The Ol’ Bait and Switch, OR Finding Out Your OB Has Been Leading You On October 21, 2009

Submitted on 2009/10/20 at 3:24pm

Comment under: Urgent Message from ICAN! Please Spread the Word!!

Dear Nursing Birth,

 

I’m a day short of 35 weeks pregnant today and went in for an OB appointment this morning. My doctor said that if I don’t go into labor on my own in my 39th week that (depending on how much and if my cervix is dilated) she might put me on pitocin- although she did say that “they don’t induce labor for VBAC patients”. But that they won’t let me go to 40 weeks, and that by 40 weeks they will have to schedule another c-section for me. (I live in Cedar Falls, IA)

 

I am shocked and angry! First of all- since when is 40 weeks, too late? My OB says it’s not wise to go to beyond 40 weeks due to increased risk of uterine rupture. But this just sounds like B.S. to me!

 

And how does the doc get away with not telling me something important like this until NOW? Unbelievable!!  My doctor and I have already gone through my birth plan, line by line, because I want as few interventions as possible and no drugs, seeking a natural vaginal childbirth. I’ve taken 12 weeks of Bradley method birth classes to help my husband and I be better prepared this time.  I also have a fantastic, knowledgeable, and supportive doula. But I can’t believe what a fight it is to have a VBAC!

 

If I had known sooner that this was the doctor/hospital policy for VBAC, I probably would have gone somewhere else. Since it’s so late in the game now, I’m probably going to stick it out. I don’t have to do anything they say, I can always stay at home and come in when I’m ready, and that will be after I am already in deep labor on my own.

 

I was just wondering if perhaps this reflects a change in my hospital’s policy for managing VBAC? One of the other OB’s I met with at the hospital said that after a high maintenance VBAC patient a few months ago (who also insisted on a natural vaginal childbirth, and did it, but most of the hospital staff were very unhappy dealing with this patient…?) that the hospital is reviewing whether to allow VBAC at all. I’m probably not helping the situation by openly trying to avoid their planned interventions. I KNOW I’m required to have continuous electronic fetal monitoring… but I’ve also been told that my labor has to be pretty much “text book” regarding continuous dilation of my cervix, and of course no tolerance for fetal distress…or else!

 

I just wish all women would know this before their first c-section. If you thought recovering from a c-section was bad, wait till you try to have a VBAC and deal with the red tape and lack of support from the medical community. It’s just so frustrating to have to be prepared to battle, and yet relax at the same time! 

 

Have you heard of this kind of change in management of VBAC? That VBAC isn’t even allowed to go to 40 weeks?? Thanks for writing such an informative, educational blog and for being so supportive of natural childbirth! I have enjoyed your tips and insight from the hospital perspective (about writing birth plans, and managing your OB, and also the many ways hospital staff really will be supportive- even if you barf!).

 

Sincerely,

Kelly

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Dear Kelly,

WOW!  I am so sorry that this is happening to you.  You story deeply saddens, frustrates, and angers me because unfortunately YOU ARE NOT ALONE!  Women all over this country have to fight everyday for their VBACs.  Too many are unsuccessful.

First off I want you to know that your gut is absolutely right; 40 weeks is NOT too late and the research does NOT support your obstetrician’s claims.

Second, if that hospital is actually considering revising their entire VBAC “policy” in response to one mother who, as it sounds to me, shook the boat a little bit by demanding better care as well as exercising her right to informed refusal, they are absolutely outrageous and ridiculous!  I would be skeptical of that story if I hadn’t recently read this about the sign placed at the entrance of the Aspen’s Women Center in Provo, Utah.

Third, sounds to me like you did everything right!  You found what you thought was a VBAC supportive care provider, you researched your options and decided you wanted to stack as many cards in your favor as you could for a successful VBAC by planning a drug-free/intervention-free childbirth, you wrote up a birth planthat you painstakingly went through “line by line” with your physician early on in your pregnancy, you have sought out and taken childbirth preparation classes that are geared towards not only providing knowledge about how to have a successful natural childbirth but also help in preparing mentally and emotionally for such an important journey (and on top of that you took those classes with your husband!), and you even hired a doula.  (Yup!  Just as I suspected…you did everything you could!)  So what happened?!?!…

Unfortunately you are a victim of the ol’ bait and switch.

It happens to women everyday around this country.  And its existence is further proof that our maternity system is broken, in shambles really.  There are some obstetricians, family practice physicians, and yes, even midwives that have become really friggin’ good at this awful game.  Women write in to me all the time with similar frustrations and complaints as yours, Kelly.  And I always find myself helpless and speechless.  I don’t know how to help women avoid it and I struggle everyday in my own professional life with how to fight it and stop it!

The worst part of the ol’ bait and switch is the feeling of betrayal that most women report experiencing after they have been victimized they this outrageous action.  (I want to note that I used the terms “betrayal” and “victimized” on purpose.  I understand that they are very strong words but I feel they are the best to describe this very serious phenomenon).  So why does it happen?  Both from what I have personally experienced as a labor and delivery nurse as well as what I have read (for example: Born in the U.S.A by Marsden Wagner and Pushed by Jennifer Block) there is not one simple answer for why some healthcare providers use this “technique.”  But there is no doubt in my mind that money, greed, fear of litigation, fear of losing patients, competition, superciliousness, willful ignorance, impatience, convenience, blatant disregard for evidenced based medicine, favoritism for the “because we’ve always done it this way” model of practice as well as favoritism for the paternalistic provider-patient model of practice (that is, the care provider only presents information on risks and benefits of a procedure/test etc. that he or she thinks will lead the patient to make the “right” decision (i.e. the provider supported decision) regarding health care) all have something to do with it.  Providers who practice the ol’ bait and switch fall somewhere on the, what I like to call “Asshole to Apathy,” spectrum.   Some may be bigger assholes than others, but in the end, they all fall somewhere on that spectrum in my experience.

[PHEW!  Okay, WOW!  Now I’m all worked up!  Sorry, sorry!  I don’t know where that rant just came from!  But this kind of thing really burns by britches!]

So Kelly, you must be thinking, “Where does this leave me?”  The good news is that Kristen, a philosophical doula blogger friend of mine over at BirthingBeautifulIdeas is author of an amazing series she calls “VBAC Scare Tactics” which I think is a resource that you, and other moms in your situation, might find very helpful.  What you are describing sounds to me like VBAC scare tactics (#3): An early eviction date (aka “I’ll let you attempt a ‘trial of labor’ just as long as you go into labor before your due date.  After that, we’re scheduling a repeat cesarean.”)

In each post she identifies one particular scare tactic, supplies a list of questions that a mother can ask her care provider in response to this scare tactic, and then provides an analysis and/or summary of the research that either challenges or even debunks the scare tactic and its insinuations.  In the introduction to the series she writes,

 

“Many women who want to have a vaginal birth after cesarean (or VBAC, pronounced “vee-back”) in this country have faced some sort of opposition from their care providers when they have expressed their desire to VBAC.

 

Sometimes this opposition is blatant.  Sometimes this opposition becomes obvious only at the end of the third trimester. (Many VBAC-ing moms refer to this tactic as a “bait-and-switch” since it involves a supposedly VBAC-supportive care provider rescinding this support once the actual VBAC is imminent.)  Sometimes even a care provider’s “support” of VBAC is instead a conditional, half-hearted, or perhaps sneakily-disguised opposition to VBAC.  These “scare tactics” are often misleading, exaggerated efforts by OBs (and yes, even midwives) to discourage women from VBAC and to encourage them to “choose” a repeat cesarean.  (Of course, it’s not really a choice if your provider won’t even “let” you VBAC, is it?)

 

If you do find yourself facing such scare tactics, and if you do want to have a VBAC, there are some questions that your care provider should be able to answer when s/he hurls those scary and/or outrageous comments and standards your way.  And if s/he refuses to or even cannot answer these questions, then you might want to consider finding an alternative care provider–one who is making medical decisions based on research, evidence, and even respect for your patient autonomy and not on fear, willful ignorance, or even convenience.”

Things I love about BirthingBeautifulIdeas’ VBAC scare tactic posts include:

#1    Her writing is organized and clear.  (You know how much I love organization and lists!)

#2    She respects research and understands the importance of evidenced based medicine. (In fact, the reason BirthingBeautifulIdeas is aware of much of the research she cites is because she actually used said research studies in weighing her own decision about whether to have an elective repeat cesarean section or instead prepare and plan for a VBAC.)

#3    She has personal experience with this subject.  (In fact she not only experienced a VBAC scare tactic and the “bait-and-switch” with her former OB, but also made the difficult decision to and successfully did transfer her care to a VBAC supportive care provider late in her pregnancy (at 37 weeks to be exact!) as well as experienced a subsequent and successful VBAC hospital water birth.  Check out her story “My very own VBAC waterbirth”.)

#4    She does not provide advice.  As she said herself, she is NOT anti-OB nor is she telling women to do anything.  Instead she provides tools that allow women to make their own decisions and stick up for their own decisions about the birth of their babies hoping that in doing so women come out of their birth experiences feeling positive and empowered, regardless of the outcome.

Kelly, please check out the post VBAC scare tactics (#3): An early eviction date.  I was going to write to you about the research and such on the topic but BirthingBeautifulIdeas has already done such a fantastic job herself that it wouldn’t even be worth it to summarize her article.

While I’m at it, here’s the entire VBAC scare tactics series:

VBAC scare tactics (#1): VBAC = uterine rupture = dead baby (aka “Why would you want to risk a VBAC only to have a ruptured uterus and a dead baby?”)

VBAC scare tactics (#2): When bad outcomes in the past affect patient options in the future (aka “I’ve seen a bad VBAC outcome, and it was terrible.  You really don’t want to choose a VBAC over a repeat cesarean.”)

VBAC scare tactics (#3): An early eviction date (aka “I’ll let you attempt a ‘trial of labor’ just as long as you go into labor before your due date.  After that, we’re scheduling a repeat cesarean.”)

VBAC scare tactics (#4): No pre-labor dilatation = no VBAC (aka “Since you are 39 weeks pregnant and your cervix isn’t dilated or effaced, it looks like you probably won’t go into labor on your own ‘in time.’   We need to schedule a repeat cesarean and forgo a VBAC attempt.”)

VBAC scare tactics (#5): VBACs aren’t as safe as we thought they were (aka “You know, VBACs aren’t as safe as we thought they were.  They are much more dangerous to you and your baby.  A repeat cesarean is the safer route.”)

A VBAC scare tactic interlude (Thoughts and resources on transferring your care to a VBAC supportive care provider, inducing labor when you have a history of a cesarean and weighing the pros and cons of pain medications and interventions if you are planning a VBAC.)

 

VBAC scare tactics (#6): CPD or FTP = no VBAC (aka“Here in your chart, it says that your cesarean was for failure to progress (FTP).  Oh, and there’s also a note here about cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD).  You’re not really an ideal VBAC candidate since your cesarean wasn’t for fetal distress or breech presentation, so we need to schedule a repeat cesarean.”)

 

VBAC scare tactics (#7): Playing the epidural card (aka “An epidural can mask the signs of uterine rupture, so I do not permit my VBAC patients to have an epidural during their labors.” OR “In case of an emergency cesarean, I require all of my VBAC patients to have an epidural in place in early labor.  That way, we will not have to wait for the anesthesiologist to get the epidural in place if a uterine rupture occurs.”)

VBAC Scare Tactics (#8): The MD trump card (aka “Look, I’m the one who has earned the medical degree and I am telling you that you cannot attempt a VBAC.  Your only choice is a repeat cesarean.  Period.”)

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Kelly you wrote, “Since it’s so late in the game now, I’m probably going to stick it out. I don’t have to do anything they say, I can always stay at home and come in when I’m ready, and that will be after I am already in deep labor on my own.”  You are right.  You don’t have to do anything they say.  You have the right as a patient to both informed consent as well as informed refusal.  However I want to say a few things.  (Here comes my cyber pep-talk, meant of course to be 100% supportive of whatever you chose and not at all meant to give you advice.  But I don’t think many women get a chance to hear from anyone what I am about to tell you.  To get the full intent of this pep talk just picture me standing behind you vigorously rubbing your shoulders as I squirt water into your mouth from a sports bottle and wipe the sweat off your face.  So here it goes…)

You deserve the opportunity to have the unmedicated, intervention-free birth that you have planned for.  Your desires for said unmedicated, intervention-free VBAC are well supported by the research.  You deserve to be cared for by a birth attendant who shares your philosophy regarding (among other things) childbirth and VBAC.  You deserve to NOT have to worry about fighting anyone to be given a fair chance at having the birth you have been planning…not the hospital, not the nursing staff, not your obstetrician, NOT ANYONE.  You deserve it for THIS birth.

I know that it is scary to even think about transferring care to a new care provider so late in the game.  But I encourage you to at least think about it.  Even if you think that there are many limitations in your options regarding availability, insurance, distance, etc. etc, it is worth it to you to at least check it out.  I also encourage you to get in touch with your local ICAN chapter (unless, of course, you have already done that.)  Some of the members might be able to give you some suggestions on VBAC friendly care providers that they know actually attend VBACs!  Sometimes even if a VBAC friendly midwife or doctor is booked they will make an exception for a late transfer of care if a doula friend or former patient calls and asks for a favor.  (I’ve seen it happen before with my local ICAN chapter).  Also ICAN’s website has a variety of helpful articlesfor moms planning a VBAC against hospital or provider resistance.

I can tell by your story that you are a very strong woman and my gut tells me that you will indeed fight for your rights even if you stay with your current obstetrician.  You just shouldn’t have to do that and it saddens me that any your energy is going to be dedicated to defending yourself during your birth.  Even one tiny little bit of energy devoted to that is too much!  You deserve more!  You deserve better!  I think you said it perfectly when you wrote, “It’s just so frustrating to have to be prepared to battle, and yet relax at the same time!”

 

I couldn’t agree more!

So Kelly, I wish you the best of luck!  And like many of my readers, I really wish I was going to be your labor and delivery nurse!  CONGRATULATIONS on your pregnancy and on your upcoming birth!  I will keep you in my thoughts and I hope that you will one day come back and tell us how your birth went!  I hope that this post has helped you in some way.  Oh and please apologize to your friends and family for me since you probably will be wasting a lot more time in front of the computer now that I have provided so much reading material!  Haha!

Sincerely,

NursingBirth

No Doula in the Name of Privacy? Oh Come On! September 26, 2009

This comment was recently left by a reader named Jessica under one of my older posts.  Since I read every comment that is posted on my blog I happened to stumble upon it this morning.  When I read it I couldn’t help but think “I Hear Ya Sister!!!”and felt that it was so well stated that it needed to be its own post!  I know that there are quite a few doulas out there that read my blog and I just wanted to take this opportunity and give a shout out to them all and say thank you for all you try to do to educate women before they get to me on L&D!  Unfortunately, they don’t all listen but I hope you know that there is at least one L&D nurse out there that appreciates your efforts, both before and during labor!!!

 

For all you expecting moms out there please check out DONA’s website to learn a bit more about what a doula is, how you can find one, the effects a doula can have on your birth outcome and experience, and how a doula can advocate for you!

 

And just for the record, there is NOTHING private about a hospital birth experience.  Even in the most well meaning hospitals with the most well meaning birth attendant and the most well meaning nurse(s).  Albeit some women’s hospital births might be more private than others and I personally have had the priviledge to be a part of a few totally amazing hospital births.  But to not hire a doula for your hospital birth (especially at a university hospital!) because you want a “private” experience is a very VERY naive and misguided idea!  I am not saying that to hurt anyone’s feelings and I am certainly not judging anyone out there who decided not to hire a doula for one reason or another.  I am just telling it like it is.  Some food for thought…

 

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Hi NursingBirth!

I am a certifying doula and have recently had an interview with a perspective client. She is 36wks pregnant with her first. She was strongly considering a doula, but everyone else in her family was on the fence, and pushing a “private” birth experience. However, they are planning a delivery at a university hospital, she has yet to see the same health care provider throughout her prenatal care, she has no idea which one will be at the birth, or if it will even be someone she has met. They are planning a natural birth. She assured me that the hospital she is birthing at offers a multitude of birth options, including water birth, birth ball, position changes, etc… and the childbirth education from the hospital has given them confidence in their ability to get what they want from this birth. After much “deliberation” they decided that they were not going to hire a doula, based solely on their confidence in the hospital to give them what they want, and their desire for privacy. While I can completely respect their privacy request, I fail to see how birthing in a university hospital will give her much if any privacy…AND if she doesn’t even know who will be her health care provider at the birth…how is she confident that the hospital will give her what she needs? I wish there was some way to help open her naive eyes to the reality of birth in hospitals today. Her chances of getting to work with a mother friendly doc that understands and respects natural birth have got to be low! Reading your blog was comforting (because I know there are others who struggle with this) and depressing(because we have to struggle with this). I don’t want to have her hire me for her VBAC next time around. I want her to have the birth she desires now. I realize there isn’t much I can do for her at this point, which is why I am here, leaving my frustration with a bunch of like minded individuals. I am hoping things will go well for her and in the mean time, I’ve let her know that I am and will be available until the baby is born. just in case. Thanks for the space to rant.

  

Sincerely,

Jessica

  

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Jessica, you can rant here anytime!!!  I Hear Ya Sister!  Loud and clear!!

 

And now I leave you with one of my FAVORITE Monty Python skits of all time.  I have seen it a million times but it is still as hilarious (and eerily true) each time I see it.  Notice how the doctor invites in an army of people to watch.  It often feels like that where I work no matter what I do!!!

 

The WORST Idea Since Routine Continuous Fetal Monitoring for Low Risk Mothers September 7, 2009

My husband (being the techie cutie that he is) reads CNET news, a website about computers, the Internet, and groundbreaking technology as part of his morning routine.  The other day, while I was enjoying my Kashi cereal and checking out the latest blog posts on my Google Reader, my husband hollered over to me from his office and said,“Hey Melissa, have you heard of LaborPro?”  Until that moment I was having a pretty good Sunday morning.  I mean, I woke up refreshed and smiling, the sun was shining, and I was looking forward to what I felt was going to be a “good” day at work.  But my attitude quickly turned from happy-go-lucky to blinding rage when he uttered those eight little words. 

(Okay, okay, so I think I am being a bit dramatic.  Maybe blinding rage is a bit strong.  But I was pretty upset!!)

So what is LaborPro and why did it put me into such a tizzy you ask?  According to Trig Medical’s website (the Israeli company that is developing and recently won a Frost & Sullivan Technology Innovation of the Year Award for this GARBAGE), LaborPro is “a novel labor monitoring system that using ultrasound imaging measures continuously and objectively fetal position, presentation and station along with cervical dilatation. LaborPro quantitatively assesses and records vital labor parameters in real-time to enable obstetricians to make informed and accurate decisions throughout the labor process to improve both the quality and cost of obstetric care.”

 

 

 

Photo Credit: http://www.trigmed.com/index.php

The website lists LaborPro’s capabilities as able to:  

• Determine continuous station & position of fetal head by ultrasound imaging,
• Provide radiation-free pelvimetry & birth canal modeling.
• Perform one-step computerized “non-invasive” trans-vaginal digital examination (I’ll touch on that in moment)
• Determine intermittent or continuous accurate measurement of cervical dilatation
• Record comprehensive labor data recording

 

It also toutes its “unique benefits” as the following: 

• Non-invasive, precise measurement of station & position
• Improves assessment of non-progressive labor
• Supports decision-making before operative delivery
• User friendly, on-screen display of all labor parameters
• Enhances patient comfort and sense of security

 

Okay okay okay….Just HOW does it do this you ask?  Well it’s EASY!  (*rolling eyes*)  Well according to the website’s one mintute educational video (check it out here, it’s worth it).  FIRST you have to place “just four little electrodes” externally on the mother’s pelvis in order to continuously assess fetal station and position and also enables the user to “recognize CPD early”.  SECOND you just have to clip (or screw) “just a few position sensors” to the woman’s cervix to accurately and continuously measure cervical dilation.  And THIRD you just have to screw “just a small little electrode” into the baby’s head.

Close up of a fetal scalp electrode, or FSE (notice the little corkscrew tip, that screws into the baby's scalp.)

According to Frost & Sullivan, the organization that awarded Trig Medical for the LaborPro technology writes, “The LaborPro is staff and mother-friendly and requires only basic training in ultrasound usage, obviating the need for an obstetric ultrasound expert,” adds Ms. Prabakar. “Moreover, the technology employs non-invasive, radiation-free pelvimetry as well as a single-step computerised digital examination. All labor progress tracking data including the fetal heart rate monitor are integrated in the LaborPro display and automatically recorded by the system, which helps reduce staff workload.”

 

Oh great!  We only need “basic ultrasound skills” to work it!  (*double eye rolling*)  Here’s a novel idea!  How about every hospital (including my own) in the United States that has a L&D floor actually provide labor support training to their nurses instead!  That would go a lot farther for us than freaking ultrasound skills!! 

(Just for the record, my hospital does NOT include labor support training as part of orientation and we are NOT alone.  At my hospital, if you want to learn how to provide labor support you have to seek out other learning opportunites on your own, like I had to.  But we do get extensive training on how to work and interpret the fetal monitor.  Oh and about 1/3 of our three month orientation is dedicated to learning how to care for a patient who is being induced.  In fact, I had to teach myself how to do intermittent auscultation and hence, I am one of the only nurses that I work with that isn’t “scared” of intermittent auscultation and will actually advocate for it!) 

The most terrifying thing is that although at this time LaborPro is not available in the United States (Oh Hallelujah!!!) there is another company called Barnev based out of Andover, MA that has developed an almost identical product they call BirthTrack™ Continuous Labor Monitoring System which they describe as “a revolutionary continuous labor monitoring technology that provides obstetric caregivers invaluable, precise, objective, real-time information about the physical progress of labor. The BirthTrack System provides tools for a more informed decision making process through which hospitals can reduce the risks and costs of childbirth and assure the safety and comfort of mothers-to-be and their babies.”  I remember hearing about this product a couple of years ago when it was still in “development.”  Well guess what?!  Development is over!!  Marketing here we come!!  (GAG me!)

 

So now there are at least TWO companies that are actively marketing this HORRIFIC, INHUMANE, and OUTRAGEOUS product.  Just wait  until LaborPro makes it to the United States (which according to their website they are actively persuing).  Then they will probably start to compete with eachother!  Now now only will labor & delivery wards around the country have to deal with Similac and Enfamil representatives competing for our money and attention in house (which already makes me sick to my stomach), but now I have to worry about this??!!  THIS IS TERRIFYING!!!

 

I’m telling you right now, I will UP AND QUIT my job and never look back if either LaborPro or BirthTrack EVER  appears in even just one, JUST ONE of my hospital’s labor rooms.  QUIT ON THE SPOT!  And I will make a Hollywood exit too!  A HUGE scene!!!  Hooting and hollering!  You just wait!!  LOL!  As if our moms aren’t already strapped down enough with the often unnecessary and sometimes downright harmful technology we already have.  This is just TOO MUCH TO BEAR!

I have taken care of MANY a laboring woman (often as a result of an induction, mind you) who are connected to:

 (1)  an IV line with IV fluids and Pitocin running through,

(2) an electronic fetal monitor to measure fetal heart rate,

(3) a tocodransducer to measure contraction pattern

(OR a fetal scalp electrode to measure fetal heart rate and an intrauterine pressure catheter to measure contraction frequency and strength),

4) an epidural catheter in the back giving a continuous flow of anethetic and narcotic medications into the spinal column,

(5) a foley catheter in the bladder since it is very rare that one can empty their bladder with an epidural,

(6)  a pulse oximeter to continuously measure blood oxygen level (necessitated by the epidural),

(7) a blood pressure cuff to record one’s blood pressure every 15 minutes since an epidural can drop your blood pressure dangerously low, and finally

(8) if the baby has shown any signs of distress, an oxygen mask for your face!

 

Well I have a message for both Trig Medical and Barnev, LABORING WOMEN DO NOT NEED ANY MORE THINGS SHOVED UP THIER VAGINA!!!!  And furthermore,  CLIPING ANYTHING TO A WOMAN’S CERVIX OR SCREWING ANYTHING INTO A BABY’S HEAD DOES NOT COUNT AS “NON-INVASIVE”!!!  LABORING WOMEN AND BABIES ARE NOT ROBOTS THAT DON’T FEEL ANY PAIN OR DISCOMFORT!!!!  RESEARCH HAS SHOWN TIME AND TIME AGAIN THAT LESS IS MORE WHEN IT COMES TO LABOR FOR HEALTHY MOMS AND BABIES!!!  CONTINUITY OF CARE IS MUCH MORE EFFECTIVE, LESS PAINFUL, LESS INVASIVE THAN ANY “COMPUTERIZED FINGER.”

Furthermore, LaborPro and BirthTrack are a slap in the face to every labor and delivery nurse that cares about giving appropriate, effective, competent, physiological, and compassionate care to childbearing families.   Unfortunately I would bet my hard earned money that at least half of the doctors I currently work with would think that this is a good idea. 

Okay, okay, now that I am all riled up again I have to go to work  😦   Please check out Rixa’s post over at Stand and Deliver about BirthTrack.  It was written about a year ago and I stumbled upon it when I was searching for a picture of a fetal scalp electrode!!

Change has GOT to come!  It’s GOT to!  For the health and wellness of our mothers and babies!!  Remember ladies, YOU actually have more power than ME and all the other L&D nurses out there!!  That’s right!  If you do not hire birth attendants that do not support evidenced based medicine and physiological birth and do not patronize hospitals that do not support a family-centered approach to maternity care then and only then will they start to listen.  You know why?  Because when the customers aren’t comin’, it hits them where it hurts… in their WALLET!!

Don’t Let This Happen To You #24 PART 2 of 2: Jessica & Jason’s Back Door Induction April 21, 2009

Continuation of the “Injustice in Maternity Care” Series

 

Please see, Don’t Let This Happen To You #24 PART 1

 

My first hour with Jessica & Jason was spent getting to know them, tidying up the room, setting it up the way I like it (I know, sometimes I can be a bit anal about clutter!  I don’t know how some nurses can work in so much clutter!!), and turning up the pitocin a couple of times.  Around 4:00pm I had left the room to scrounge around for a few more pillows for Jessica.  This took me about 10 minutes since pillows are pretty much like gold in the hospital: rare to find and very precious to have!!  Haha!  Anyways, as I walked into the room Dr. T was leaning over the trash can throwing something away and Jessica was lying flat on her back in bed, spread eagle, completely uncovered, and sitting in a big puddle.  It took me a few seconds to piece together what had happened.  Turns out Dr. T was throwing away the amniohook he used to BREAK Jessica’s water WITHOUT me being in the room!  I quickly stepped towards the bed to raise her head and cover her up.  The entire bed was soaked.  It was getting harder and harder for me to contain myself and I could feel the blood boiling up into my head. 

 

Me:  “What’s going on?”  (said in the nicest voice I could muster up)

 

Dr. T:  “Oh, are you taking care of Jessica today?”

 

Me:  “Yes.”

 

Dr. T:  “Well, I just got out of the OR and I wanted to check her progress and apparently the residents hadn’t ruptured her yet!  So I just did.”

 

Me: “Oh, well, what nurse came in here with you?  I’d like to thank her.”  (also said in the nicest voice I could muster up but clearly my sarcasm was piercing through all my attempts to stay calm)

 

Dr. T:  “No, it was just me.”

 

Me:  “Oh really, well you should have come and got me.  I would have been more than happy to assist you.  It would have liked to lay some more chux pads down under her so that when you broke her water it wouldn’t cause so much of a flood.  I’m going to have to change all the sheets now, all of them.  And what if the baby had a decel…”

 

Dr. T:  (interrupting me)  “Well I couldn’t find you.”  (turns towards Jessica)  “I’ll come back in a couple of hours to check you.”  (turns to walk out of the room and then spins around and turns towards me)  “Why is her pit only at 8mu?”

 

Me:  “Jessica didn’t even get to the hospital until 1:30 and policy states we can’t start pitocin until the patient is fully admitted.”

 

Dr. T: “Well she’s still only 4cm so you are going to have to keep going up on the pit if she is going to get anywhere.”  (This statement really takes the patient right out of the equation doesn’t it!  Outrageous!)

 

Me:  “What’s the baby’s station?  Is the baby still high?”

 

Dr. T: “Um yes, but the head is now well applied.  She’s 4cm/50%/ -3…..maybe -2.”

 

At this point all I can think of is “Liar, liar, liar!”  Dr. T turned to leave the room and after he left I assisted Jessica out of bed to the bathroom so that I could change all of her sheets and help her into a new dry gown. 

 

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I need to digress for a moment to explain exactly how outrageous it was for Dr. T to check the patient and rupture her membranes without me or any other nurse in the room.

 

#1 Although this might seem like a silly thing to be upset about, the fact that he ruptured her membranes without even putting down a few extra chux pads (which were sitting right on the counter) is very rude in my opinion.  It’s like saying “You clean up my mess because I am above that.”  Honestly it wasn’t that difficult to change the bed over and help the patient into a new gown but it’s the principle of it that bugs me.

 

#2  It is an unwritten rule at my hospital that a nurse is to accompany any doctor or midwife during a vaginal exam.  Even the residents are taught this during orientation.  Is a doctor or midwife fully capable of performing a vaginal exam solo…of course they are!  But it isn’t about that.  It’s mostly about touching base with the nurse first to see how things have been going all shift with the patient.  It’s about good communication and team work.  And sometimes another vaginal exam isn’t necessary and the nurse can advocate against it!!!  I haven’t met one doctor or midwife that attends births at my hospital that has a problem with this arrangement….unless they are trying to do something that they know the nurse will question them on….like performing an early amniotomy on a patient whose baby is still high!!  The fact is that that is the ONLY reason Dr. T didn’t come and get me…because he knew that I, and many other nurses, would question the necessity and safety of such an intervention.  So he had to SNEAK it.  What he did was so SNEAKY and it infuriated me! 

 

#3  The other most important reason to obtain the assistance of the patient’s nurse (or ANY nurse at the desk really) is just in case something bad was to happen.  Although something acutely bad is unlikely to happen from just a vaginal exam, the nurse’s role in assisting with the vaginal exam is to maintain the patient’s comfort and protect the patient’s modesty.  (As you can see, Dr. T did none of those things, and things like that happen a lot with some of the docs I work with.  All of the pregnant readers I know understand how uncomfortable it is to lay flat on your back for any length of time when you are pregnant!)  But there ARE acute risks with performing an amniotomy, especially an early or prelabor amniotomy. 

 

Risks related to amniotomy that have emergent consequences include:

1)     Umbilical cord prolapse

2)     Fetal heart rate decelerations related to umbilical cord compression

3)     Change in presenting part

 

Let me give you an example.  One time I had a doctor that ruptured a patient with polyhydramnios and a high presenting part.  (That means, the baby’s head was not well engaged into the pelvis and was still “floating”.)  After the gush of water flooded the bed, the baby started to have pretty serious heart rate decelerations with every contraction related to compression of the umbilical cord.  When the doctor did a vaginal exam to check her dilation, he found that he was no longer feeling a head, but a HAND.  Since the baby was high and floating in a large amount of fluid and the head was not well engaged when he ruptured her membranes, the first thing to rush out was the baby’s hand.  The doctor was unsuccessful at moving the hand back.  And that woman, a grandmultip (G6P5) who had had FIVE previous spontaneous normal vaginal deliveries ended up with an emergency cesarean section.  And it was VERY IMPORTANT that I was in the room when all of this happened since I was the one who ended up almost single handedly assisting her into knee chest, throwing on some oxygen, and wheeling her down to the OR as the doctor rushed to scrub in.  Yes, emergencies can happen that fast.  (This one however was almost completely avoidable!!)  Please know that I am not telling this story to scare anyone.  But the LESS interventions you have, the significantly LESS chance you have of that kind of emergency happening.  And if a physician or midwife is going to take the chance with any intervention like amniotomy, it is very important that he or she has assistance from a nurse in the room. 

 

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Okay, thanks for letting me rant there for a minute.  Back to the story…

 

So after I helped Jessica clean up I offered to help her out of bed into any position she liked.  After all, it’s important to use gravity to help you and not work against you!  Jessica decided that she wanted to get up into a rocking chair.  I continued to titrate the pitocin to obtain an “adequate” contraction pattern.  Jessica’s body was actually pretty resistant to the pitocin so I ended up eventually getting all the way up to “max pit,” or 20mu/min, around 6:00pm.  Jessica was contracting about every 2 ½ -3 minutes each lasting for about 40-60 seconds.  Jessica complained most about her back pain and so we tried a variety of positions to ease this for her including using the rocking chair, standing at bedside, birthing ball, back rubs, slow dancing etc.  Jason was an excellent birth coach and the two of them really worked well together.  Jessica did not feel comfortable walking in the halls (some women prefer a bit more privacy and I can’t really blame them!) so she did a lot of pacing in the room.  Around 6:45pm, Jessica was getting really tired and asked if she could get back in bed.  We tried a few positions in bed (side lying, kneeling, etc.) but the back pain was too intense. 

 

I wished at that moment we could have gotten her into the Jacuzzi but despite what some other people might tell you, trying to continuously monitor a patient in the Jacuzzi is almost impossible, especially since there are no monitors in the tub room at my hospital so I cannot see or hear what the baby’s heart rate is doing when I am in there manually holding the monitor to her belly so the bubbles don’t knock it off.  This is yet another reason why back door inductions frustrate me.  If she was in true labor and not on pitocin, I could have done intermittent auscultation which is very compatible with using the Jacuzzi.  Some women think they can have it all (for example their induction and the Jacuzzi).  But fact of the matter is that agreeing to an unnecessary induction automatically makes a natural birth plan harder, NOT impossible, but harder. 

 

Turns out the only position that Jessica liked at that time was sitting straight up in bed, leaning forward on the squatting bar, with the foot of the bed lowered so the bed looked like a “chair.”  She was moving and breathing very well in this position with Jason and me as her coaches, and she seemed to start to drift off into “Laborland.”  At 7:00pm Dr. T came into the room and stated he was going to do a vaginal exam to check for progress.  Jessica had started to complain of some intermittent rectal pressure so I had assumed that the baby had moved down some.  Turns out she was 5cm/100% effaced/-1 station!!  “This is great!,” I said to Jessica, “You are doing such a great job!  Not only are you 5cm now but you have thinned all the way out AND you have moved the baby down a lot!!  You are doing so well!!” 

 

Both Jessica and Jason seemed excited about the progress which is great because I was afraid that Dr. T would say something annoying like “Oh bummer, you are only 5 cm.”  But the truth is that in order for your cervix to dilate you have to thin out first and therefore progress in effacement and station are also signs of great progress, not just dilation. “Do you want anything for pain?,” asked Dr. T.  “No, not yet, I want to try to go longer,” she replied.  Jessica spent the next two hours sitting straight up in bed, leaning over the squat bar, with the bed in the “chair” position.  Jason was standing beside her rubbing her lower back while I was helping her to stay focused on her breathing.  She had a couple mini “freak outs” like “I can’t do this anymore!,”  “This is it, I can’t take one more contraction!”  “How much longer is this going to be?!”  What is important to remember is that these “freak outs” are NORMAL and it doesn’t mean you are weak or a wimp.  Far from it!  Labor is one of the most intensely physical experiences of your entire life.  It is comprised of sensations that are unlike any others you have felt before.  And that is why positive encouragement is so important.  I know it is hard to see someone you love in pain but Jessica had said she did not want any pain medication or an epidural at this point so providing her with unconditional support was what was needed.

 

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A quick story…

 

When I used to run cross country in high school we would often have “distance days” were our workout consisted of running a 13-18 mile long run.  We would start right after school and often not get back until it was dusk.  Those runs were grueling especially since we lived in a very hilly town.  I remember thinking or saying things like “I can’t do this anymore!” or “No, just go on without me!”  I remember feeling so many times during those runs like I wanted to “quit” and walk.  But I knew that if I did, it was just going to take me that much longer to get home.  And one of the things that kept me going the most was the support from my teammates.  “Just run until that phone pole” then “just run to that fire hydrant” then “just run to that stop sign.”  I got through it because I took it one small stretch at a time.  When I thought about how much farther I had to go, when I thought about the whole run as a whole, the task at hand seemed overwhelming and insurmountable.  But when I took it “one phone pole at a time” I felt like I could handle it.  There was no other way to get home but to run.  And it hurt.  And the cramps in my sides made it hard to breathe.  And sometimes I would have to lean over into the woods and throw up.  Every bone and muscle ached, from my ears to my toes.  I remember my knees stinging with each footstep.  But there was no other way to get home but to run….  And when I finally crossed onto the track at the high school to run the last stretch I felt like I could do anything.  I did it! 

 

I am not trying to claim that running a long run is exactly like labor.  For one I was only running for a few hours, not hours and hours and hours.  And I knew exactly how much I had left, unlike moms in labor.  And genital pain was not involved at all!  Haha!  But the point is that a great mix of positive encouragement from my teammates, self determination, and the technique of taking it one step at a time was the reason I succeeded.  If my teammates just left me in the dust every time I said “Just go on without me!  I have to walk” then I wouldn’t have been as successful and I wouldn’t have gotten as much out of the run.  So ladies, it’s NORMAL to “freak out” a bit, which is why surrounding yourself with positive, helpful, and supportive coaches (not just “specators”) is so important, ESPECIALLY in a hospital birth.

 

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Jessica labored like this for about two more hours.  She was definitely in Laborland, kinda spacey, like she was in a trance.  At around 9:00pm Jessica said that she was feeling a lot more rectal pressure and wanted an epidural so I went out to the desk to page a resident.  Lucky me Dr. T happened to be sitting at the main desk chatting with another doctor.  I told him that Jessica would like to be checked to see how far along she was because she was considering an epidural.  He came into the room and low and behold, she was 6cm/100% effaced/ 0 station.  Woohoo!  Jessica stated she wanted the epidural so I proceeded to get things set up so that we would be ready when anesthesia came in.  I had already reviewed with her the risks and benefits of an epidural earlier on (when she was more comfortable), so now I just had to explain to her what to expect from the procedure. 

 

After setting up the room I walked out to the desk to see how long it would take anesthesia to see her.  Turns out that anesthesia was tied up in a cesarean section so Jessica would have to wait.  (Unfortunately, even in a hospital that has 24/7 anesthesia like mine, they are not always available for epidurals.  So if this is your only reason for deciding to have your baby at a high-risk hospital, I would make sure you review all of your options.  And if your only labor preparation is deciding you want an epidural, it is imperative that you prepare for the possibility of not getting one!)  When I was at the desk, I checked the orders to make sure Dr. T had written for the epidural.  And that’s when I found his progress note:

 

X/X/XXXX 2115

S: Complains of more pain, wants relief O: Cervix 6 cm dilated, completely effaced, 0 station      EFM shows Ctx every 3 min x 60, baseline 140, +accels, Æ decels, moderate variability A: Active phase labor with unsatisfactory progress P:  Anesthesia notified for epidural      Recheck in one hour, if no significant progress, anticipate primary cesarean section for arrest of dilatation                                                                                               Dr. T

 

I was floored.  I couldn’t believe he was basically already throwing in the towel for Jessica.  It was her first baby for goodness sakes!  Babies come in their own time!  I mean, she hadn’t even gotten the epidural yet and the pitocin has to be shut off for the epidural so by the time the “hour” was up, it would have been completely unfair to expect her to have made any “progress.”  And what does that mean anyways?  So I called him out on it:

 

Me:  “Dr. T.  You are already throwing in the towel for her!?  Why does the plan even mention a cesarean at this point?!”

 

Dr. T:  “You’re kidding right, she has only changed 2cm in the last 7 hours.”

 

Me:  “Well that’s not really true because I didn’t even get her contractions into an adequate pattern until about 6pm.  And it’s her first baby.”

 

Dr. T:  “Jeeze, you call that progress?!  I can’t be here all night you know…”

 

(YES he really did say that.  This is also the doctor that told me once to tell a multip who was 8cm and feeling pushy to “Not push” because he wanted to finish the ice cream he had just ordered with his wife and kids.  I mean, I’m all for him spending time with his kids but he was ON CALL and this was a third time mom who was feeling RECTAL PRESSURE and was 8 CM!  There is NO telling her “Don’t push!”  It’s called the fetal ejection reflex for goodness sake!  And guess what, not only did he missed the delivery, but he then chewed me and the resident out for it.  I’m not making this up…In fact I can’t make this stuff up!)

 

Me:  (getting pretty upset but trying not to scream at him)  “Are you kidding me!  She wasn’t even in labor when she got here!  If she was, you wouldn’t have started her on pitocin.  She wasn’t even in labor!  You didn’t have to be here at ALL but YOU were the one who sent her in for induction.”

 

Dr. T:  (smirking)  “Induction!  She was 4cm!”

 

Me:  “But she couldn’t feel any of her contractions!  And now you are just going to cut her without at least seeing if the epidural helps?!  This is her first baby!  This delivery has consequences for the rest of her life!”

 

I was afraid I was going to strangle him at this point so I just left the desk to go back into the room.  Anesthesia didn’t show up until 10:30pm and at 11:00 pm Penny, the night nurse, came in to take over.  I stayed until the epidural was finished and tucked her in.  The next day I got the full scoop on what happened from Penny and the patient’s chart.

 

Apparently Jessica got great relief from the epidural and slept like a rock for 2 hours.  Luckily the baby tolerated the epidural well and remained happy on the monitors. Dr. T must have fallen asleep in his call room or gotten distracted because he never came back to check her.  At 1:30am Jessica woke up feeling a lot more rectal pressure.  Penny called the resident to check her and her exam revealed she was fully dilated (HOORAY!!) but that the baby was still at a 0 station.  Since the resident was busy with other patients she agreed, per Penny’s request, to NOT call Dr. T and wake him up but rather to shut off the epidural, allowing it to wear off a bit, and use passive descent to help get the baby down more before they started pushing.  (Although Jessica was feeling more rectal pressure, a practice push revealed that she could not feel her bottom enough to push.  If she had started to push at that time, she would have just tired herself out).  Also, Penny knew that Dr. T was notorious for only “letting” patients push for about an hour (even if they can’t feel their bottom) and then if the baby isn’t out he performs a cesarean for “failure to descent.”  Phooey! 

 

One hour later at 2:30am Jessica was feeling an uncontrollable urge to push and a vaginal exam by the resident revealed that she was 10cm/100%/ +2 station!!  Yay!!  Penny said that she felt it was best not to make Jessica wait for Dr. T to rise and shine so she instructed Penny to push whenever she felt she needed too.  She said that Dr. T didn’t even make it into the room until about 10 min before Jessica pushed out her 8lb, 6oz baby boy at 3:05am after only approximately 30 minutes of pushing!!!!  The baby was also found to be in an occiput posterior position, which explains all that back pain Jessica was experiencing and perhaps the length of her labor as well.  Dr. T did cut an episiotomy but the baby delivered before he could get his hands on a vacuum J.  According to Penny, baby Christopher James nursed like a champ and stayed skin to skin with mom for almost a whole two hours! 

 

Fortunately for all those involved, Jessica and Jason’s story had a wonderful ending!  However, despite the fact that Jessica’s birth did not end in a cesarean section doesn’t mean that there were not many injustices in the way her care was managed by her birth attendant.  Stories like this always get me thinking…what if?  What if Jessica had been sent home from the office instead of sent in for a back door induction?  Would the baby have eventually turned around so that he was no longer occiput posterior?  Would her natural contractions been easier to handle and therefore would she still have opted for the epidural?  If she was not induced with pitocin and therefore not required to be on continuous monitoring, would the freedom to move around more in labor and the ability to use the Jacuzzi tub helped to alleviate her back pain if the baby stayed occiput posterior?  What if she had had a different nurse that encouraged her to get the epidural earlier on?  What if Dr. T had gotten his way and started to make the patient push before she had regained use of her legs and feeling in her bottom?  What if Dr. T had kept her membranes intact until much later in the labor?  What if Dr. T had checked her one hour after she was found to be 6cm and she hadn’t made “satisfactory progress”….would she have been given a cesarean for “failure to progress?” 

 

In summary, I would just like to say that unlike what many OBGYNs, nurses, friends, family members, moms, journalists, etc will tell you, the journey matters just as much as the outcome.  The fact is that women truly amaze me no matter how they give birth.  Whether it is a natural home birth or a scheduled cesarean section, the bottom line is that women have superpowers!  They can grow people inside of them after all!!  And my greatest wish is that all women will feel in control of the decisions regarding their birth and in the end feel empowered no matter the mode of delivery.  But as a society we have to be more conscious of how our overly medicalized maternity care system affects the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of our patients and families as well as their outcomes.

Don’t Let This Happen To You #24 PART 1 of 2: Jessica & Jason’s Back Door Induction April 13, 2009

Continuation of the “Injustice in Maternity Care” Series

 

Throughout my time as a labor and delivery nurse at a large urban hospital in the Northeast, I have mentally tallied up a list of patients and circumstances that make me go “WHAT!?!  Are you SERIOUS!?  Oh come ON!”  Because of this I was inspired to start the “Injustice in Maternity Care” blog series, or more appropriately the “Don’t Let This Happen to You” series.  If you are pregnant or planning on becoming pregnant, this series is dedicated to you!  If haven’t already read it, I invite you to check out the first addition to the countdown: DLTHTY #25: Sarah & John’s Unnecessary Induction

 

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There are so many things about the current state of maternity care in the United States that frustrate, infuriate, sadden, and annoy me but one particular thing that really gets my goat is the back door induction.  As you might have already read, I am a labor & delivery nurse in a large urban hospital and we are BUSY!  Although I know there are hospitals that way more deliveries a year than we do, for the capacity of our hospital, 4500 deliveries a year is almost more than we can handle with our current facility and staffing.  (By the way, 4500 deliveries a year breaks down to about 375 deliveries a month and about 12 deliveries a DAY!  (Jeeze, I am exhausted just looking at the statistics!) 

 

One way to help organize all the chaos is to have an induction book in which doctors have to schedule all of their inductions at least 24 hours in advance.  This way we have somewhat of an idea about appropriate staffing and room assignment for our patients for each day (in theory).  (The exception to this rule is the induction in which there is a documented medical reason related to either mom or baby’s health that requires an urgent delivery of the baby.  For example, severe intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) with a non-reassuring nonstress test (NST) and biophysical profile (BPP) or worsening preeclampsia.  We obviously don’t make these mom’s sign up for a spot.  They are usually a direct admit from the office to the hospital.) 

 

However, when a doctor is either lazy, anxious, rushed, or overall feels he is above the rules, he (or she) will send a patient in from the office as a direct admit to the hospital for labor when she actually is NOT in labor and will the proceed to INDUCE her under the guise of augmentation.  When providers do this, it increases the amount and acuity of our patient census and puts an unnecessary strain on our staffing which compromises the amount of individualized care we can give to our patients.  What these doctors don’t tell you is that inductions can take up to three days to complete!  If you are truly in spontaneous natural labor, even a slow labor, you won’t be in the hospital for 3 days.  Inductions take MORE time, MORE money, MORE staff, MORE resources and hence are MORE risky.  Let’s digress for a moment so that I may clarify the difference between induction and augmentation:

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Labor: Regular, noticeable, and painful contractions of the uterus that result in dilation (opening) and effacement (thinning) of the cervix.  Therefore if you are having regular uterine contractions that are noticeable or even painful but are not making any change to your cervix, it is NOT labor.  Likewise if your cervix is dilated and effaced but you are NOT having uterine contractions that are noticeable and painful then you are NOT in labor.  (Note: I have had low intervention doctors and midwives send multips (a woman who has given birth at least once) home at 4 or 5 cm if they are not having any contractions or not changing their cervix.  One particular patient I can remember was a G5P4 and was 5cm dilated when she came to the hospital.  We kept her for 4 hours but she never changed her cervix…she couldn’t even feel her irregular contractions and she was comfortable.  So she was sent home.  Two weeks later she came back 8cm dilated in hard labor and I assisted with her very quick birth.  She did amazing and the baby was happy and healthy!  Clearly, even at 5cm, she wasn’t in labor.)

 

Induction: the use of medications or other methods to start (induce) labor before the woman’s body has spontaneously begun true labor on its own.

 

Augmentation: stimulating the uterus with medications or other methods during labor that has already begun naturally to increase the frequency, duration and strength of contractions, the goal of which is to establish a pattern where there are three to five contractions in 10 minutes, each lasting more than 40 seconds. 

 

So just to be clear (and to adequately set up my story) if a woman is 4cm dilated but is not having regular, noticeable, and painful contractions that are causing cervical change she is NOT in labor.  If said woman is sent into the hospital and any interventions to stimulate contractions are started, then it is by definition considered an induction NOT an augmentation.  And if said patient was not scheduled to be admitted on such day, then it is considered a backdoor induction.   

 

Let’s continue with the story…

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It was a Friday morning before my weekend off and I came in to work at 11am as usual.  I was looking forward to the weekend since it had been a really busy week and I was exhausted.  For the first four hours of my shift, I triaged a few patients but ended up sending them all home for one reason or another.  As I was finishing up some paperwork at the desk around 1:00pm, Dr. T came off the elevator and over to the nurses station.  I overheard him telling the charge nurse that he was just at his office and was sending over a primip (a woman who has never given birth) for us to admit for labor who was 4cm dilated/50% effaced/-3 station by his exam in the office.  He then slinked towards one of our second year residents who, in my opinion, will definitely be joining the ranks of the aggressive labor management elite, and uttered, “I’m sending over a patient from the office, 4cm.  Could you break her water when she gets here and start her on pit.  I know you’re the only one who will do it.  The baby is still high.”

 

Situations like this one are exactly the reason why I shouldn’t eavesdrop!  The reason why Dr. T was concerned that “no one else” would break her water was that when a baby is at a minus 3 station and is “too high,” if the membranes are ruptured artificially the umbilical cord could slip down before the baby’s head, getting pinched between the baby’s head and the cervix, cutting off all blood flow from the placenta to the baby.  This is called a cord prolapse and it is a surgical emergency requiring an emergency cesarean section.  This emergency is very unlikely if your water breaks naturally at term during labor because typically when it happens naturally the baby’s head is well applied to the cervix which puts pressure on the bag causing it to break.  I wanted to turn around and shout at Dr. T, “If you are so concerned “no one else” will take the chance, why won’t you do it yourself?!  Is it really so wise if it is so unsafe?”  Furthermore, the thought of sending over a patient for “labor” and then immediately starting her on pitocin and breaking her water makes my head feel like its going to explode!  If she is really in labor then she does NOT NEED pitocin!  And if she “needs” pitocin, then she is NOT in labor!  This is a BACK DOOR INDUCTION and ladies, it happens all the time.  Think about it, it was a Friday and Dr. T happened to be on call that weekend.  Looks like he didn’t want to get a page over Sunday brunch that one of his patients was in labor!  AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! 

 

Sorry, I lost it there for a minute J.  But it is just these kinds of injustices that make my blood boil!  Let’s continue…

 

Come change of shift at 3pm I was patient-less since I had sent all my triages home and hence was assigned to the patient in room 9.  And guess whose patient it was!  None other than Dr. T’s “labor” patient!  Oh brother!  This was going to be an interesting night! 

 

From report I got most of the details:  Jessica was a 25 year old first time mom (G2P0) just a few days past her “due” date (40 weeks and 3 days).  Here health history was unexceptional: exercise induced asthma as a child that did not require any medications, tonsillectomy at age 7, and one miscarriage at 5 weeks two years ago.  Her pregnancy was normal, healthy, and uncomplicated.  The patient had arrived to the hospital at 1:30pm with her longtime boyfriend Jason.  Jessica’s day shift nurse had completely admitted her and started her on pitocin but because the floor was crazy busy all day, she had only gotten the pitocin up to 4mu/min and the residents had only gotten the chance to write orders and not to rupture her membranes.  (My thought = Yes!!)  [Note: For a description of how pitocin is administered check out: Don’t Let This Happen To You #25 PART 2: Sarah & John’s Unnecessary Induction].

 

Next I went into the room to meet Jessica and Jason.  Jessica was a bubbly young woman with big rosy cheeks.  Her boyfriend Jason was living proof that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  He was super funny and down to earth and very supportive of Jessica in every way, yet a bit intimidating at first because he was almost completely covered in tattoos and had multiple facial piercings J.  They looked like total opposites and yet were so perfect for each other.  We chit-chatted for awhile and really seemed to hit it off since we all had the same sense of humor.  I took the opportunity to satisfy my curiosity about how Jessica had ended up in the hospital since she seemed very comfortable the whole time we were talking.  The monitor strip revealed that she was having contractions about every 6-8 minutes but she was not even flinching as I saw them come and go on the monitor.  To gain a bit more information I started to ask some questions.  I kept the conversation light in tone, like “So tell me about your day today?” instead of “Why the heck are you here!  Run!  Run away!!”  J  Here’s our conversation:

 

Me: “So how did you end up at the office today?  Did you have a scheduled appointment or were you having contractions?

 

Jessica: “No I was feeling great!  I had a scheduled appointment and when they put me on the monitor for a non-stress test, the nurses told me that I was having contractions!  It was so crazy because I didn’t even know I was having them!  So then Dr. T decided to check me since I was contracting and I was 4 centimeters!”

 

Me: “Can you feel any of your contractions now?”

 

Jessica:  “I think so, well, am I having one now?  Wait, no, maybe now?  (Looks towards monitor) Yeah, I am having one now.

 

At this point I’m thinking: If you have to look at the monitor then the answer is no, no you are not feeling contractions!  Sometimes I turn the monitor screen off so the patients or family members can’t “contraction watch.”  J

 

Me: “So what happened next?  Did Dr. T tell you to come right over or did he say you could go home first?”

 

Jessica:  “He said we could go home first and get our stuff together but not to “dilly dally” because they were waiting for us here.  So we rushed home and grabbed our bags.  Good thing we packed last week!”

 

Me:  “Yeah, it’s great you were prepared.  What did Dr. T tell you the plan was for when you got here?”

 

Jessica: “He said that once we got here that he would break my water but they haven’t done that yet.  I guess it’s really busy today, huh?”

 

Me:  “Yeah, It’s a busy day.  Did he say anything about starting you on pitocin?”

 

Jessica:  “He mentioned that I might ‘need a little pitocin’ because my contractions weren’t in a regular pattern and were pretty far apart.”

 

Me:  “I bet it was a big surprise to you to be induced today, huh!”  (I couldn’t help myself!)

 

Jessica:  (confused)  “Well I didn’t expect to find out I was in labor today  that’s for sure!”

 

Me: “Do you guys have a written birth plan or any thing I should know about regarding your labor and birth preferences?”

 

Jessica:  “No nothing written.  Well, I wanted to try to go as natural as possible.  I don’t want any narcotics and I don’t think I want an epidural.  I mean, I’m not ruling it out, but I really want to go as naturally as possible……………I mean, I guess that’s not totally going to happen now because I am on pitocin but, well, you know…”

 

(Yes!  The “in” I’ve been waiting for! Sometimes I wish I could tape patients and then play back what they say to me to see if once they hear it back, they then realize how illogical their doctor is.  I mean sometimes I feel like a mom who has to sneak spinach into her kids’ favorite foods to trick them into eating vegetables.  I can never just come out and say my intentions, I have to play this “game” and hope they figure it out themselves.  This is something of a daily internal struggle for me.)

 

Me:  “Well that is not necessarily true because although we are limited by the fact that with the pitocin running I have to have you on the monitors, as long as I can trace the baby’s heartbeat I can help you into any position that makes you most comfortable.  Unfortunately pitocin is not a good as the “real” thing you know? What I mean is it makes contractions artificially stronger and longer than natural contractions.  But I will do my best to titrate the pitocin so that we get an effective labor pattern that both you and the baby can tolerate well.  We can all work as a team, sound good? J”

 

Jessica & Jason: “Yeah sounds good!”

 

I’m sure, my savvy reader, you have already recognized why I started this post with the difference between induction and augmentation!!  The TRUTH is: If you are at term and someone has to “tell” you that you are “in labor” then you are NOT in labor!  I just feel so badly for these women!  I truly don’t think it is their fault!  I think that they put all their trust in their birth attendant and most of the time are just naïve and don’t know any better.  And I don’t say that to be patronizing, I say it out of love and concern.  And as I mentioned in the first post of this series, I don’t want to start off my first interaction with these patients by going off on a tangent about unnecessary induction because I don’t want to make them defensive, doubtful, untrusting, or upset because these emotions do not facilitate labor!

 

*Sigh* 

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Up For Next Time: Don’t Let This Happen To You #24: PART 2 of 2 

 

Read about Jessica’s labor, the birth of her baby, and Dr. T’s upsetting prediction about her birth too early in the game.

 

 

(Research for this post was aided by my trusty OB textbook from nursing school:  Maternal-Child Nursing (Second Edition) by Emily McKinney, Susan James, & Sharon Murray Ó2005)

Top 10 DOs & DON’Ts of Pooping During Labor & Birth March 15, 2009

On February 8^th, 2009 I wrote a post entitled Top Ten Things Women Say/Do During Labor (And trust me… they are totally normal!).  This piece has been the most popular post on my blog yet, which is pretty exciting!  When I originally thought of the piece, I figured that most women would stumble upon it by searching for something like “Things to do in labor” or “Things women say in labor”.  However, upon reviewing the top searches of February/March for this blog, I was surprised to find that they didn’t include those phrases at all!  Instead they all had one simple thing in common: POOP.  That is right… poop! 

 

Here are the top 7 searches for NursingBirth in the last two months:  (Note: The wording is not altered at all…these phrases were actually typed into a search box and searched for!):

 

#1 Pooping in labor

#2 Will I poop while I push?

#3 How many women poop during delivery?

#4 Labor and delivery nurse poop

#5 L&D nurses and bowel movement during delivery

#6 Woman in labor thinks she has to poop

#7 What will happen if I poop during delivery?

 

Since I am a labor & delivery nurse, I am naturally inclined to jump on any opportunity to talk about bodily functions (especially during awkward times like dinner or outings with the in-laws J) and consequently, I have been inspired to write a post about, what seems to be, the number one thing on every pregnant woman’s mind…POOP!

 

So here they are:  The Top 10 DOs & DON’Ts of Pooping During Labor & Birth

 

#1 DON’T forget that life does go on after an embarrassing moment.  How many of you have accidentally passed gas during sex?  You’re all “hot and heavy” with you man (or woman) and you’re both getting into it and then…whoops!  If he/she happened to make a big deal out of it, hopefully you kicked him/her to the curb!  Let’s face it, the people that are closest to us often see us in embarrassing situations at one point or another in our lives: bowing down to the porcelain god after a night of partying, passing gas during lovemaking, runny nosed and hacking up a lung during a bout with the flu, squatting to pee in the woods during an outdoor sporting event etc. etc. etc.  And if those things happened in the company of someone who really loves you, they probably still loved you just as much, or even more, afterwards.  Cuz hey, you’re human!  (By the way, I have personally experienced all of those things so if you are laughing and thinking the same thing…you are not alone!  And for the record, the guy that I passed gas on during sex ended up marrying me this summer so it couldn’t have scared him that much!)

 

#2 DO understand that the vast majority of women poop during the birth of their babies and that this phenomenon is NORMAL.  If you think about it, when your birth attendant tells you to “bear down and push” they are really telling you to “push like you have to poop!”  It is the exact same motion.  And if you do poop, your nurse, midwife, or doctor is usually reassured that you are pushing correctly!!  In fact, the WORST thing you can do is not push right because you are afraid to poop!  I have seen it happen before and it is such a shame because these women just end up pushing for way longer than they should have all because they let their fear of embarrassment overcome them.  As a labor & delivery nurse, I do not keep records of exactly how many women poop during birth (can you imagine pooping statistics!  haha! J) but you can rest assured that it is the VAST MAJORITY of women.  If someone you know tells you they didn’t poop during childbirth they either are: #1) part of the very small minority of women who actually don’t, or #2) just didn’t realize they did.  And to be honest, #2 is way more likely!

 

#3 DON’T invite anyone to be present at your birth that you are not totally and completely comfortable with them seeing you in your most vulnerable and trying moments.  Let’s be honest, even in the closest of relationships not many women are comfortable going to the bathroom and pooping in front of their significant other or family members but it is important to understand that the circumstances of childbirth are way different than just your daily morning bowel movement.  My mother doesn’t prefer to be there when my grandmother is bathing, dressing, and going to the bathroom but when my grandmother broke her arm this past winter and needed surgery, that is exactly what my mother did because she needed her.  And I would do the same thing for my mother as I know she would (and has) done for me!  Passing a bowel movement or gas during labor & birth are normal bodily functions that happen during normal labor (as is burping, throwing up, grunting, groaning, crying, etc).  Labor and birth are NOT spectator sports and you are NOT a “hostess” and therefore if you are going to be too preoccupied with the thought of how embarrassing it will be to poop in front of your mother or sister or best friend, then perhaps you should think more carefully about who you invite to your birth.  Just because a family member loves you and “really wants to be there” at your birth, it doesn’t automatically make them a fitting labor companion.  Remember, excessive worry and fear during labor releases hormones that can physically slow or stop your progress!

 

#4 DO go to the bathroom and empty your bowels (only if you feel the urge) in early labor.  Feeling like you have to “poop” during active labor or transition is almost always the baby putting pressure on your rectum.  Even if you end up passing some stool during the pushing stage, the rectal pressure you were feeling right before was NOT poop, it was the BABY and therefore you would have STILL felt intense rectal pressure even if you had emptied your bowels earlier!  However, if you are in early labor and you feel like you have to poop and you can easily pass stool without straining, then go ahead.  In early labor, it won’t hurt the baby or your cervix.  That being said…

 

#5 DON’T try to go into the bathroom during active labor or transition and “try” to have a bowel movement right before the pushing stage just because you are afraid of pooping during birth.  If you are in active labor/transition and you feel rectal pressure, please know that it is the BABY pressing on your rectum that is giving you that sensation.  Therefore straining to have a bowel movement during this time could at best, worsen your hemorrhoids and at worst, injure your cervix by causing it to swell or tear.  There is an appropriate time to start pushing, and many women tell me it is the best part (because they can actually do something about all that pressure!) but it is only time to push when your birth attendant gives you the okay. 

 

#6 DO make a pact with your labor companions (husband, partner, mother, sister, etc.) to NOT tell you that you are or did poop during your baby’s birth if you happen to be really self conscious about it.  The vast majority of the time the mother doesn’t even know that they did poop because the nurse, midwife, or doctor quickly wiped it away.  Trust me, as a nurse, you see it all the time and if vomit, pee, spit, poop, or blood bothered us, we wouldn’t be nurses, midwives, or doctors!

 

#7 DON’T ask for an enema/accept an enema before or during labor.  Please!  Given enemas to women in labor is an outdated and unnecessary practice.  Birthingnaturally.com writes:

“A substantial portion of women in labor will have bowel movements, whether or not enemas are given,” especially during both early labor and pushing (Mahan and McKay 1983:247). Available evidence indicates that enemas do not in fact decrease the chances of elimination during birth nor the incidence of fecal contamination during labor, whereas they do often cause considerable pain and distress to the laboring mother (Romney and Gordon 1981; Whitley and Mack 1980). Moreover, the expulsion of feces during labor does not seem to increase infection rates: in a study of 274 birthing women randomly assigned to enema or no enema groups, no difference in infection rates was found (Romney 1981), and the risk of neonatal infection was very remote (seven babies from each group showed signs of infection which may or may not have had to do with bowel organisms). Another finding of this study was that the two groups had similar durations of labor, contradicting the notion that enemas shorten labor.”

Also as a side note, please don’t take Immodium AD before labor to “prevent” pooping!  It will at best, not work and at worst, make you constipated.

 

#8 DO remember that your body will probably “cleanse” itself out during “pre-labor”.  After all, mild diarrhea or loose stools can be a sign of “pre” or “early” labor.  And even if you do experience “pre labor diarrhea” you might still poop during delivery and that is okay!

 

#9 DON’T limit your food intake during labor if you are hungry because you are afraid that you will poop (or throw up for that matter).  A runner does not prepare for a marathon by starving themselves and you shouldn’t prepare for birth by starving yourself either.  Both you and your baby need energy to have the endurance for a successful vaginal birth.  If you aren’t hungry, well then that is different, and you should still be encouraged to drink at least 4 oz of water, juice, or Gatorade every hour.  If you are preparing for a normal vaginal delivery, even if you are being induced, you should not have to follow a “clears only” or “nothing by mouth” diet.  Good prenatal nutrition recommends women eat 6 small meals per day with frequent healthy snacks so why should we starve women during labor?  The answer is: we shouldn’t!!

 

If after reading all of the above you are still worried about pooping during delivery, then:

 

#10 DO realize that “WORRY is the WORK of pregnancy!”  In her book Birthing From Within, certified nurse midwife Pam England tells the story about a patient of hers (Hannah) that worried a lot about having a natural birth experience after having had a highly medicalized birth with her first baby.  She writes that Hannah longed to hear her say things like “Don’t worry” and “Everything will be alright” but instead England encouraged her to face her fears.  She instructed Hannah to write down all of her worries and explore each of them with questions like “What, if anything, can you do to prepare for what you are worrying about?” and “If there is nothing you can do to prevent it, how would you like to handle the situation?” 

 

England lists the “Ten Common Worries” of Pregnancy as:

1)      Not being able to stand the pain

2)      Not being able to relax

3)      Feeling rushed, or fear of taking too long

4)      My pelvis not big enough

5)      My cervix won’t open

6)      Lack of privacy

7)      Being judged for making noise

8.)      Being separated from the baby

9)      Having to fight for my wishes to be respected

10)  Having intervention and not knowing if it is necessary or what else to do

 

I would like to add #11:

            11) Fear of pooping in labor/Fear of embarrassment regarding bodily functions

 

In summary, if you are a pregnant mom reading this post, please know you are not alone in your worries!  Please use these next few months, weeks, or days, preparing not only physically, but mentally and emotionally for the amazing journey you are about to embark upon.  Please understand that getting ready for labor doesn’t just mean a tour of the hospital or learning about birth technology/interventions, but also means acknowledging and talking about your worries and fears with people you trust, especially your birth attendant!  No mother can give birth if she feels unsafe, senses danger, or has never explored her fears, even if they seem “trivial.”  Please know that although the thought of it might be “mortifyingly embarrassing,” when you actually are working hard to push out your baby, anyone that really cares about you and loves you will not be bothered by a little poop and most likely, you will not even notice it!  Please know that although birth might be one of the messiest experiences of your life, no amount of fluids, cursing, farting, vomiting, striping naked, howling, crying, peeing, bleeding, or pooping will take away from how honestly empowering, mind blowing, and touching this experience can be for you and your family J.