Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Oct
9
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Why Would You Want To Go Through All That Pain When We Have Such A Lovely Thing As An Epidural?”
“Why would you want to go through all that pain when we have such a lovely thing as an epidural?” – OB at 20 week prenatal.
There are 18 comments to this post.
“You know, if women choose to be in ‘all that pain’ when they could avoid it, then we probably have a reason. Most sane people don’t choose to be in pain if they can help it unless there’s a really good reason to choose it. So now let’s discuss actual research rather than an anesthesiology sales brochure.”
Or more to the point,
“Since you have expressed a desire to override my choices, Dr. Smith, please tell me how YOU benefit from my epidural and then we can discuss the medical ethics of starting a medical procedure on a patient for the benefit of the doctor.”
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Heather P had this to say,
Oct 9, 2011 @ 5:51 am (Quote)
road2vba2c had this to say,
Oct 9, 2011 @ 6:17 am (Quote)
BTDT, and there’s nothing lovely about feeling helpless, immobile, having to get help when your leg slips off the bed, and feeling like you’re not in control. Birthing without an epidural, you may be in pain but at least you have full control over your body!
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But lots of them really do feel that way. I think they have to, to justify doing it so often. My SiL honestly feels that way (yes, she ended up sectioned). When her father was on gallbladder meds she didn’t see why he’d accept pain when he could avoid it. She seems completely oblivious to side effects. Anyhow, obs see it all so often, they’re desensitized, imo. Some comments on here make me furious, some make me want to cry, this one just kinda makes me sad. For the ob and his misinformed patients.
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Jane Reply:
October 9th, 2011 at 11:15 am (Quote)
I think you’re right. Look at the thought process:
1) Nice people don’t harm other people.
2) I give women epidurals all the time and do nothing to help them avoid epidurals.
3) I want to think of myself as a nice person.
4) Therefore epidurals can’t possibly harm women.
The same chain of events must go on with episiotomies.
1) Nice people don’t cut other people’s genitals.
2) I perform episiotomies on 80% of the women who come to me for a safe delivery.
3) I want to believe I am a nice person.
4) Therefore all the episiotomies I perform are totally necessary AND there’s no harm in them anyhow.
It’s a willing blindness because change is hard and truth is hard. In order for a doctor to want to change, s/he would have to admit to himself or herself that the things done many, many times in the past were unnecessary, harmful or cruel.
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first time mommy had this to say,
Oct 9, 2011 @ 8:11 am (Quote)
Why? So you can keep me strapped to bed to monitor my baby bc if you don’t my baby will die?
And so then I won’t be able to feel and respond to my body’s need to push? So you can section me? So you can make your tee time? Or your flight?
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Jenny Islander had this to say,
Oct 9, 2011 @ 10:04 am (Quote)
Actually, doc, I’ve been through “all that pain” three times now, including two precipitous labors in which everything was compressed into a few short hours of extreme vomiting and sledgehammer contractions.
Still not gonna have a needle in my spine and be stuck in bed, thanks. I worked all three babies out. Why in the hell would I want to numb half of my body before starting a job like that?
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Yes. My epidural was absolutely lovely. Except for the part where it didn’t take, but I was still confined to the bed. I couldn’t move to alleviate the horrendous back labor pain from my OP baby or from the kidney stone I was also dealing with.
Yes…absolutely lovely.
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This is mine. It was an omen and if I had been a little more confident, I should have just walked out right there and then and never gone back! I didn’t have an epidural, nor any pain relief at all. In fact I didn’t have any pain. I arrived at the hospital and had my little girl within an hour of arriving (all up four hours from first contraction to birth). He rushed in at the end and yelled “This baby is coming out!”. Before I knew it I was flipped onto my back and he cut an episiotomy and had the vaccuum on her head. Her heart rate had been dropping after contractions and she was going into distress, but she was also crowning and would probably have been out within the next push or two. The midwife was a little shell shocked (as were my husband and I). It all happened so quickly and my husband actually asked what he was doing when he flipped me over and injected the anisthetic, but he cut as he said he was going to use the vacuum!
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Telula Reply:
October 20th, 2011 at 10:37 pm (Quote)
Wow Melissa! I’ve been reading a few of your stories and feel so sorry for you having to put up with that Jackass of a doctor. Doctors like him belong in the morgue where his patients are no longer alive and have to put up with his abuse (no disrespect to the deceased).
I’m so happy that you have a beautiful miracle, esp. all that you had to go through. She’s so blessed to have a wonderful mama like you.
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Add Your Comment.
Epidural + lovely = does not compute!!!
I know it’s needed sometimes but I would call a beedle in my spine “a means to an end”, not “lovely”
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