Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jun
25
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“You’ll Be Just Fighting Against Yourself In Any Position Other Than On Your Back.”
“You’ll just be fighting against yourself in any position other than on your back.” – OB to mother who wanted to try several different positions during labor and birth.
There are 24 comments to this post.
I wonder if the doctor actually believes this.
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Dreamy Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 5:10 pm (Quote)
MTE. Had this been me and assuming I were not in labor at the time, I would have LOVED to hear the answer to “How so?” (i.e., “What are the biomechanics that make not lying on one’s back counterproductive, Doctor?”)
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Sheva Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 7:59 pm (Quote)
They do. And so do a lot of L&D nurses. They’ve even tried explaining it to me – you see, if you’re on your back, that’s the only way to get the baby under your pubic symphysis.
Right, nurse. And if I’m on my hands and knees, that’s the only way to get the baby *over* the pubic symphysis. I’m not looking for a lesson in directions.
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Alyson Miers had this to say,
Jun 25, 2011 @ 4:55 pm (Quote)
You’ll just be fighting against me and the L&D staff in any position other than on your back.
Fixed that for ya, Dr. Pants-on-Fire.
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I’m trying to find a way for this to “make sense” even within the OB’s head, following his or her own “internal logic.” YKWIM? Usually these types of statements, while demonstrably false, contain a hint of truth that got twisted or at least make sense in an OB universe that’s already upside down.
Like an OB saying that the uterus of a woman attempting a VBAC is likely to explode. Well, rupture is not explosion, and no, it’s not LIKELY, but I can follow the “logic.” (Especially if the doc always induces with pit– then at least a rupture– though still not “likely”– is a more significant concern.)
Or if an OB had said, say, if you’re not on a continuous fetal monitor, your baby has a higher likelihood of going into distress. Well… No… In (extremely flawed) theory, your baby’s distress (if any) has a higher likelihood of not being caught. I mean, that’s not even true, statistically speaking, but even if it were, it wouldn’t mean that distress itself were more likely without the CFM.
But see… I can kind of follow that train of thought.
With this one? I’m reeeeallly coming up short… I can’t think of how it makes any sort of semblance of “sense.” Even an extremely twisted, backwards sort of “sense.”
Truly, the simplest explanation is that the OB knows this position is easiest for THE OB, and figures– on a conscious level– he/she can pull a flippity-floo on the mom.
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Dreamy Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 5:07 pm (Quote)
Of course, as soon as I said that, I came up with a couple of very tenuous bits of “logic.”
I suppose a woman’s legs could get tired in a squat, standing, etc. But that’s not “fighting against yourself,” not even in backwards Rand McNally land. That– while a BS reason– would be “tiring yourself out.”
The other thing I guess it could be is that the baby would come out “backwards” to the doc (say, in hands/knees), so this just SEEMS somehow harder or counterproductive to him/her. Like maybe the baby or woman’s body will have to do more work because the body “naturally” wants to push uphill? And now everything is “reversed,” making it indefinably “harder?”
That’s the only semi-charitable interpretation I have. Scary. Baffling. But perhaps not completely callous nor nefarious.
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Melissa Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 9:12 pm (Quote)
Hah! I love the idea that the baby would get confused if the mom was in a position that gave the doctor a different view than he/she was used to.
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Lysana Reply:
June 27th, 2011 at 1:39 pm (Quote)
I was DETERMINED to try pushing in a squatting position, and I think it would have really helped me, because baby wasn’t quite ready to come out when I started – so being upright would have helped. But when I tried to stand up and squat, holding onto the bar, every muscle in my hips and legs cramped, and I ended up falling back onto the bed. So I guess you could say I was too tired – or too weak – but, still, that should never be a reason not to try if the mother wants to.
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Lisa Reply:
September 9th, 2011 at 11:26 pm (Quote)
I was pretty much on back during the pushing phase, but this was because I had terrible back labor and it was the only position that didn’t put pressure on my back. It was not the most comfortable of positions, and all I could think of while pushing was that this was not the best position to be in to birth my baby.
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I hope we hear from the OP soon, because I know this could get awful. When doctors say things like this, they sometimes enforce it with help from other practitioners, straps, and varying other paraphernalia. As a mom who was literally strapped and held down “for my own good”, I am really hoping the same thing didn’t happen to this poor mommy.
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Lisa Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 9:27 pm (Quote)
*hugs* StaudtCJ I’m so sad & disgusted that happened to you.
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Serena26 Reply:
June 26th, 2011 at 10:53 am (Quote)
I am so sorry! As a mom who just wanted to give birth and not fight, I climbed on that table myself and some time later got a huge panic attack, because midwifes just pushed my legs against me without waning. I started screaming and wished I had not gotten in such a vulnerable – not being able to move or see – position. But being strapped – I would have gone out of control…
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Add Your Comment.
LIAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR! liar! liaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrr! LIAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRR!
and this one doesn’t have the excuse of having been fired by the king!
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Bonita Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 3:01 pm Bonita(Quote)
LOVE!
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Kat Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 3:56 pm Kat(Quote)
The king’s stinking son shoulda fired him sooner.
Humperdinck! Humperdinck! Humperdinck!
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Jena Reply:
June 25th, 2011 at 10:34 pm Jena(Quote)
ROFL You ladies win!
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