you will not let your feet hit the floor? You can levitate? You know, you might be able to make more money by doing magic shows like David Blaine than being a doctor. And you could be famous too.

oh… you meant you won’t lay or sit on the floor.? DID I ASK YOU TO? If I want to squat, you could totally be in a chair or something. I mean since you DID just say I could be in any position I WANT to be in, not one YOU WANT me to be in.

I guess the floor’s too good for him? (her?)

I’d almost take that as a dare and try delivering on the floor just to see what the doctor would do, whether the doctor would let the baby be born unassisted rather than sully himself/herself by getting on his or her knees and catching. And think about it: if this mom wants to avoid an episiotomy, all she has to do is get on the floor and Dr. Tall will just stand there, arms folded, scowling because cutting a perinium that’s soooooo far away would require squatting.

BTW: My midwife delivered my 5th baby on the floor. The other midwife, who was supervising, also sat on the floor through most of the labor. My husband was sitting on the floor. None of them were lowered in my estimation.

Yes Dr because while in labor your comfort will be my main concern.

Jane that really made ms laugh.

“Awesome! So my partner will catching the baby then!”

I wouldn’t want to birth my baby on a hospital floor, maybe at home, but not a dirty hospital.

I have supported hundreds of births. At most homebirths, the midwife is on the floor at some point, getting fetal heart tones, catching the baby, cleaning up, whatever.

I have had exactly *one* experience in a hospital in which an OB or MW was willing to get on the floor and catch. Mama had a bad back and could *not* push while laying down on the bed. So she was standing upright on the floor, holding on to the squat bar attached to the bed. The resident said, “Well, I’ve never done it this way before, but I don’t see why we can’t give it a go!”

Since the ceiling lights didn’t shine that way, so we used the flashlight I keep in my bag. Everyone there, except for one huffy nurse, thought it was awesome.

During my last birth the attending OB just sat next to the edge of the bed and told me, “Just do what you feel like doing. I’ll catch.” I ended up twisting and turned until I was sideways and laying half on one of the bedrail.s It was sometime during this that he took the cushion off the futon that was outside in the hall, laid it on the floor next to my bed, and covered it with a sheet. He also took off his shoes.
He just sat there Indian style till the baby was crowning, then he squatted next to my bed and said, “Ok, play ball!”
I’m so disappointed that he probably won’t be attending my next birth.

Well, my midwife happily caught both of my last babies while kneeling on the floor next to me.

Midwives – 82,290,892
OBs – 0

Sounds like one of the OBs I interviewed! She told me that she wouldn’t catch/deliver the baby with me in a position other than in the bed because “You only have to do this once but I do this all the time, and imagine if every woman were moving around or I had to bend over for each delivery! My back couldn’t take it.” Ironically, it was because she’d touted yoga as one of her interests on the clinic website that I’d sought her out for an interview in the first place. Guess that yoga wasn’t helping her back out at all… :p

Score one for midwives. http://rightathomemidwifery.com/services.html thats my midwife’s site.. and thats her in the pic, crawling under the bed to catch the baby.

I gave birth in a hospital last year on the floor. Actually, I standing up but the midwife was on the floor. We just covered it in chux pads and towels. She said she’d never done it that way but she and the nurse would make it work for them if it worked for me! They now call it “giraffe-style” – no tearing for me and significantly less pain than with my first in which I was lying on the bed on my back legs pushed back.

I always end up have sitting – it just works out that way. But during labor, my midwife rested on the floor near my bed. She catches in all positions.
I’ve had docs do some mean and crazy things to force my clients into the lithotomy position. They can be very creative and aggressive.

My most recent birth, which was the best of the bunch by a long shot, was attended by a midwife who legitimately had a bad back and bad knees. She said she couldn’t kneel on the floor, but I was more than welcome to stand, squat, or kneel on the bed, the table, or the extra chair in the room.

It occurs to me that for just about every waterbirth, the attendant has to be on his or her knees in order to reach into the tub. So I guess this doctor’s clients will never, ever hear about waterbirth.

I get if the OB has a chronic knee condition, but if that’s the case she/he shouldn’t be catching babies whose mothers don’t intend to birth laying in bed.

My OB got on the floor to catch my son. I leaned against the bed and she got down there. It was the position my body felt best in during pushing so that’s how I pushed.

Dear Doc, that’s ok most moms left alone will catch their own babies, and even if they don’t baby’s not going to die dropping a couple of inches (ever seen a baby giraffe or horse being born? Yeah didn’t think so).

Signed,
The world

I birth in odd positions that tend to prevent me catching my baby, so my second one was born with NO ONE catching him. It was a bit nutty because I didn’t think I was close to giving birth and just got into the tub to try and shift a “stuck” baby and I think I had sent hubby away for some reason (I sent him away a lot haha).

I guess it’s just another zombie baby because no one “delivered” him. Though he was picked up pretty quick afterwards.