Me and my coworkers get so fed up with b.s. inductions and impatient MD's that we threaten all the time that we're going to open our own freestanding birth center....no epidurals, no pit, no admittance until you're FIVE CMS!! Had a patient who was ADMITTED the other night at ONE CM because she whined and moaned that she 'didn't want to miss her epidural.' We tried to explain to her that she wasn't IN LABOR and had LOADS of time, but the doctor caved. It totally pissed us off. She got an epidural 2 hours later, still 1 cm dilated and contracting only q12-15 minutes.....CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT CRAP???!!??
Needless to say, she got a c-section 26 hours later for 'failure to progress.' Well, DUH...I suppose one WOULDN'T progress if one wasn't even in LABOR when they got a freakin' epidural and their water broken. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.....
Anyway, the moral of this story is that yes, a big part of the problem is that docs are impatient. But the OTHER part is that the general public thinks that A)having one contraction every 15 minutes = labor, B)epidurals are passed out like candy at the front door of labor and delivery, C)it doesn't hurt to have a baby(I hate it when a patient with an epidural whines, 'but I still FEEL something!!' DUH...it's an epidural, NOT a spinal, and you HAVE to feel SOMETHING to push your baby out of your VAGINA), and D)it's perfectly okay to be induced if you're just 'sick of being pregnant' when both you and the baby are fine and there's no MEDICAL reason to induce. That *#@!! show "A Baby Story," where freakin' everyone gets pit and an epidural and pops their baby out like toast (after 3 hours of pushing, forceps, vacuum...that they DON'T tell you about) is a horrible disservice to those of us who work OB. The general public thinks childbirth is fast, easy, painless, and that we'll induce you on a whim and give out epidurals the minute the pt. says 'boo.' Unfortunately, it's the doctors dealing with these patients that aren't standing up to them that's causing such trouble.
SO YES...I hate pit, I hate most epidurals, most inductions nowadays are total CRAP, and I wouldn't go to an obstetrician unless forced. I see a CNM thank you very much, and am THRILLED with her care for just my regular GYN visits.
Stepping down off the soapbox....geez, you guys have such a way of getting me rattled.. :).
Catch ya on the flipside!!
