Merovingienne

Thanks everyone for your insight, personal experiences, and congratulations! They've been very interesting; I love having this forum available to discuss all of the issues surrounding nursing. Here's an update: I wrote to the instructor, bascially telling her I didn't appreciate the analogy and explaining the education nurses have, and that compairing that to maid service will not benefit her students. I ended it saying that I had misgivings about continuing her class, since the other students knew I was a 'nurse' and I felt that by not contradicting what she said, the ones who didn't ask me about it would assume that I agreed with her. (A few moms came up to me and said they didn't agree, and understood my POV.) She wrote back a long e-mail justifying why she wrote what she did (empowerment, communication in a situation where lay people will feel intimidated, and negotiatin what they want, not wasting their time talking to the wrong person--that is, nurses instead of docs., etc.) She then proceded to say she was studying to be a nurse, and understood how nurses were 'underpaid and overworked', and 'got it from both ends since we are ordered around by both clients and management', and how nurses don't get praise for their work. In other words, she didn't get it, since the focus of my message was that she was ignoring the education and professionalism of the nurses--and she continued to do so. I thought about writing back, but if she's can't see my POV, I don't feel like arguing with this woman over this. My husband said that he will support my decision about returning. He said that he tunes out all of her more militant views, but that some of the other information is of use to him. (and he obviously didn't agree with the analogy.) After a week, I'm not as angry as I was before...and said that she welcomes comments in class. So I may end up going back and just contradicting anything immediately to the class if she makes any comments like that again. If we do end up going back, I will reiterate during the evaluation period at the end my concerns, and will send a copy to AAHCC in the hopes that they are mindful of this when training new instructors.

A few people have said that she should be reported to her supervisor. As I understand it, there is no supervisor for Bradley; if someone is interested in becoming an instructor, you take a course and then you are certified as an instructor by the American Academy of Husband-Coached Childbirth. Then you can advertise as such, and schedule private classes.

I'm a graduate nurse who is also 31 weeks pregnant; I'm interested in L&D nursing after I have my baby. We have chosen to go to a birthing center to have our first child; they required that we take childbirth classes and I liked the idea of my husband being involved with the birthing process, so we decided to choose the Bradley Method to help us. When I initially spoke with the instructor, she seemed excited to have a 'nurse' in the class, and would occasionally ask me questions in front of the class as a 'nurse' authority figure. She claimed in class to state the Bradley Method supports any choices the couple makes, but was clearly biased towards no interventions whatsoever during birth. She was rather forceful in her opinions. However, none of the information was particularly detrimental until yesterday... Maybe having the class on 06/06/06 got to her, but she seemed to do a complete 180. She was talking about birthing in a hospital, and trying to have a natural birth (ie, refusing to wear the hospital gown, refusing IVs, refusing to be NPO, etc) and told these horror stories in class, and how the nurse will come in and try to boss you around, but that you are there to be served, and that you should come into the hospital with the following mindset: "the hospital is a hotel, and the nurses are the maids. The only thing they are responsible for is fetal heart rate, and for fixing up the room. They have no autonomy. Think of them as maids, and tell them what services you want." She also said that when the patients are given the consents, they should tear the first page off and staple it to their birth plan and hand that in instead. She said that nurses just laugh at birth plans anyway. I literally saw red!!! I was so angry that I didn't trust myself to speak, and basically withdrew from participating in the rest of the class. A few of the students asked me during the break about what she was saying, and said they didn't agree with nurses being equated with maids in the hospital. At this point, I don't feel like ever going back to that class (we still have 4 more left). We have the workbook and I still feel the principles of the method are sound, but I feel that going back to that instructor and that class would validate what she said. I feel like I did that tacitly by not speaking up in class. I am drafting an e-mail message to her that I'm thinking about sending to the entire class (we have a listserv set up)... Mostly this is just a vent, but I would be interested in hearing how others would have responded to this, or experiences with Bradley families in the hospital...