Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
11
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Oh, You Can’t Do That Here.”
“Oh, you can’t do that here.” – OB to mother during pushing phase, after asking the mother what position she pushes best in. The mother answered that she pushed her last baby out squatting. Mother was then put in stirrups, on her back.
There are 30 comments to this post.
what exactly were her options in the first place? WTF? SOOO glad i got a good one for baby #2 who DID let me sqat,and DID let me try hands and knees, and who DID let me know that because baby’s head was not completely posterior, it was about 45* off, that if i tried laying on one side it might help my pelvis open for him… and it worked. Of course… #1 was on my back because even though i said i wanted to get in the tub… they kinda ignored me… bitches….
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Kara had this to say,
Jan 11, 2012 @ 7:00 pm (Quote)
This reminds me of what my ob said at my last birth two months ago. I had asked her about a birthing stool and she replied oh no we don’t have those here! I said ok and she said you aren’t one of those crunchy women who likes to give birth squatting are you because I am NOT laying on my back to catch your baby!
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kate, ren's mama Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 7:19 pm (Quote)
I sincerely hope you replied, “Oh, that’s fine! I’ll catch the baby myself!” Lol
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Tee Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 7:42 pm (Quote)
I’d have had to tell her, “Oh, you’re not? Does that mean that you’re willing to let my baby bounce on the ground when she comes out? Because that could be a problem!”
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Sarah Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 3:04 pm (Quote)
Laying on her back? It’s a baby, not an oil change! LOL
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Antonette Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 12:31 pm (Quote)
Well Doc, if you’re laying on your back to catch my baby, then perhaps they should have the eye ointment ready for YOU, since I might be getting amniotic fluid and other grosser stuff in your eyes when the baby comes out. We wouldn’t want you going blind, laying there on your back.
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What was really going on was that this OB was testing the mom. Doc wanted to know if mom knew what the right answer was, the right answer of course being the dead beetle position. Since mom answered wrong, the doctor had to teach her that on her back was really truly the best position for pushing, everyone knows that!
/end sarcasm
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Jessica Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 12:19 pm (Quote)
I wish you guys would stop and think before you say “dead beetle”.
I tried squatting and side lying, and yet being on my back was more comfortable for me. I didn’t want to do it until after I had tried a few other things and then was begging my MW to let me lay back down. Maybe it wasn’t the most effective but when I tried squatting I felt like I couldn’t even push because I was losing all feeling below my waist. So laying on my back worked for me.
It’s sort of insulting to keep hearing it called “dead beetle”. I was certainly not a dead beetle, I was a hard laboring mom like any other mom who gives birth squatting, in a tub, or whatever. Obviously no one forced me into that position but giving it a silly name like that sort of demeans the women who do give birth that way.
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Tee Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 12:57 pm (Quote)
It is the best position for some people and I had not thought about it from your point of view. I don’t use that expression but once every blue moon but I will take care to not use it anymore. I’m sorry if my using it has hurt or offended anyone.
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Kit Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:02 pm (Quote)
I apologize if that term offended you. I associate the “dead beetle” with the use of stirrups, because they hold your legs at such an unnatural position. But if you found a position effective for you, I cannot argue with that. Please accept my apology.
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Jessica Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:06 pm (Quote)
Hey, it’s cool 
I wasn’t trying to call you out specifically either, just yours was the most recent comment where I saw it and finally said something.
Actually I think constantly seeing it called that on here while I was pregnant made me afraid of birthing that way, but it was what my midwife said to do first, and in the end it worked.
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Jessica Reply:
January 13th, 2012 at 1:08 pm (Quote)
BTW I’m curious how you would push laying on your back without holding your legs up? (my midwives held my legs for me). I mean, I’m trying to imagine pushing with my legs laying flat, wouldn’t that be like trying to do it standing straight up without squatting? (Which may be possible, I don’t know!)
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Jane Reply:
January 14th, 2012 at 2:09 pm (Quote)
I think most moms here are of the opinion that a laboring mom should push in whatever position she finds most effective and least painful. I’m sorry you found “dead beetle” to be insulting. I think that one gets the brunt of the insults because it’s not physiologically possible to do it without the hospital equipment (except for my pilates instructor, whom I fully believe could lie flat on her back self-supporting her legs in a tabletop position for an hour while pushing out a baby.)
I pushed one of my babies side-lying with my leg straight up in the air. I call that ‘flagpole” position because a) it was like a flagpole and b) it’s funny. I think people who say dead-beetle are trying to be funny, and I hope your feelings aren’t hurt. 
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Besides being “unfortunate” (to say the least), I find this to be such a *strange* response: “you *CAN’T* do that here?” As in it’s against the rules? Hospital policy? Because I can’t envision any sort of birthing room where it was physically impossible for a woman to give birth in a squat, so obviously it wasn’t THAT sort of “can’t.”
To be clear, I’ve seen a FABULOUS “teaching moment” occur in the *middle* of the second stage when a woman was pushing in a squat, and her midwife gently told her (in between pushes) that *some* research shows that actually BIRTHING in a deep squat might increase the incidence of tearing in first-time moms (and this was a first-time mom), but that it was totally up to the MOM to decide how she pushed. (I think she ended up staying in a squat, but not such a deep one. But she had the option AND was able to make a decision that was HERS!)
I guess my point is that there is generally SO MUCH MORE that a care provider can say and do besides, “you can’t do that here” (which really just suggests care provider unwillingness in my mind).
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Corita Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 11:27 am (Quote)
I heard it as a horrified person picturing a woman squatting to give birth and being squicked out by the horrible, chaotic impropriety of the image.
Like nursing in public, say, or doing a strip tease in front of decent, church-going people.
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Jenny Islander had this to say,
Jan 12, 2012 @ 8:50 am (Quote)
Any OB, nursing, or midwifery students reading today? DO NOT DO THIS. If I have to explain why, you are in the wrong profession.
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Heidi had this to say,
Jan 13, 2012 @ 8:44 pm (Quote)
I birthed my third child in close to a lying down position. My first two I was in a semi-reclined position, like in the Susan McCutcheon book. With my third, the doctor walked in, put one glove on to check me, and said I was at 10. I felt my water bulging, and the doctor and my husband tried to convince me to sit up to make pushing easier and tearing less likely. Too late–the water broke, the baby’s head came out with the body quickly following. I really don’t even think I pushed her!
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grrrrr…
So what alternatives CAN she do here you sOB?
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