Those Baby Shows

midwifemamma · Nov 2, 2006

I seriously would be interested to know if Ms. Headmidwife has ever had a case of PPH on her hands and what she did about it.....I wonder what the 'natural' way is to stop someone from bleeding to death??
BTW, for the experienced OB nurses, I know I had several risk factors (pitocin, vaccuum removal, long labor) but PPH could still happen unexpectedly, no?? And PPH is the leading cause of death by childbirth in developing nations.

i've never seen that show, but i do know about out of hospital births and hospital births. i am a high risk ob nurse, and i also had my last child at home with a midwife (and my son had a shoulder dystocia, needed resuscitation and all- and it was handled wonderfully at home).

pph does happen in homebirth settings and birth center settings. midwives here carry pitocin, methergine, cytotec, iv's, iv fluids, etc. pph can happen unexpectedly as it did in your case, but the midwives here are well prepared for it. if they have to transfer into the hospital they do.

also, my sons shoulder dystocia was a serious one. if i would have had him in the hospital, i could be one of those people who says that their baby would have died if i had him at home. yet i had him at home and it was handled wonderfully. we just don't always know how our situations who have been handled in a different setting.

flytern · Nov 3, 2006

HATE HATE HATE THEM!!

ON admission, we ask patients if they went to prenatal/birthing/lamaze classes. They sa no, but we've seen the TLC's shows on birth. I say great, but don't get disappointed when you don't give birth in 23 minutes, have 50 people w/cameras in the room and go home in your size 3 jeans.

Then I have to do 9 months of teaching in the next hour, tell their family to go home (she's a prime/1cm/intact) and no you don't get your epidural this instant. It's sad, considering all the resources out their for these people.

You would think they would be more involved in what is going on with their bodies/babies developement.....

:balloons:

CEG · Nov 3, 2006

I seriously would be interested to know if Ms. Headmidwife has ever had a case of PPH on her hands and what she did about it.....I wonder what the 'natural' way is to stop someone from bleeding to death??
.

Well, a "natural" way to stop PPH is to breastfeed and massage the fundus.

But I am guessing the that that midwife and most others, like mine, would use pitocin, cytotec, IV fluids, and have someone else in the area to help them. The idea of midwifery is to not interfere with the natural process. When a complication occurs they are trained to deal with them.

Also, if you were birthing at home you would not have had pitocin or a vaccum delivery. You would have been transferred to the hospital. And a midwife in a hospital can do those things. I had a shoulder dystocia with my first baby in the hospital and my midwife had no problem getting her out.

Home and birth center birth are really quite safe. In fact, the last major study in North America found that for low risk women the only difference in outcomes was the increased risk of infection in the hospital.

Off my soapbox- can you tell I am planning a homebirth with my next baby?

Back to the baby shows- I hate when things are presented as fact. "I am little so I must have a c-section" and everyone watching begins to believe that all small women should have scheduled c-section. My own sister was a victim of this line of talk, so it's a personal crusade.