Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Aug
23
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“These Beds Are Really Uncomfortable. They Have To Be…”
“These beds are really uncomfortable. They have to be or we would never get babies out of you.”- L&D Nurse to expectant parent group touring the childbirth unit in the hospital.
There are 27 comments to this post.
That was a joke right? Maybe the previous tour guide who actually had a sense of timing told it very well, but this dip doesn’t even get that it was a joke once upon a time. I’m guessing she makes it sound like a threat? I don’t know B-)
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So let’s add it up here:
1) Discomfort in labor is the only way “we get a baby out of you.”
2) When you come here in labor, we’ll push medication on you because you’re uncomfortable and no one ever gave a mom a medal for being uncomfortable.
Actually, I’d love to know the epidural rate for this hospital, because if it’s 85%, then I have to wonder why contractions are too hideously uncomfortable to ever push out a baby, but comfy beds are so comfortable that they keep a baby in.
I can’t even fathom the mechanism here.
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Heather P Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 10:04 am (Quote)
Of course, that’s why women have to give birth in the hospital. Their beds at home are too comfortable.
Though, I don’t know anyone who actually had a homebirth in a bed though. Most had waterbirths, a few on the toilet, some on their hands and knees on the floor. No beds or kitchen tables.
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adrienne Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 11:45 am (Quote)
two of my 5 were born in my bed.
two livingroom floor (one standing) and this last one in the bathroom, kneeling on a crib mattress, leaning against the tub.
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Jane Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 2:04 pm (Quote)
I labored leaning on a birth ball propped on an uncomfortable futon. So apparently just being near an uncomfortable bed is enough to keep those contractions going.
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Bonita Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 3:12 pm (Quote)
I gave birth on a sofa pull out bed that was very uncomfortable. To be honest though, by the time I was pushing I didn’t even notice how uncomfortable it was. My poor doula who was kneeling on it trying not to fall through the holes in the “support” layer of the bedframe was super uncomfortable. She ended up looking like she had gone through labor after that. lol I still feel sorry for her.
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I had my son at home on the floor, lying on my side due to a cervical lip. I was aiming for the bed, but who cares. And, yes, those hospital beds are uncomfortable. After a pitocin induction with my daughter, i gave in and got an epi because I was beyond exhausted and I couldn’t sleep (post epi) because the damn bed was so uncomfortable!
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Charity had this to say,
Aug 23, 2011 @ 8:00 pm (Quote)
Ok… I was stuck in a labor bed the first night I was in the hospital with my gall bladder/pancreatitis/sepsis… That was the least comfortable bed I’ve ever had the displeasure of sleeping in. I told the nurse the next day that she’d better have a better bed for me by the time I got back from my MRI or I’d sleep in the chair. To my great surprise, they had a new bed for me AND my hubby. I’m so glad I didn’t have to spend 7 nights in one of those beds. I swear they’re made to make women more uncomfortable so they beg for an epidural.
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Susan Peterson had this to say,
Aug 23, 2011 @ 9:09 pm (Quote)
So if the beds were comfortable the women would stay pregnant forever? Really, if the woman is in labor you basically can’t prevent the baby from coming out, sooner or later. I mean, for the most part, I know there are a few that get stuck, but it certainly isn’t because the bed is comfortable!
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The nurse said something similar during our tour… but then tried to make it better by saying that the foam piece they put on top after birth is a great “reward” for all the hard work you do while you are in labor. Funny thing is, I didn’t get the “foam top”… they only had 2 and the other moms that gave birth that night got them, because I was “only” staying overnight so I didn’t need one. I slept on the couch in the family waiting room. Nurses were pissed. 
(They couldn’t find me because I didn’t have any monitors!)
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Sorry this took so long to respond, but I have been away. This is mine. I was touring one of the local hospitals before my husband and I started TTC another child. I would be a VBAC and wanted to go in before I was pregnant and decide on the facility first and then find an OB. My logic was that since I saw the OB with my first child only a handful of times and spent so much time with the nurses, I would be better off finding the place and nurses that seemed great.
Well I was the only non-pregnant woman on the tour and my questions were not appreciated by the Nurse. She said she was the head Obstetrics nurse and could answer any questions any of us had, since she had seen it all.
She gave the comment posted after showing everyone how the bed broke down, to prepare for birth. I was agast at her comment and had I known then what I know now I would have had a snappy comment back.
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Maybe she’s saying they encourage moms to walk? This could be a good thing.
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Stephanie Reply:
August 23rd, 2011 at 11:02 am Stephanie(Quote)
That was my thought too. I doubt it’s true, but I think my hand would have immediately gone up to ask, if I didn’t just shout the question out immediately.
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