Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Nov
5
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“…You Have Red Hair and Red Heads Bleed *A Lot*.”
“No, absolutely no way will you be able to have a drug free third stage, because you have red hair and red heads bleed *A LOT*.” – OB to mother.
There are 42 comments to this post.
This was my submission. I was told this at my first obstetrician appointment at 16 weeks when pregnant with my first son. After hearing this, we sought the opinion of another Ob who said something similar. It was then I decided to move back to my hometown (2 hours away) to birth my son. We achieved a physiological birth (spontaneous, drug free and active) including drug free 3rd stage, which was the first time in 18 years at this hospital, that a physiological 3rd stage had occurred. I went on to birth my 2nd son at home 16months later, after deciding I didn’t want to fight the system again.
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I’m also a red head and was told the same darn thing. I was also told I wouldn’t be able to handle the pain and blood being a red head? I had a homebirth just fine and the bleeding wasn’t that bad!
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Dawn Reply:
November 6th, 2011 at 12:12 pm (Quote)
I thought the rumor was that redheads can take more pain?
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minuteye Reply:
November 6th, 2011 at 2:59 pm (Quote)
There have actually been studies done on red-headed pain tolerance. Some of them conclude that red-heads are more sensitive to pain, and others conclude the exact opposite!
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Layla19 Reply:
November 8th, 2011 at 12:21 pm (Quote)
Depending on what you mean, they could both be true. Pain sensitivity indicates at what threshold pain can be felt; pain tolerance has to do with how well you deal with it. I can register the touch of my clothes as painful (thank you, fibro), but I didn’t make a noise when I’ve broken bones.
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minuteye Reply:
November 8th, 2011 at 7:25 pm (Quote)
Ah, sorry for not being precise in my wording. Thank you. In that case I meant pain tolerance, I think it was a question of gradually increasing painful stimulus until the participant said ‘uncle’.
There could also be some methodological issues with participant selection, as not all red hair has the same genetic cause. Sounds like that could really flub with a study’s results if all they were paying attention to was the visual.
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Jennifer at Organic Baby University had this to say,
Nov 5, 2011 @ 10:10 pm (Quote)
I read recently that some huge number of MDs lose their license within the first few years of practice…I don’t have it on-hand but I want to say it was between 30-50%. Will repost when I find it…but this would #1 explain those numbers and #2 NOT explain how these others continue!
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Jennifer at Organic Baby University had this to say,
Nov 5, 2011 @ 10:18 pm (Quote)
I can’t find it so I hate to say that without backing it up. Anyway, not the point…the point is that many SHOULD lose their licenses…if these MDs really think this they are too frighteningly dumb to practice medicine!
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Wendy Reply:
November 6th, 2011 at 5:20 am (Quote)
Well, this article is on a slightly unrelated note: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/leonie-haimson/factchecking-waiting-for-_b_802900.html
But the author did check with Illinois’ state medical board and found that 0.3% of doctors in that state lose their licenses annually, which amounts to about 1.8% every 6 years. Either Illinois has unusually excellent doctors, or other states are hovering around similarly low figures.
I did some more digging and learned that sadly, it is extremely difficult to take licenses away from doctors who deserve to lose them:
1. http://www.tampabay.com/news/health/medicine/article1123881.ece
2. http://www.citizen.org/hrg/qdsite/introduction.htm
So while I think the numbers are small overall, I do wonder if they’re higher in obstetrics…
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Tendency to bleed? Probably not. Need more pain meds? Quite possibly.
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Mama Wrench Reply:
November 6th, 2011 at 4:23 am (Quote)
I think the tendency to bleed is based more on the fact that laboring women are (I hope?) actually awake and active during the whole thing and that, therefore, increased pain leads to higher BP and thus to excessive bleeding. At least that’s what I was told. I know I have a very high resistance to pain medication and narcotics so I can kind of see where they’re coming from.
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AJ Reply:
November 6th, 2011 at 7:04 am (Quote)
>>increased pain leads to higher BP and thus to excessive bleeding>>
That would be true for all patients, not just redheads, no? According to the article link I posted, there is little evidence for redheads having a tendency to bleed, but some evidence redheads may require higher doses of certain medications.
It’s not surprising there may be a tendency amongst people who share genetic traits to react similarly to medications (especially if you’ve ever studied pharmacology), but that’s beyond the scope of this discussion.
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Mama Wrench Reply:
November 6th, 2011 at 8:57 am (Quote)
True, but redheads also notoriously have problems with pain management, so what works for the general population might be insufficient for a redhead — who may then experience more pain. After my c-section my nurse was shocked that I could take two Percocet, plus the IV tramadol I had in post-op and Motrin and still have pain. Every time I get dental work done I have to let them know in advance that I need extra Novocaine, to not even bother giving me the regular dose “just to see if it’s enough.” It’s not that I have a low pain tolerance (I didn’t find labor particularly painful for the first 90%) I just need more pain meds than most.
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AJ Reply:
November 6th, 2011 at 6:06 pm (Quote)
To be very clear, what I meant was: you are incorrect. You are confusing two separate issues here. If the fact that redheads apparently require more pain meds resulted in a significant difference in bleeding between redheads and other women, it would also be true that redheads bled more, and this is not the case.
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Chrissy (OP), you should show your doctor this piece: http://www.bmj.com/content/341/bmj.c6931.full
“Despite sporadic reports to the contrary, the clinical implications of red hair phenotype remain questionable. Red hair phenotype may confer an increased requirement for anaesthetics but is associated with no greater operative risk than the remainder of the population. It would seem that the reputation of people with red hair for having increased perioperative risk is without any basis in fact and should only be used as an excuse of last resort by surgeons defending problematic bleeding or recurrent hernias.”
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???
Uh, is she anemic? Does she have a bleeding disorder?
No? Then why would she bleed more? That’s like saying a woman with a darker skin tone prefers chocolate milk to plain. It’s prejudiced and most likely completely wrong.
Oh, and old wive’s tales usually have no scientific basis behind them. Try looking in a medical book the next time you want to make an assumption like this.
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Jennifer at Organic Baby University had this to say,
Nov 6, 2011 @ 9:00 am (Quote)
Yes you are correct as the MDs as a whole. The stats I had were for the first few years of practice so they were quite pronounced. I will post if I can find it (:
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Melissa had this to say,
Nov 6, 2011 @ 12:21 pm (Quote)
I am a redhead and was told that with each of my births. In fact, true or not, I bleed so much that the had to give me pitocin AFTER my all natural births to help slow the bleeding. A dentist told me that I may require more pain relief due to my hair color.
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My husband is red-haired and he bleeds like a stuck pig, as he puts it. He once got hit in the face with a football and rushed to emerg thinking he had FOR SURE broke his nose as he was literally GUSHING blood EVERYWHERE. It was very scary. The Dr. cleaned him up and his nose was fine. It was explained that Red-heads, due to their light pigment, tend to bleed alot more.
The 1st birth I attended as a Doula, my client was a true red-head. She opted for an epidural which failed 4 times in 4 hours. They had to keep giving her the medication every time till the Dr. said it was just not safe to keep doing it. He took a closer look at mom and realized he hadn’t noticed her hair…that explained it. He reset the IV and put in a higher dose which worked no problem…he explained that some red heads have “nerves of steel” and need a bit more medication than normal.
I don’t think it is any reason to NOT shoot for an unmedicated labor and birth, but make sure you plan for situations where bleeding needed to be stopped.
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Morgaine had this to say,
Nov 6, 2011 @ 9:02 pm (Quote)
While I have heard this particular connection before, this is just ridiculous. To throw it out there is one thing, like, hey, its often said that redheads bleed more, so we’ll have to keep an eye on that.
But goddam. How dare someone try to tell you what you can or cannot do.
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karen had this to say,
Nov 7, 2011 @ 7:09 am (Quote)
This red head *does* bleed a lot, and not just during childbirth. I also require crazy amount of anesthetics when having conscious sedation or surgery. Sorry I validate the old wives tale for hcp’s 
when we have attempted a physiological 3rd stage with vigorously nursing newborn all we get for it is a worse hemorrhage. Pit wide open upon birth is SOP for me now.
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I am red-headed (well, auburn, but I was told I was at higher risk for bleeding with my first baby). My husband is red-headed. We have two red-headed children. None of us are bleeders. Although my husband does require more anesthesia.
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While I do not have the reference… I did encounter one research article (peer-reviewed) that did find a correlation between red hair and increased risk of hemmorhage. The correlation, while significant, did not constitute an overall high risk. Can’t recall the reference at the moment – but, it had to be between 1999 and 2002 or so (when I was doing the most research).
This does not, however, constitute a good reason to panic your patients.
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aly had this to say,
Nov 10, 2011 @ 3:34 am (Quote)
I am a redhead. I tend to bleed a lot and bruise easily. Ive had my blood work done. I have all normal and healthy levels… My dad (also redhead) is the same way, he tends to need more pain meds as well. Especially during oral surgery. My sister who is blonde has a hard time bruising and doesnt bleed much (she didnt even bruise when she broke her leg). Not saying its any excuse to be a crappy doc. They should be educated enough to put it in a way that doesnt sound so stupid!
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Science!
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