What is your hospital policy and/or your preference and rationale for allowing the husband or family member to stand infront of the mom, supporting her or "hugging" her, as she is receiving her epidural?
I have heard of a case where the husband was holding his wife during the procedure, fainted and hit his head and died!! (i believe this was a Kaiser case in california, dont know the exact details but this is the base of the story).The family then sued (GO FIGURE!) the hospital for negligence in using him as staff in supporting his wife during the procedure. As a CRNA, im very concerned about this as my new job allows the husband to hold the wife, and of course my last job did not! What is going on at your facility? Thanks in advance!
We used to have no real thing about it. Dads could stand up in front of the woman and hold her shoulders if he/she wanted. nurse usually did this,but dad could.
We've had more than one dad pass out though. One passed out, the wife just sat on the bed, kept getting her epidural and looked at him.
One had to be taken from the room w/ a c-collar and stretcher. Don't think we've had any seriously hurt.
So now the unofficial request is that the dad/support person sit (in a not rolling chair) during epidural. They can watch the placement if they ask the anes. and he/she is okay with it. Some anes. don't want any family in the room at all. He can sit in the chair, and hold her hands while i support her in position.
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Ours do but a chair is right behind them and if they look at all wonky, are required to sit in it immediately. No problems with this practice for years where I work.
I don't mind having Dad support Mom during epidural placement (depending on the situation and even the Dad in some instances). However, since our policy states that Dad has to stay seated during entire procedure, I pull the chair up so Dad can sit right in front of Mom and have her lean her head into his head. Works great.....and I stand to the side of them the entire time just in case.
What is your hospital policy and/or your preference and rationale for allowing the husband or family member to stand infront of the mom, supporting her or "hugging" her, as she is receiving her epidural?
Absolutely NOT allowed!
Rationale? The correct positioning of the patient facillitates the epidural placement and is part of MY job description.
I DO often encourage the SO to sit or stand by me in such a way that they can touch the patient and offer their support.
After the notorious "California Incident" our anesthesiologists do NOT allow family to stand and watch the epidural placements; if they really want to watch, they must sit down to do so.
HappyNurse2005, RN
1,640 Posts
We used to have no real thing about it. Dads could stand up in front of the woman and hold her shoulders if he/she wanted. nurse usually did this,but dad could.
We've had more than one dad pass out though. One passed out, the wife just sat on the bed, kept getting her epidural and looked at him.
One had to be taken from the room w/ a c-collar and stretcher. Don't think we've had any seriously hurt.
So now the unofficial request is that the dad/support person sit (in a not rolling chair) during epidural. They can watch the placement if they ask the anes. and he/she is okay with it. Some anes. don't want any family in the room at all. He can sit in the chair, and hold her hands while i support her in position.