Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Jan
11
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Well, Umn, I Guess I Don’t Need To Check You. Baby’s Part Way Out.”
“Well… umm, I guess I don’t need to check you, baby’s part way out!” – OB Resident while lifting the sheet of a mother in bed with an epidural.
There are 33 comments to this post.
becky had this to say,
Jan 11, 2012 @ 11:08 am (Quote)
Umm I see a lot that’s not ok with this statement! This would mean a laboring mother was not attended to. An epidural isn’t a babysitter. I’m not an epi fan to begin with, but when they’re used they’re supposed to be carefully monitored and turned OFF at some point so the mother can actively participate in you know, birthing her child.
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Sounds dangerous, actually. Baby is already part way out. How long was the baby like this? No one knew? I had a friend who said her baby was sitting there with the head part way out for a while before anyone noticed, she was not happy.
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Rebecca Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:21 am (Quote)
I had a nurse tell me through the intercom system that there was no way my DS was crowning despite me having just told her that he was because “I can touch the baby’s head”
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Sheva Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 1:04 pm (Quote)
That is beyond insane. It’s one thing to keep an eye on the monitors from the main desk (not ok with me, but…) but to diagnose through the intercom? Good grief. What happened next??
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Rebecca Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:08 pm (Quote)
I repeated myself and I guess it registered what I was saying as my (then) husband ran to the desk. DS was born moments later. Of course, I wasn’t able to nurse him immediatly since newborns weren’t allowed in recovery and my epidural didn’t kick in until after the birth (precipitous labor) I did manage to successfully nurse for a few months despite that.
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Jane Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 11:48 am (Quote)
This had occurred to me too. At the very least, as the baby descended, shouldn’t the baby’s heart have slipped down past where the monitors could pick up the heartbeat?
But of course it was actually perfectly safe, because it took place in a HOSPITAL, and in hospitals, health and wholeness just occur. :-b
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Rebecca Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 2:12 pm (Quote)
I wish. No FTM, 20 years old, no childbirth education and since he turned 16 last year, very limited internet. He was at 41w6d by the date they were going by or 38 weeks by the first date I was given, and a precipitous birth where I was admitted from a prenatal appointment (and yet, they found time to give me pit and ARM though the epidural never had a chance to kick in, see comment above) so even if he had been born I had nothing to swaddle him in.
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Just goes to show that our bodies know what to do, even if we have them turned “off”, and we don’t need anyone telling us when to push or how.
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This is not cool at all. I have heard of many moms who are left alone to labor and end up with babies being born without them even knowing because they really cannot feel anything.
So is it the residents fault this happened? Not really he is a student but the nursing staff should know better.
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I’m a big fan of letting a mom “labor down” when she has an epidural in place and is dilated to ten but not uncomfortable or feeling the urge to push. I say just turn the epidural off and wait for an urge. This way the mother doesn’t exhaust herself pushing more than she needs to. However, I am very offended by not “allowing” a mom to push when she is feeling the urge. My sister had a doula client recently who was told not to push so that more IV antibiotics could get to the baby before delivery, as she was GBS+. She was told this would help avoid a NICU stay for the baby, and waited an hour through an excruciating urge to push. When she was finally told to push, her baby had severe bruising all over his head and face, and had to go to the NICU.
The OP either (I’m guessing) submitted this as a funny statement or was offended by the cavalier attitude towards her life-changing moment. I had that feeling when I had a hospital birth. It seemed like the doctor and nurses just didn’t care about my birth at all. They were just walking around and ignoring me. It feels awful to be ignored, like whatever paperwork they have to do is more important than you and your baby.
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Kara had this to say,
Jan 11, 2012 @ 12:36 pm (Quote)
One of my good friends is a labor and delivery nurse, and she told me she had a patient fast asleep (with an epidural) who gave birth and didn’t know it. My friend came running into the room because the baby’s heartbeat had disappeared on the monitor and when she lifted the sheet there was the baby! The lady had no clue! Thankfully the baby was ok!
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What’s wrong with this is the fact that the mother came to the HOSPITAL to deliver. Which likely means she wasn’t interested in an unassisted birth. Especially since she had an epidural… a lot can go wrong and she needed to be monitored.
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Melissa Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 3:40 pm (Quote)
I realize you qualified this by saying, “likely,” but many of us who have had hospital births (and bad experiences to boot) were VERY interested in unassisted home births. I personally have lupus and a clotting disorder and had pre-eclampsia with 2 of my 3 pregnancies, which would have made it very dangerous for me to deliver at home. Granted, I never had an epidural, but that choice was mine…just as an epidural was this particular mother’s choice. I certainly hope this story had a happy ending…
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GAMZu Reply:
January 11th, 2012 at 4:08 pm (Quote)
I assume that since you need to birth in a hospital for medical reasons, you do not wish to be ignored by medical providers. Because if you could afford to birth unassisted, you would not be in the hospital. Unassisted birth is controversial even amongst home birthers. But to have an unassisted birth in a hospital, the institution that wants you to believe it is the epitome of safety?
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Well, I’m still cool with it. I totally see where it could have been a shocking thing to hear. But she wasn’t unassisted, there was a resident right there. We don’t know when the last time she was checked was. Could have been 10 minutes, probably wasn’t more than 1 hour. Apparently her epidural was a bit too strong. But my guess would be that either she didn’t want to be checked and the resident was insisting OR chaos broke out after OR the mother just found this shocking or even funny. It would be lovely if they had a nurse sitting in each room, but if the epidural was too strong and the mother had progressed from 9 to crowing since the last check what do you want? Do you want the nurse to sit at the foot of the bed and stare at the woman’s vagina. Or maybe place a webcam under the sheet with a viewer at the central nurses’ station next to the Fetal Monitor?
I’m quite sure somebody edited out the important part, like she didn’t want the epidural in the first place or something. If that had happend to me and the resident just said “the good news is you can start pushing” I would have been thrilled! I was thrilled with the twin born in the hallway!
Until I see a pink link that indicates otherwise I’m going with shocking or funny.
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GAMZu Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 6:53 am (Quote)
I think that once a mother is under the effect of an epidural, she needs constant monitoring, yes. The epidural doesn’t allow her body to move in the right way for her baby to be born safely. Once you take away the mother’s ability to birth safely on her own, you have to be on top of things. Yes, there should have been at least a nurse in the room, preferably the woman’s doctor, monitoring her labor on those fancy shmancy machines of theirs. I’m certain the contraction and heartbeat readouts would have changed drastically if the baby was already half born.
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Details Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 7:16 am (Quote)
But 80-90% of them are under epidural long before their doctors arrive and that is why the nurses station has central monitoring. I’m not arguing that central monitoring is good enough. I would like to see a trained nurse in every room where the mother has an epidural inplace espically if it was over strong. Fact is that the epidural is used as a babysitter same as a TV with 2 year old. I’m actually quite serious about the webcam under the sheet being the next step to save money by the hospital. Every woman should have at least one labor support person with them, preferably a trained doula. The hospital isn’t supplying enough nurses. Best to take your own. If you buy the hospital ticket be ready to take the hospital ride including bringing your own labor support. This is one of the risks of epidural. This is one of the reasons a smart woman doesn’t show up at the hospital dialted to 2 cm and begging for the epidural. This is one of the reasons not to induce. This is one of the reasons why we try our best to labor at home as long as possible. And maybe the nurse at central station was ignoring this mother and concentrating on 3 others because there was a resident in this room. And maybe just maybe the reason the resident might have been insisting that he/she needed to check the mother even though it had maybe only been 10 minutes since the last check is because the monitor was indicating that the baby had moved out of range. YOU DON’T KNOW until you get that pink link. The pink link just might say that she found it shocking but went on to enjoy the perfect birth.
When I first read this I was just hoping the baby’s head was crowning and it was a hand or a foot hanging out!
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Mama Wrench Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 11:13 am (Quote)
“This is one of the reasons a smart woman doesn’t show up at the hospital dialted to 2 cm and begging for the epidural.”
Um, I’m sorry, but a woman can be as smart as anyone else and still be one of those “lucky” women whose labors happen hard and heavy from beginning to end, regardless of dilation. I just had a VBAC on Sunday and went from 2 to 7 in less than an hour and contractions were so hard from the beginning that I would have ended up either begging for an epidural or a c-section — ANYTHING to make the pain stop. (And no, I didn’t expect it at all, as my first labor was pretty much just uncomfortable from beginning to end, until the c/s.) Intelligence does not make one’s nerve endings stop responding to painful stimulae.
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Details Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:32 pm (Quote)
You are absolutely right and I knew the minute I posted this that somebody with serious back labor would have a tale about it hurt so much they thought they were in transition but the nurse said they were only at 2. I was in fact referring to the mind set of certain woman who think they are avoiding pain by showing up when they know it is early and end up with the cascade of interventions and more pain than they would have had if they had just set their mind to the idea that they were running a marathon and it was probably going to hurt but they could do it anyway.
BIG congratualtions on your VBAC. Sorry it was such a rush. I’m looking forward to hearing the full story.
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Mama Wrench Reply:
January 12th, 2012 at 12:53 pm (Quote)
Thanks! I was really worried about getting an epidural, knowing the potential cascade of interventions that can result, but honestly, I would NOT have made it without it. It took 6 hours to get from 0 to +3 station, even laboring down and switching positions; by the time I was +3 the epidural was completely ineffective. Even with the highest dose they were willing to give me, I felt like my back was splitting in two. I can say I’m a LOT more sympathetic to women with traumatic natural birth experiences now!
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I’m guessing that there’s more to the story, like he was being a jerk before this statement. As a stand alone statement, I think it’s kind of cool. He was probably learning something about birth.
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