A maternity ward head nurse used to frequent the bar I used to work.
Her stories convinced me that childbirth is not a trivial matter and there’s quite a lot that can go wrong where assistance of a seasoned nurse is essential.
Most of the times everything goes well, but there’s very specific rare things that can go wrong that are very dangerous for mother and child.
Giving birth is the final act in one of the nost extreme thing that the human body can do. It is not a medical procedure, but it can devolve into one in so many ways, that medical awareness will save lives.
And it goes wrong SO FAST. You couldn’t convince me to birth anywhere but a large tertiary care hospital with the stories I’ve read and heard and seen. Wouldn’t even get an ultrasound at a smaller hospital. I’ve seen a couple of things missed that ended up with difficult consequences, and I think it was the quality of the ultrasound.
Also, listen to your care providers. If they say you need the glucose challenge do it, if you have gestational diabetes listen carefully to the advice, if they say you need to be induced they aren’t saying that lightly, a placenta ages like milk and your baby WILL die if you go overdue. Don’t listen to people on the Internet about vitamin K and vaccines and all that crap, they are recommended with good reason, and you don’t want a baby with a bleed with permanent consequences.
I want everyone to have a peaceful successful uncomplicated birth, but be prepared for anything to happen. Don’t gamble with your baby’s life for what some jackass on Facebook says. They’re idiots.
It is common, to a point. And part of why it is seems as not necessarily something to worry about is due to the widespread intervention of medical professionals requesting the patients to be induced.
There are far too many variables in placental health and viability, and the risk increase after the 42nd week is SHARP. Plus, we don’t have the technology required to live monitor the placental health closely enough to take chances.
So, it is a lot like measles and polio, we don’t think much of them because of how prevalent immunization has become, but if we lower the protocols, that is when death counts start rising fast.
Yeah from my experience mothers-to-be assume they’re being asked to be induced as a standard procedure so the hospital can organise their schedule better. Not because of a particular medical necessity.
That certainly happens too. But it is not 100% schedule, at least where I have worked, they use a risk matrix based on multiple factors including risk, pregnancy length AND personnel availability, to keep themselves from overstaffing, and that way keep the spending and budget margins under control.
I can’t speak for every hospital, of course, and also there are psychological factors at play, such as the fact that telling a patient vs asking a patient gives far better and more streamlined processes.
Even if done with good intentions, often times it is not productive or time efficient to explain everything to patients, so they don’t have time to argue. And while that is absolute bullshit, in my opinion patients should be informed of all relevant information, most people are not logical and rational while they’re at the hospital, and this does not limit to expecting mothers.
Patients when given a chance, don’t always choose treatments by success or survival rate, they might choose riskier, more expensive alternatives when faced with amputation, and the psychological effects of this on medical personnel are massive. Most doctors, when they lose a patient, lose sleep and confidence, they spiral into “I could have done this”, “I should have done that”, and often times letting a patient choose against what them as doctors consider the best option, and getting a bad outcome, makes them psychologically vulnerable for a while, because the medical professionals feel they weren’t convincing enough, and that even if it was the patient who chose what procedure to have, it is still their own fault.
And that is only one of the reasons why healthcare worker burnout is so prevalent and risky. Most people lack the emotional fortitude not to carry those decisions with them, and that is why medical professionals are taught to be professional, clinical and distant, and can be read as them being aloof and uncaring. Because the more one connects emotionally to a situation, the harder the emotional recoil will hit us if it has a bad outcome.
A maternity ward head nurse used to frequent the bar I used to work.
Her stories convinced me that childbirth is not a trivial matter and there’s quite a lot that can go wrong where assistance of a seasoned nurse is essential.
Most of the times everything goes well, but there’s very specific rare things that can go wrong that are very dangerous for mother and child.
Giving birth is the final act in one of the nost extreme thing that the human body can do. It is not a medical procedure, but it can devolve into one in so many ways, that medical awareness will save lives.
And it goes wrong SO FAST. You couldn’t convince me to birth anywhere but a large tertiary care hospital with the stories I’ve read and heard and seen. Wouldn’t even get an ultrasound at a smaller hospital. I’ve seen a couple of things missed that ended up with difficult consequences, and I think it was the quality of the ultrasound.
Also, listen to your care providers. If they say you need the glucose challenge do it, if you have gestational diabetes listen carefully to the advice, if they say you need to be induced they aren’t saying that lightly, a placenta ages like milk and your baby WILL die if you go overdue. Don’t listen to people on the Internet about vitamin K and vaccines and all that crap, they are recommended with good reason, and you don’t want a baby with a bleed with permanent consequences.
I want everyone to have a peaceful successful uncomplicated birth, but be prepared for anything to happen. Don’t gamble with your baby’s life for what some jackass on Facebook says. They’re idiots.
Isn’t going overdue super common and not necessarily anything to worry about, saying your baby WILL die if you go overdue seems wild to me.
Common, but if your placenta stops working baby is gone.
It is common, to a point. And part of why it is seems as not necessarily something to worry about is due to the widespread intervention of medical professionals requesting the patients to be induced.
There are far too many variables in placental health and viability, and the risk increase after the 42nd week is SHARP. Plus, we don’t have the technology required to live monitor the placental health closely enough to take chances.
So, it is a lot like measles and polio, we don’t think much of them because of how prevalent immunization has become, but if we lower the protocols, that is when death counts start rising fast.
Yeah from my experience mothers-to-be assume they’re being asked to be induced as a standard procedure so the hospital can organise their schedule better. Not because of a particular medical necessity.
That certainly happens too. But it is not 100% schedule, at least where I have worked, they use a risk matrix based on multiple factors including risk, pregnancy length AND personnel availability, to keep themselves from overstaffing, and that way keep the spending and budget margins under control.
I can’t speak for every hospital, of course, and also there are psychological factors at play, such as the fact that telling a patient vs asking a patient gives far better and more streamlined processes.
Even if done with good intentions, often times it is not productive or time efficient to explain everything to patients, so they don’t have time to argue. And while that is absolute bullshit, in my opinion patients should be informed of all relevant information, most people are not logical and rational while they’re at the hospital, and this does not limit to expecting mothers.
Patients when given a chance, don’t always choose treatments by success or survival rate, they might choose riskier, more expensive alternatives when faced with amputation, and the psychological effects of this on medical personnel are massive. Most doctors, when they lose a patient, lose sleep and confidence, they spiral into “I could have done this”, “I should have done that”, and often times letting a patient choose against what them as doctors consider the best option, and getting a bad outcome, makes them psychologically vulnerable for a while, because the medical professionals feel they weren’t convincing enough, and that even if it was the patient who chose what procedure to have, it is still their own fault.
And that is only one of the reasons why healthcare worker burnout is so prevalent and risky. Most people lack the emotional fortitude not to carry those decisions with them, and that is why medical professionals are taught to be professional, clinical and distant, and can be read as them being aloof and uncaring. Because the more one connects emotionally to a situation, the harder the emotional recoil will hit us if it has a bad outcome.