Really - I don't.
This past weekend I had to do my annual "observation" of Labor and Delivery at the hospital where I work. This is where I "shadow" a L&D nurse to see what the "real" practices are where I work.
It was really sad.
When I started my job 9 years ago, the hospital where I work was very "mother-baby friendly". They had just opened a new women's center and it was totally based on "couplet care" and keeping mom and baby together and promoting breastfeeding ... William Sears, MD, was the keynote speaker at the ribbon cutting ceremony. It was *exactly* where I wanted to work - a place that empowered and respected women and allowed them to have the births they wanted...
Over the last 9 years, I have watched this ideal slowly erode... it started when they ended the free Lactation Dept [as many consults as you needed for free!] about 6 years ago. It has gone down hill since with different budget cuts, policy changes for the "convenience" of the nursing staff - regardless of what is good for mom and baby... etc.
It is very disheartening.
Now I find myself working at a hospital just like every other crappy hospital out there - where babies are ripped away from their mothers the moment they exit the birth canal so that nurses can do the "important" stuff - giving shots and eye goop and taking multiple unneccessary blood sugars and heck, even inserting an IV blood draw line due to the "technicality" of a Group B strep positive woman only having antibiotics for 3.5 hours before delivery instead of the 4 hours the "policy" requires - even though the baby showed no signs of any problem... [until they harpooned his arm anyway... :( :( ].
I watched a midwife yank on the umbilical cord after delivery [instead of waiting for the placenta to deliver like she should have] and she caused the placenta to tear off inside the mom [which often happens when you YANK it out *sigh*]. Then she had to reach her entire hand and arm inside the woman's vagina and uterus to remove the rest of the placenta before the woman bled to death or got septicemia from a retained placenta - and the woman was unmedicated - it was EXCRUCIATING and horrible and scary to observe. But it is "common practice" according to the nurse I was shadowing...
And, the even more sad news is that MY hospital is still the best hospital in this area to give birth - they at least do "rooming in" and don't demand that your baby be taken to a nursery. They at least employ "real" Lactation Consultants to help you breastfeed [instead of regular nurses who have NO training in Lactation and are just assigned as the "Lactation Nurse" when they get to work that day...] The nurses are mostly nice at least...
I literally cried all the way home from work [there was a bad thing that happened with one baby/family I observed and that was part of it, but despair at what has happened to the care at my hospital was also part of it].
I just feel so trapped. NO WAY IN HECK do I want to have my baby at this hospital [or any hospital]. But, with my complications, I have no choice of course. Home birth would be suicide and homicide for my baby and I unfortunately. So, I know I'll have my baby there. I know bad things will happen to me and my baby.... *sigh*
I want to scream to my students [who are mostly healthy moms with no complications] "ARE YOU CRAZY? HAVE YOUR BABY AT HOME - PLEASE! YOU WILL BE SO MUCH BETTER OFF!!!!". They & their babies would be safer, happier, and less likely to die from something stupid [like a CNM in a hurry yanking their placenta out...].
I am having serious issues with continuing to work my job. It is a bad place to be - I *need* the job, I love my boss & co-workers, but I feel complicit in something horrible at this point.... I feel trapped between doing what I HAVE to do to support my family [I can't *afford* not to have a very good, stable job] - and doing what my conscience dictates...
I hate that feeling.
Did I mention how good homebirth would be for you healthy birthing moms [90% of you are!]? I beg you - do some research!!!! SAVE YOURSELVES!!! LOL!
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9 comments:
Have you seen the movie "The Business of Being Born?" You might enjoy it.
I have always wanted to do a homebirth, but am scared witless to do it. And I am not sure I am a good candiate either, since I have had two births with complications.
I would love to have a homebirth but after two pregnancies each of which ended early with preeclampsia, I don't think I'm in the 90% range either.
I'd bet anything that the doctor yanked my placenta out last time because within hours I was hemorraging and had another doctor stick her whole hand up there and drag out a gigantic pile of God only knows what. I was unmedicated, too, and that was the most pain I've ever been in and they didn't even tell me what they were doing!
They had one lactation nurse who never got around to seeing me, luckily one of the nurses in the NICU was very "hands on" shall we say and helped me so much.
I, too, am so sad about the way births happen.
Too bad you can't just take that post and put it in a local paper (with some identifying remarks taken out). It might open some eyes.
Oh, one other thing...you mentioned "at least they still do rooming in" as a good thing. I always need the nurses to "babysit" while I get some rest or take a bath (I don't get good rest when my baby is there and I'm checking to see if he/she is breathing every five seconds or if the baby just needs to be held) but it seems like the hospitals I go to don't even staff the nursery and they've brought my baby when he/she wasn't even crying or needing a feeding just because they don't have anyone to be with them. I just think it should be taken into consideration that I have many other kids at home and that I know my baby (having just spent the last 9 months with them!) and I bond just fine and just need the REST. I just looked at the bill for the baby and noticed that I got charged for crap I didn't even get (eye goop, PKU testing, etc.) I feel like halving my bill for the baby because they did HALF the things I wished they would have done (like take him when I needed them to, without freaking out every time he cried. He wasn' hungry, he just needed to be comforted and they didn't have the time.). Sometimes, they would come in and take vitals JUST after I had fed him and gotten him to sleep, then they would walk out the door while he was still crying. I was so PISSED because I would BEG them to just leave him alone for another hour or so. Whatever.
Laura, they DO have a nursery and take the babies if the moms request it - it just isn't *mandatory* like it is at most hospitals around here.
I think the mom should always have a *choice* in the matter - that ought to be what OB care is about - after all, the mothers are *customers* and in no other branch of customer service do you have the business forcing the customer to take or do something they don't want to do... you know?
Amy - I am watching that movie *tonight* in fact -how funny that you mentioned it today!
Traci, yeah, you and I definitely aren't the ones to be doing the homebirths.... *sigh*. I'm sorry you had that happen with the placenta - I think it happens WAY more frequently than we realize. Ugh. I'm glad you are OK though!
Kelly,
I have been reading your post for a long time and really enjoy your insights, and identify with your frustrations. You have a great writing style - honest and entertaining. Your children are beyond BEAUTIFUL! I am praying for a safe delivery for Gamma Ray and that your husband gets himself stabalized.
I agree with Laura - send a letter to the editor or the vent about this. Of course, take out information that could incriminate you. It might open some eyes!
I completely understand the job frustration--I am finally getting out of teaching in a very poor district. Every time I turned around, I found some new piece of bad practice.
I think our hospital here must be one of the few ones still following Dr. Sears's advice. I'm moving 60 miles away, in the middle of pregnancy, but unless I have preeclamsia again, I'm coming back here to have the baby. The doctors and nurses here quite literally saved my life. I'm so sorry to hear that places are moving in exactly the wrong direction. I thought we'd been there, done that, discovered something better and were all on the right track.
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