support person consent

[valene]

do any of you obtain consent from the support person/significant other/father to attend the delivery? ours is signed by the primary support person, the secondary support person, and by the mother herself. each signature must be witnessed, dated and timed! been doing this for years. please let me know if your unit does this and if so, what stipulations are on it?

[Q.]

Originally posted by kday

How RUDE....it's like pressing your ear to the bathroom door when someone's trying to take a dump. Why do people not understand this concept???

That is the best parallel I have seen yet.

[rdhdnrs]

My favorite thing to say when there's a big crowd that's getting rowdy and won't keep the door shut is "Okay, people, it's not a sideshow!!" in a no-nonsense I'm-not-kidding voice. It usually does the trick. I had just said that once and the door opened again immediately. I said "PLEASE KEEP THE DOOR SHUT!!!" and around the curtain walks the chairman of the department. He calls me the door nazi now.

[Jolie, BSN]

Dear rdhdnrs,

I suppose it never occured to your chairman to KNOCK ON THE DOOR AND IDENTIFY HIMSELF BEFORE WALKING IN!!! It never does. Duh!:)

[trixie]

I tell lurkers in the hallway that it is against fire regulations and they have to go to the waiting room!

[Lausana]

I have to admit -mine is one of those annoying families crowded outside the door and with there ear jammed against it!! I have a close large family & when my son was born, some of them just couldn't manage to sit in waiting (or wait at home!), a few were watching my monitor from outside with the nurse

My nurse was saintly for putting up with them!! Thankfully there was a bedside limit of 2! I know people are excited, but come on!!

But even better than that was when I looked up from pushing to see an old male-friend of mine from high school standing there who had to observe a birth for an EMT class he was taking...luckily he left as soon as he realized it was me-you'd think the name on the door would've clued him in! KNOCK!! Anyway I plan to be the best door monitor I can be someday & I think the consent forms are great idea for peace of mind!

[canoehead, BSN, RN]

OK kday, I will have to use that- like taking a dump- heeheee.

People really think it is a show, they're like rubberneckers, if they can manage a way in they will come, and the mom is in too much pain to fight with them, or too polite.

And when they hear the baby cry- every man or woman for themselves, a stampede. We have no security here, just the supervisor, who is ALSO the second pair of hands at the delivery. Sometimes hard to be polite to people.

[doj]

We use the same sort of consent form. It originally came from our risk-management department but once we had a Dad who was a real jerk and started being a b*** to both the doctor and staff during the delivery plus his wife. He ended up being in the way and making it difficult to do the delivery. The doctor asked him to leave and boy was I glad I had had him and his wife read and sign the consent form. It gave us a way to get him out of the way so we could go ahead with what we had to do, and he couldn't say that we had no right to do that. Fortunately Mom had support from other family members also so she wasn't left alone. Every since then I have been very faithful about getting the consent signed and making sure that they read and understand it before signing. It may take a few more minutes in the beginning but it is definately worth it;)