Doctor Rant

[eiblyn]

So I really didn't want to have a baby in a hospital. Ever. Things just haven't worked out well with that. I've tried doing the next best thing. I have a midwife and a birth plan. She's very supportive.

Today I had an appointment but she was out on leave for the week. I had to see one of the doctors in the clinic instead. I hate him. *sighs* Ok so it isn't really hate. But I was turning in my birth plan today and he decided to go over it with me. He was very condescending the whole time. He spent the whole appointment standing over me. He basically told me that "birth plans are nice but nature has a mind of its own and at that point no one is in control, the doctor just has to fix things." I thought I might scream and throw things.

Yes, this is my first child. But it is very ok for me to have ideals of how I want birth to go. When I say I don't want an epidural, don't reassure me that "some" first time moms can handle the pain. And certainly don't make it sound like I'm a weirdo for that. When I say I don't want my child to have the Vit. K shot and I tell you why, don't try and coerce me into it by saying you'll have to "check the pediatrics department's policy" on children who turn down the shot. And don't roll your eyes when I say that I don't think anti-biotics are conducive to starting a healthy immune system, so I don't want the eye gel. What don't you understand about YOU CAN'T DO THINGS TO MY CHILD UNLESS I CONSENT!?!?! And he kept insisting that once I go into active labor, I'm going to want to stay in the bed hooked up to the monitors. Except I'm not. He kept saying that latent labor is when I'll want my birth ball and that I'm not "going to care" about getting in a hot water shower in active labor.

*sighs* I sincerely hope this doctor is not on when I go into labor. Doctors with attitudes like this are the reason that my birth animal is a bear. I'm definitely going to have to roar if these are the attitudes I'm facing!

Comments

Hot showers and birthing balls

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

I have to say, the doctor is probably right: once you're in hard labor you won't want to do anything but lay there like a beached whale and be comforted and tended between the waves of pain. It sounds so humiliating, but when the time comes it won't be, it'll be perfectly natural.

Before I had my daughter, my older sister told me, "When the birth-process takes control, you could give birth on the sidewalk and you wouldn't care." I thought "yeah right", but I learned she'd spoken the truth. You lay there, you breathe, and you let them take care of you - that's the only thing you have or want to do.

LOL, then Transition hits, and you're suddenly so exasperated by the whole beached-whale thing that you decide not to have a baby after ALL, dammit, but it's too late; the kid's in the chute and pushing-time is imminent. Once pushing starts, your hair could catch fire and you wouldn't care.

The final days of your pregnancy should be spent eating strawberries and ice cream and lazing naked in the sunshine watching your child dance in your belly. *hugs* Blessed be, Lady; may the invulnerable serenity of the Great Mother be yours in this sacred time.

Re: Hot showers and birthing balls

[eiblyn.livejournal.com]

*smiles* Yeah. Maybe he just hit my gut reaction to having someone else try to tell me what I want when I've just said what I think I'll want. I can be really stubborn about that sort of thing. Especially coming from someone who has had *zero* experience being in the situation themselves. I can respect women who have been there before who say that I'm not being realistic; that's listening to the wisdom of experience. I know he's seen a lot of labors, but he's never done it himself and so it's a lot harder to take this kind of advice from him. 'Course it could be that this was after we had an argument over freakin' juice ice chips.