One born every minute USA

[Dragonfly Fi]

was the mother showing signs of distress? No
was there ANY reason to suggest the baby was distressed? No

so i am sorry but i see of no reason why a labouring woman should be interrupted, hooked up to monitors and laid down on a bed to satisfy a midwives curiosity. The fact is that the labouring woman was not worried about any of these problems because there was nothing to worry about! If there were reasons to monitor then fair enough but no reasons were shown or given. Just a normal labour going on and the midwives insisting on moving her around and 'checking things out' unnecessary, completely.

 

[Constantstar]

It's cool we all have different opinions! All she wanted wAs check how many cms she was, and in my opinion I see no problem with that! We are all different - it's up to you if u dont want her to do something then tell her but personally I saw no problem and I will listen to my midwives opinions when in hospital but as I say thats just me and I will cause this is my first baby and I'm going to hospital to be looked after by a midwife who knows what they r doing u seem so serious there in your post!! We are all different and we all see things differently! If u feel like that I understand but don't agree

 

[cosmicgirl]

I think you are not taking into account that they chose to have a hospital birth - not a home birth with a doula. This means that the mw has a duty of care for that couple and their baby the moment they walked in the door. America is big on suing health care professionals should the worst happen. That mw obviously saw a need (rightly or wrongly) to check that lady and was refused. I can't imagine being responsible for a delivery but I can imagine how frustrating it would be to be concerned and not able to make sure that everything was progressing as it should. x

 

[cosmicgirl]

It's cool we all have different opinions! All she wanted wAs check how many cms she was, and in my opinion I see no problem with that! We are all different - it's up to you if u dont want her to do something then tell her but personally I saw no problem and I will listen to my midwives opinions when in hospital but as I say thats just me it's all opinion hub and u seem to r getting yourself a wee be serious there!

I agree, your body, your lo - make your choices and you live with them, simple as x

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

exactly, its all about choice - and that womans choice was not to be checked at that point... there was no need for her to be bullied into! I don't know what health or safety benefits people believe are to gain from knowing exactely how dilated you are! Unless you are going to suggest intervention, it makes no difference how dilated you are until the second stage which is an obvious change anyway!

 

[cosmicgirl]

Some people don't dilate fully, are left with a lip of cervix which can swell dangerously if the lady then starts to push. Others have contractions that although are very painful are not dilating the cervix.
Me personally, I like to know where I'm up to as it helps morale and gives me an idea of how long it may take and I get a boost from knowing I've nearly done it. That's just me though x

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

indeed, that is your choice, but we are talking about HER choice (or lack of in this case) and people are assuming there is some massive safety risk to not being checked constantly throughout labour which is simply not true.

 

[cosmicgirl]

From what I gather from the programme (although I am a health professional I'm not a mw) I think what the mw was saying was that the lady had been labouring for so long that she just wanted to check that her contractions where actively dilating her cervix. As you say, that's her choice, I don't believe it would have impeded her birthing experience if the mw could have had a quick check at that point. In fact, it turned out that they allowed the young mw to check didn't they, so maybe it wasn't so much about their ridgid birth plan and more about a petty dislike for the lovely older mw (or surely they wouldn't have let the young one check??)
Anyway, each to their own, maybe they would be more suited to a home birth next time?
I personally think the majority of mws are heroes who are grossly underpaid and over worked - not the opposition x

 

[cosmicgirl]

Anyway, I hope all of the lovely ladies on here have lovely, safe deliveries, whichever type you chose xx

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

I agree RE midwives, but we are NOT talking about British midwives. At that point the lady has been labouring for 15 hours, which is not uncommon or worthy of concern. Very normal amount of labouring. I think that after arguing with the first midwife, they were then asked AGAIN by another one and decided it would be easier to just let them do the check.

Also i will say again that if they didnt want the first midwife to check them, that really is their decision, they should not be worrying about hurting the feelings of a health professional, they should be worried about labouring successfully and comfortably however they choose to do so. Regardless of what spin the programme put on it!

If someone came to me after 15 hours of established labour and told me that they HAD to check me because it had been going on for too long, i would have been worried that they would have been saying that in order to suggest medical intervention (which they did in this case) and that would not be what i would want. So if i dont want medical intervention, and there is no extenuating circumstances to suggest i would NEED intervention, why would i need to have my cervix checked?

 

[cosmicgirl]

I'm not here for an argument but what actually happened was the older mw asked if she could check, they said no but asked if the younger one could. The older one then was seen to get on the phone and call the younger one to check.

 

[cosmicgirl]

That's all I have to say on this thread, I can see it going the same way as the home schooling thread x

 

[Lander]

One other thing I thought, that actual Midwives, in the British sense, are rather rare in the USA? The larger percentage of births are attended by Doctors and Obstetric Nurses?

 

[Dragonfly Fi]

If a woman decides she would rather have a familiar midwife give her an internal, that is her choice, not something she should be berated for or made to feel guilty for.

 

[Froslass]

One other thing I thought, that actual Midwives, in the British sense, are rather rare in the USA? The larger percentage of births are attended by Doctors and Obstetric Nurses?

Yip In america the doctors deliver the babies, the women are attended by sprcially trained "nurses" until she is ready to push x

 

[AugustMum]

The woman in question, were the contractions not strong enough to pull the baby down to open the cervix much more? I swear thats what I heard. So really, it ended up being a good decision for her to be checked, as she could of gone on labouring for hours with no pain relief, and so no sleep, making her too tired once she got to the pushing stage. With her being checked it meant that they could find this out early on (although still about 20 hours into her labour so its not like they rushed her) to save her some energy and still give her the birth she wanted, even if it meant a tiny bit of extra help for the baby.

 

[inky]

That's what I thought too.

I only watched this ast night, so didnt know what you were all tlking about til now! For what it's worth I thought that couple were quite rude to the older midwife, she just wanted to check on how things were progressing, she wasn't trying to intervene, just check, which is her job btw, if they didn't want anyone to perform that role then they should have gone somewhere else. They could afford a doula after all.

Imagine if something had gone wrong, that older midwife could have found herself in all sorts of trouble if she hadn't done her job properly, and the thought that a baby could die if something as simple as a progress check isn't performed just doesn't bear thinking about

 

[LouiseB]

I think it's always better to be overcautious and prepare for the worst when it comes to your babies life.

Even the women in the couple who wanted to be unassisited described herself as selfish and that is exactly what i thought she was. The fact she knew she was being selfish but did it anyway was irresponsible.

There is always time for natual unassisted birth attempts once you have a couple of kids under your belt.

Natures way of dealing with women who aren't proficient at giving birth is to kill them and their baby off and unfortunately you don't know you are one of those women until it's too late.

All in all, i much preferred the UK OBEM

 

[Froslass]

I think it's always better to be overcautious and prepare for the worst when it comes to your babies life.

Even the women in the couple who wanted to be unassisited described herself as selfish and that is exactly what i thought she was. The fact she knew she was being selfish but did it anyway was irresponsible.

There is always time for natual unassisted birth attempts once you have a couple of kids under your belt.

Natures way of dealing with women who aren't proficient at giving birth is to kill them and their baby off and unfortunately you don't know you are one of those women until it's too late.

All in all, i much preferred the UK OBEM

This is exactly what I was trying to say! You just put it soooo much better!

 

[BabysMomma]

Found it on 4oD! Gona watch it now x