Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Apr
22
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“I Need You To Stop Being A Moving Target!”
“I need you to STOP being a moving target!” – OB during a repair of an unnecessary episiotomy. The area was not numbed prior to the repair.
There are 34 comments to this post.
I need you to:
1. STOP doing episiotomies except for dire emergencies when baby must come out NOW
and 2. if you’re an idiot and do them anyways, ignoring ACOG standards of practice and common sense, then I need will need you to use a good dose of lidocaine and wait the appropriate amount of time for it to work before you get anywhere near me with those sutures!
What really gets me is that for any other lacerations (as far as I know) that need repairing they’ll use a good dose of anesthetic and treat patients properly and with compassion. Yet when it comes to a cut in a person’s most sensitive area, that extends through muscle and was inflicted by a medical professional, it’s ok not to use any anesthetic just because it’s birth related!
[Reply]
jenni Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 11:18 am (Quote)
my daughter split her chin open and they certainly did numb her up for those stitches.
But when i had a 2nd degree tear from her birth, the OB started giving me the local to start the repair without letting me know what he was doing, and i yelled “OW” and he said “thats just the local” and when i told him i could still feel parts of it i got “this is the last stitch. well, maybe one more”
with #2 i had a different OB and she kept me very informed, let me know that i had a minor 2nd degree tear, told me when she was going to do the local, which did consist of several different pokes, but she warned me for each of them, and when i told her i could feel it, she told me “this part is notoriously hard to numb, let me try one more time with the local” instead of just telling me to tough it out.
guess who i want delivering future babies?
[Reply]
Gotta make sure I understand this one…
So this doctor cut a woman without need and then attempted to stitch her up without numbing her, all the while fussing at her for not holding still?
Do I have the right?
[Reply]
This doctor is awful. I think it’s yet another case of forgetting that the woman doesn’t have an epidural, since most do. It happened to me, too. On a complete sidenote, in no way trying to undermine the OP’s pain, does anyone else prefer to not have lidocaine before stitching? I really hate the massive swelling that it gives me. I find it worse than the actual tears. With my first birth, I accepted lidocaine because I had a massive fourth degree tear-through from an episiotomy, but with my second I just had a small tear. I chose to have stitches because I feel that I heal better with stitches (and cannot be trusted to go easy on myself during healing time). I asked my midwife if I could forego the lidocaine. She said that injecting it would probably be more painful than the actual stitches (in my case) but a lot of caregivers like to use it because it swells the tissues, making it easier to see the tear while they stitch. I kept remembering how swollen I was for over two weeks after my first birth. I can’t be totally sure how much of that swelling was from the birth and how much from the lidocaine, though.
[Reply]
Amanda Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 8:09 am (Quote)
Epidurals and lidocaine work differently for every person. With my first I had an unnecessary episiotomy and an epidural. While the doc was stitching me up I jump with the first couple and he flipped out so much it was kinda funny. He was so scared. “You can feel that?!?!” Me: “Um, yeah.” Then he gave me some lidocaine. With my second I as completely unmedicated, so I got the lidocaine for some second degree tearing and was only swollen for a couple days.
[Reply]
Toni Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 3:29 pm (Quote)
This! With my first I had an epidural that worked wonderfully for eliminating the pain of the ctx, but when it came time to push it didn’t do anything. Even after the anesthesiologist “topped it off”. When my doc started to repair the (unnecessary) episiotomy I jumped about a foot off the bed. “You can feel that?” he said. I was like, “What the heck do you think I’ve been complaining about for the last hour?!!”
[Reply]
PetraStrider had this to say,
Apr 22, 2012 @ 12:53 pm (Quote)
Anyone else have a daydream that this guy would have an injury to his own private parts and have it stitched without any pain meds by some random, uncompassionate doc who tells him to be still, so as not to present a moving target?”?
[Reply]
PetraStrider Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 2:20 pm (Quote)
Yeah……. but unfortunately he still wouldn’t get it, because a lenient is SO SO SO much more special and delicate than a vagina, esp one that belongs to an almighty doctor.
[Reply]
This is mine… This is only one of the several absurd things this doctor told me.
To the doctor’s credit, my daughter was in distress and had to be delivered with vacuum extraction. However, she never said any of this to me, and I had to ask her “What’s that thing?!” When she told me it was the vaccuum extractor, I asked her if she had to do an episiotomy, and this is when she told me she already had. (WHAT!?!?) Turns out, she had done a pressure episiotomy (I was pushing, baby was crowning, so I didn’t feel it).
When my daughter was born, she had aspirated meconium, and filled her lungs. So, she truly needed to come out as fast as possible.
However, here’s the kicker! The doctor had no idea I didn’t have an epidural (again, WHAT?!?!) and after the baby was born, she and another doctor began “massaging the uterus”, which was actually more like being punched repeatedly in the stomach. While I was writhing in pain, and asking for information on my daughter who wasn’t crying, I delivered the placenta and then the doctor started stitching up my episiotomy…with no lidocaine. I actually managed to block most of it out, as I was still begging for information on my baby. But I realized how much pain I was in from the assault on my stomach AND my perineum once she said, quite impatiently, “I need you to stop being a moving target!!” I said, “Then STOP punching me, and I CAN FEEL THAT!” She looked at my nurse, who said, “Did the local not work?” She didn’t answer, and then began to administer the lidocaine. (My MIL heard her in the hall later say, “I had no idea she didn’t have an epidural! Who doesn’t get an epidural?!” to the nurse.
But this isn’t the end! I thought it was the end of my UNNECESSARY PAIN, but it turns out, the doctor had pulled to hard on the cord and inverted my uterus. Yes, it MY UTERUS WAS INSIDE OUT. So, they manually put my uterus back inside me, (which ripped open my stitches again). At this point, my nurse offered me pain medication, which I happily agreed to. After trying a total of SIX TIMES to basically punch my uterus back into position, the pain meds arrived just in time to stitch up my episiotomy for the 2nd time.
Most painful experience of my life.
[Reply]
Dreamy Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 6:26 pm (Quote)
Okay, I am just filled with murderous rage on your behalf. That is appalling.
[Reply]
Kathryn Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 6:47 pm (Quote)
Oh. My. Word.
What a horrifying experience! I am so, so, so sorry, Emily.
I am in shock. I don’t know what else to say — my words are not coming in any cohesive manner and I know I wouldn’t make any sense. But I hope that you have found healing.
[Reply]
Tee Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 7:07 pm (Quote)
OH. MY. HELL. Emily, I am speechless. I am so incredibly sorry. Was your daughter okay?
[Reply]
Emily H Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 7:23 pm (Quote)
Thanks everyone for you kind, sympathetic words! My daughter is now a healthy, happy, stubborn 11 month-old. She’s been walking since 9 1/2 months, and I cant make her slow down to save the life of me!! 
She spent 10 days in the NICU, and was intubated for the first 3. I got to hold her finally when she was 3 days old, and got to nurse FINALLY on day 5. She’s still nursing today! The doctors who cared for her in the NICU told me that she got better so much faster than they expected, and that they attribute a lot of her success to my choice to go unmedicated.(TOTALLY worth it!!)
I do have to say, I still look back on this situation with bitterness. They push and push the pain meds when you don’t want them, but then when I really did need them to deal with someone thrusting my uterus back up into my abdomen, they couldn’t deliver until it was too late.
Anyway, my main lesson that I tell people from this experience is, “DON’T let them pull that cord!!” Then they won’t have to stitch you up twice! 
[Reply]
Tee Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 8:18 pm (Quote)
Ach, I’m so glad to hear that your daughter has recovered well! The NICU doctor’s words really do go to show how important a natural birth can be!
Please don’t feel bad that you look at her birth circumstances with bitterness. It’s perfectly normal to feel that way, Emily. It’s suppose to be the best day of a Moms life and when that goes wrong, it’s hard to just accept it. My sister’s firstborn was an unnecessary c-section and she spent years grieving on my niece’s birthday. On A’s fourth birthday, I made her a card that said “Four years ago today, sorrow met joy.” On the inside, I just reminded her that if A’s birth hadn’t been so horrible, she probably never would have discovered the joys of birthing at home. (She now has five children, the last four all being home births.) I say the same to you, Emily. Eleven months ago, sorrow met joy. I am praying that you will find peace with it all, no matter how long it takes.
[Reply]
Kathryn Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 8:21 pm (Quote)
I just got chills. What a wonderful way to put it! I’ll have to remember that one to share with birth trauma moms in the future…including myself!
[Reply]
Tee Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 9:56 pm (Quote)
Yes, claim those words for both yourself and anyone else you have the chance to encourage! I have never been one of those “as long as you got a baby out of the deal you have no right to complain” kind of people and don’t have a whole lot of tolerance for those that take that attitude. (And Heavens, if I ever become one, please take me out back and shoot me. Please.) Everyone has the right to grieve for however long they need to. I am very grateful that enough time has passed for my sister to be able to (mostly) set her grief aside and just celebrate the day that our precious A came into the world. Hard to believe that she’ll be 12 years old in September!
[Reply]
Emily H. Reply:
April 24th, 2012 at 9:21 am (Quote)
Tee,
Wow. Thank you. That is exactly what I needed to hear. Somehow I knew that sharing my story here would help bring me closer to being OK with my experience, and it definitely did, but your words really helped put it into perspective. I now teach natural birth classes, and will definitely share your words and sentiment if the need does arise.
Thanks again, everyone!
[Reply]
Add Your Comment.
Then how about, oh, I don’t know, doing your job with respect for the woman? Because you’re HURTING HER? And one of the reasons they sell hospital birth is the PAIN-RELIEVING DRUGS?!?!
Hospital brochures should be required to have quotes from three patients chosen at random. Then they’d all look like this:
“At 12345 Medical Center, everyone was so kind and compassionate when I had my gall bladder out!”
“The doctor at 12345 Medical Center refused to use lidocaine or any other kind of pain relief on me before stitching the laceration he’d inflicted on my genitals during an otherwise uncomplicated birth.”
“When we went to the ER for chest pain, we waited for two hours, but I guess the doctor was okay.”
I think then we’d be much better able to make informed choices, don’t you?
[Reply]
Bonita Reply:
April 22nd, 2012 at 11:40 am Bonita(Quote)
That is what the birth survey link up top is about.;-) Also several other “list” websites. If you can’t get the truth from the source, then you have to find people on the outside.
[Reply]