Oct 31

“…I Guess The Anesthesiologist Isn’t Going To Show Up Today.”

“So, I guess the anesthesiologist isn’t going to show up today.” – Surgical nurse to mother who was waiting for her anesthesia for a repeat cesarean section that turned into a successful VBAC while waiting.

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There are 21 comments to this post.

arzt4empfaenger had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 11:45 am (Quote)

Well, I’m glad this turned out well, but what the fuck if this had been emergent. >:( Way to not be reassuring, nurse.

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Missy had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 11:56 am (Quote)

Again, they tell us we *must* birth in a hospital so a c-section can be done at the drop of a hat in case of emergency.

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Jessica Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 12:21 pm Jessica(Quote)

my thought here too. Geez what if mom really NEEDED a section!

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Krista had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 12:13 pm (Quote)

Hmm, foiled “failure to wait”. I love it. But I had the initial, ZOMG! Must cut you!

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Krista Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 12:14 pm Krista(Quote)

*hate

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Ashley had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 12:33 pm (Quote)

so glad it turned into a vbac! But that nurse was an ass and shouldn’t have said that! Instead maybe go check why he isn’t there yet???

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Carrie Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 12:37 pm Carrie(Quote)

Exactly! What if this had been necessary? Couldn’t she have had someone call him to tell him to get his butt in gear, there is a patient waiting for you?

Though I do think it’s awesome she had a successful vbac, but I wonder how stressed hearing this made her…

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Laura Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 12:43 pm Laura(Quote)

I would have been terrified that they would have toput me all the way under.

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Jen Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 12:49 pm Jen(Quote)

But you’d need an anestesiologist for that, too, wouldn’t you? With no anesthesiologist, you’d be facing an unmedicated surgery.

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Laura Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 12:53 pm Laura(Quote)

Yeah, I don’t know! But that’s where my mind would have gone, in labor.

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The Deranged Housewife had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 12:48 pm (Quote)

This could have been a lot worse of a comment, I guess, but yeah – so much for that “we always need an anesthesiologist on staff for emergencies, so you can’t VBAC here!” idea. Curious – what this in a hospital with a VBAC ban? How apropos if it was!!

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Jen had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 12:57 pm (Quote)

I hope the OP was prepared for a VBAC. When you think your birth is going to go one way and suddenly it goes another, it can be pretty traumatic. That’s as much true for an unexpected VBAC as it is for an unexpected C-section.

Also, how can the anesthesiologist just not show up? What if there’s an emergency, whether birth related or not? Even if the hospital is too small to have someone on site 24/7, they still need someone on call who can be there quickly. Can you imagine having a car accident with a ruptured spleen and being told, sorry, the anestesiologist didn’t show up. You’d either be headed to surgery unmedicated or left to manage as best you can.

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Jen Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 1:08 pm Jen(Quote)

Also, how pissed was the OB to be all scrubbed in and ready for a scheduled surgery, only to be left with no anesthesia? Unless there was some massive emergency that required every available anesth, leaving the non-emergencies to wait, I’m betting someone got fired.

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paula Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 1:24 pm paula(Quote)

“I hope the OP was prepared for a VBAC. When you think your birth is going to go one way and suddenly it goes another, it can be pretty traumatic. That’s as much true for an unexpected VBAC as it is for an unexpected C-section.”

That’s an excellent point! My son was a scheduled c-section. For the reasons unique to me and my situation, I was perfectly comfortable and prepared for another c-section. That would *not* have been the case had shown up at the hospital for the c-section and what happened to the OP happened to me.

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Mama Wrench Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 2:35 pm Mama Wrench(Quote)

My thoughts exactly! For all we know, it could’ve been a scheduled c-section and she just happened to go into, and have, an extremely accelerated labor. That could’ve been extremely traumatizing and scary if Mom wasn’t prepared for it.

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pittsburgh mama had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 3:12 pm (Quote)

If this had been said after the successful VBAC, it could have actually been really, really funny. But before, yeah, um, terrifying.

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Kix had this to say, Oct 31, 2012 @ 8:10 pm (Quote)

Idk whether to be irritated, or laugh and cheer! OP, I hope a VBAC was something you wanted.

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Vanessat had this to say, Nov 1, 2012 @ 6:18 am (Quote)

You want a VBAC? OMG, your uterus will explode, we don’t care how far you are in labor when you show up, you’re getting a repeat C-section and we’ll do it under GA and shove the head back in if we have to!

You want a RCS? Well, turns out VBACs aren’t that dangerous after all. We’ll see if the anesthesiologist feels like showing up.

OP, I really hope you wanted a VBAC to begin with and that you weren’t traumatized by an unexpected non medicated vaginal birth.

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Jessica had this to say, Nov 1, 2012 @ 9:34 am (Quote)

I’m hoping the nurse’s tone displayed disgust or concern since this was not the original plan. If this mother had to go through her whole pregnancy being told how dangerous a VBAC would be and then have to go ahead with one I can only hope there were some empathetic people there to support and encourage her.

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