Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Oct
31
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Wouldn’t You Like To Turn Over So It’s Easier For The Doctor…?”
“Wouldn’t you like to turn over so it’s easier for the doctor now?’ -Midwife to mother on her knees during pushing.
There are 32 comments to this post.
Is he the one having painful contractions and pushing out a baby? No.
When my sister was in labor, laying on her back was terrible for her. She could breath through just fine until the would lay her down for cervical checks and then she’d be screaming. When it came time to deliver she wanted to squat and her doctor told her she couldn’t because it would be impossible to deliver the shoulders that way.
[Reply]
Birthservant Reply:
October 31st, 2011 at 7:33 pm (Quote)
How can a qualified, registered and rather well paid health professional and so-called birth expert get away with saying such a dishonest, stupid and potentially harmful thing? Wonders never cease. Really we should be reporting charlatans like these…and the ignorant colleagues that collude with them.
[Reply]
Kat Reply:
October 31st, 2011 at 7:44 pm (Quote)
I wish I would have said something. I KNEW the doctor was lying but I couldn’t remember where I had learned it and being the younger sibling with no children, it wouldn’t be hard for them to just go with the doctor over me. I looked it up later and showed my sister and she wasn’t very happy with it. Her doctor was great otherwise. And her baby was delivered in 2 pushes, I think if delivery took longer she would be more upset about the situation.
I’m pregnant now and have been looking up everything like that and informing my husband, mom, and sister of it so that they can tell my doctor to shove it if it comes to that.
[Reply]
Birthservant Reply:
October 31st, 2011 at 11:33 pm (Quote)
I love that Kat! YOU are birthing that baby. You are the priority and will naturally adopt the best position for birth if supported and not interfered with. And I love that you have a great family that will attend to your birthing needs. Have a wonderful birth x
[Reply]
surely she is in this position for a good reason so why change!? this is beyond sad-she is supposed to be advocating for this mother. but i know how it is, easier to placate the doctor.
[Reply]
BeckyJ Reply:
November 1st, 2011 at 2:43 am (Quote)
She was probably a hospital midwife. But…..then again, I guess there are “winners” everywhere you go!
[Reply]
Kim L Reply:
November 2nd, 2011 at 10:04 pm (Quote)
I had my baby with a hospital midwife, and she would never say anything like this. It was an amazing experience.
[Reply]
BeckyJ Reply:
November 3rd, 2011 at 5:04 am (Quote)
I’m glad for you. I hear alot more bad things about hospital midwives than private practice midwives is all. And your experience is why I basically said, it could happen to anyone, no matter how you go about it. I know not all OB’s are horrible, but it seems logistical to be skeptical because alot of them aren’t trained to be comfortable with natural birth.
[Reply]
Let an OB I was so sad to move away from fix that for you (this was not one of my clients, but a colleague’s client):
Doctor was watching calmly as mom was pushing on hands and knees. Nurse was getting insistent with mom to turn over, but mom was having none of it. Finally the nurse appealed to the doctor: “Don’t you want her to turn over so you can deliver the baby?” Doctor replied smoothly: “I don’t deliver the baby. The mother delivers the baby.”
Now wasn’t that easy? 
[Reply]
Um, no. No, I really don’t. Because making it easier for the doctor isn’t my priority.
A statement like this is really stupid, to be sure, and if I were the person it was said to, I would be seriously annoyed. But at least the nurse wasn’t flipping the mother over and pinning her down! Wouldn’t be the first that happened.
[Reply]
All things being equal… I *do* like to make things easier for others. All things are not equal here. This is *my* party and the only ones who get a vote are me and my baby. Just as I didn’t move my wedding to the place of my family’s choosing to make things easier on them… I won’t be moving to make things easier on doc. This time it isn’t about anything but what works best for *me*. Doc will deal with that just fine… in fact doc is being well paid to deal with that.
[Reply]
Nope. I’m doing all the work here, I’ll jolly well make it easiest for me. If there’s stitching to be done, then doc is doing all the work, and I’ll be happy to get into a position that’s best for him.
This comment is ugly to me for a few reasons.
I don’t like when docs let nurses or midwives do their ‘dirty’ work. You want mom to turn over, talk to her yourself, doc. Or is that beneath you, like picking up after yourself?
It sounds like the midwife is trying to guilt the mother into turning over – ‘Don’t you want to be nice to the poor doc’ – who doesn’t want to be nice to other people? So now mom has to either advocate for herself or be perceived as ‘not nice’.
[Reply]
Rach had this to say,
Nov 1, 2011 @ 4:12 am (Quote)
Hands and knees is the best position of all, you can see all the external signs of second stage without the need for an internal (purple line, rhombus of Michaelis, anal dilation, BO, bulging perineum, gaping introitus and finally visible pp). Love hands and knees! Get to see that little face as it’s coming out too!
[Reply]
This could have been mine: I was pushing hands and knees while they tried to find an OB (I wouldn’t stop pushing), and the nurse said the very same thing to me. I roared “I’m F@%king pushing the baby out so he can F@%king deal!” When the OB came in, she went scurrying over whining “I tried to make her turn over but she won’t listen” The OB paused, tilted his head (like he was trying to reorient the textbook pictures), shrugged and said, “If she’s most comfortable like this, I don’t mind, she’s doing the hard part”
[Reply]
Sheva Reply:
November 1st, 2011 at 12:36 pm (Quote)
Well, you GO girl! And I love that your doc was willing to figure it out.
Poor nurse, he made her feel like the idiot she was… 
[Reply]
hi guys this is mine, and she had only arrived in the last half hr to an hr before i had my son, the ob at this point i have to say was actually fantastic and had no problem with my position, i couldnt do anything but shake my head as things were that intense at that point, i remember thinking ‘are you f…….g serious!!!!’ she must have been told the fact that the ob was fine with it so tried to turn super helpful but stuck her head right under my arm to give supportive words to which i know i snarled ‘back off’ come on if my hubby and mother were doing the same thing without crawling underneath me surely you can do the same
just to add to the story i was having my son breech, with all the favourable factors you could ask for and hands and knees is definitely the best for it, and after the other obs who were trying to bully me into all sorts of things (man, i could fill up a week of my ob said what lol) it was nice to have the one who knew what he was doing
the midwife had her karma pretty quickly though, after my son was out and happy she was harassing me to hurry up and get the placenta out or she would give me some stuff, since i could feel things happening i was not worried about it but she wouldnt let up so to shut her up i did as she asked and got up to go sit on the loo, as soon as i stood up my uterus gave one almighty contraction and i struggled not to laugh (hubby said my face was priceless) as it ended in a big messy heap at her feet that she then had to clean up, couldnt help but think if she had left me be for a couple minutes it would have been better for her but hey, you wanted it you got it lol
[Reply]
Add Your Comment.
“No, I’d prefer the doctor to turn over so it’s easier for me and the baby.”
[Reply]
Serene Reply:
January 31st, 2012 at 5:45 am Serene(Quote)
You wins ALL the internets!
Hehe Jane Ive missed your comments!
[Reply]