Nov 3

Thoughtful Thursday! “…Can You Show Me Your Techniques?”

“Whatever you did – it worked! After baby comes, can you show me your techniques?” – OB to doula who helped get a stalled labor re-started with position changes.

3 people dislike these words.

There are 15 comments to this post.

Joanna had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 2:08 pm (Quote)

Wahoo! Score one for progress!

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Heidi had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 2:20 pm (Quote)

Way to go, OB, for being humble and inquisitive!

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Tee had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 3:07 pm (Quote)

An OB asked for a doula’s techniques? Wow!

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Jane had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 3:27 pm (Quote)

!!! I love it when a doctor is so self-confident that another professional’s abilities aren’t a threat! A good doctor is always willing to learn, and that rocks!

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Jessica had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 3:56 pm (Quote)

How inspiring. I hope more mamas have doulas under this OB’s care. They are a good team!

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Alyson Miers had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 5:22 pm (Quote)

Let’s hear it for curious, observant and optimistic!

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Sheva had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 7:06 pm (Quote)

Awesome doctor! Being willing to learn something new is a sign of intelligence.
I hope the OP comes on and shares what the techniques were – I’d love to learn them, too!

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Kate, Ren's Mama had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 7:19 pm (Quote)

This is such a nice contrast to the “I don’t work with doulas” doc we had earlier this week.

Curious, humble, ready to learn new things: this is a great doctor!

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Becky had this to say, Nov 3, 2011 @ 8:58 pm (Quote)

This is a a great quote for Thursday! What an amazing doctor!

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Lisa had this to say, Nov 4, 2011 @ 6:03 am (Quote)

Be still, my heart!

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LG had this to say, Nov 4, 2011 @ 6:10 am (Quote)

Hope we get a pink link!

Hey MOSW mod(s), what about trying to put together a list of Thoughtful Thursday docs/midwives? Even if you couldn’t publish it, it’d sure be nice to have it available to email to a mama looking for a good provider in her area!

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himom had this to say, Nov 4, 2011 @ 8:05 am (Quote)

This one is mine. The mama had agreed to an induction with cytotec (don’t flame me, it was her educated choice, as doc required CEFM with pit, but IEFM with cytotec – weird, I know), because she wanted to maximize her mobility.

Labor started almost immediately with the first 25mcg application, which was proceeding well for several hours. Then “stalled” at 6cms for a couple of hours. Doc recommended adding pitocin, but the mom really wanted to be able to move around unimpeded, and declined.

Baby seemed to be somewhat, but not completely OP. Hands and knees position wasn’t doing anything. So I had mom do left-side lunges in-between and during contractions. We alternated lunges with belly lifts during contractions. (You can see these and more ideas on the Spinning Babies site)

After 25-30 minutes of doing these, baby had rotated to a better position, and contractions picked up again. When doc came back, she was surprised that labor was being productive again, surprised – in a good way – that her solution, pitocin, was not needed.

Honestly, I think in this situation, pit would have made things worse, as it would have forced baby down while in a bad position, and made it difficult, if not impossible to push her out. Instead, a mobile mama was able to get the baby to change position, come down easily, and have the healthy, unmedicated birth she wanted.

I hope that the doc went on to use this knowledge to support other patients – she is one of the better, more open-mineded OBs around here.

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