MSE Pregnancy Club XIII

aless02

I think the MAIN thing in the pain relief debate is that no matter WHAT any particular doctor/researcher/midwife says, a woman needs to thorough research & consider ALL her options and consider what is right for HER/HER BABY. Making naive choices based on 1 article or what you mom says to do is totally unhealthy and a failing on the midwife, frankly. I was watching 1 of the million Labour & Delivery type documentary shows on TV recently and was continually annoyed when this woman went in and immediately took the MW's suggestion of a big shot of pethidine (I think) without blinking. She seemed totally clueless and willing to do whatever the MW told her without considering any other options. She then was so drugged up & totally out of it during the whole labour that the MW practically had to drag the baby out as she was too high to push properly. It's that sort of stuff that annoys the carp outta me - not the taking of the pethidine itself, but that she didn't make any sort of informed, rational decision.

jillie1974

right off to get ready for work
only 15 days left!!!

workinmummy

Congrats Pinkpig and Molly. :T
Welcome to the newbies and Labour vibes for Tara.

Have just dones a quick read through to try and catch up. Sooo tired and pee'd off. Feeling really sorry for myself. Self-indulgent rant coming up. Please feel free to by-pass.

Sleep crappy.
Get up, see to DS and dogs, breakfast, shower, dress, school run.
Work 8 hrs.
Pick poor DS up from after-school club.
Hour with DS - make his tea, let him play for an hour, see to dogs, attempt to clean up.
Palm DS off on relatives/friends, drive up to hospital to see OH.
One hour visiting.
Drive back, pick DS up. Have somes cuddles then get him in bed.
See to dogs, have tea/ supper. Watch tv for an hour or so, so the dogs have some company.
10pm bed, for more crappy sleep and 6 or 7 get ups to wee.

Exhausted and emotionally drained, Me? Oh yes!
But have booked tomorrow off work. DS's first sports day in the morning,
will take dogs on a well deserved big walk, then hair dressers late afternoon, no hospital visting because DS has judo lesson.

Well OH has decided he wants surgery for his colitis. He wants an Ileo-anal pouch, where they remove parts of bowels, intestines and anus. Then create an internal pouch. His medical consultant has agreed, now awaiting confirmation of surgery from surgeons. Involves large operation, 4-6 weeks in hospital, plus 4 weeks or so recovery. Baby due in 10 weeks :eek:. Just hope they agree and that it works.

SugarSpun

Exactly aless - I've also been reading about a phenomenon that seems to be mainly US-based. It's called "pit to distress", and basically it involves cranking the pitocin IV so high that there's no real break between contractions so the baby can't recover from them and goes into distress. Then the mother is pressured into an emergency C-section and does it because she and the baby are in agony, and the doctor gets to go home at a reasonable hour rather than spend 10+ hours with a first-time mother in a labour of normal duration.

Pitocin isn't bad, pain relief isn't bad, but both can be abused and are. Natural birth isn't bad either, but when you see families who don't believe in doctors having healthy women die in childbirth because the baby's breech and can't be delivered you have to wonder.

We have medical professionals available. They can be as involved or an uninvolved as the mother/parents decide, but parental responsibility is the key. We can't just hand over responsibility over our bodies to the doctor on call and trust that s/he isn't tired or hungry or desperate to be somewhere else or convinced that women ought to feel every twinge or that they should be knocked right out for the duration.

aless02

workinmummy - my mom had one of those done recently (the pouch), though for different reasons. She's back in the USA & I haven't seen her since it was done, but I've heard all about the difficulties of adjusting to that, so I just want to wish you the best of luck with coping with all that!

Glamazon

jillie1974 wrote: »

right off to get ready for work
only 15 days left!!!

25 days for me! Although 24.5 as I've already done this morning! How sad is that, counting down half days - I'll be counting down the hours soon lol!

WM - will the op sort it out once and for all?
At least you would know that once op is done he wouldn't need anymore admissions with current problem so that would be a blessing.

lou66_2

Don't they irritate the fluck out of you! I can't even find a dentist to register with! Good job I've got good teeth - no fillings or work done![/QUOTE]


Yes they do also when i answer the phone with the surgery's name they always say "is that the dental surgery" NO JUST THOUGHT I WOULD SAY IT WAS FOR A LAUGH.
As for pain well i am ready for it but know that if it gets too much i can have help, and no one will make me feel bad about it, Ive had friends that have done it with no drugs and friends that have had as many drugs as they could. One was saying all the way i am doing it all without any drugs and not long in was yelling for as much help as she could get. :rolleyes:

mountainlioness

Aless - agree. Not one of the other couples in our nct class had been offered any kind of discussion on their birthing options. They are all due in Sept (so not that far off) and are all going to the local hospital, which is fine if that is what they've decided, but it seemed it had all been decided for them, comments along the lines of 'you won't be wanting to do x, will you?' (where x is anything else) Suspect the same is the case for pain relief and it's a bit late once you're in labour to have those in-depth discussions. Which is what the other doc this morning was saying - if you're in hospital, left alone with your pain, you're more likely to want pain relief if only to remove the fear of something you don't know enough about and feel out of control over.

SugarSpun

I was furious at my birthing class because I asked about epidural versus other options and was treated to an hour-long rant about the evils of the epidural.

It's my decision. I'm 5'1 inches tall with 34 inch hips. If the baby's a big one it's going to be difficult, and aside from early labours my family tends to go long (my poor mother's was three days with my brother). If I need the epidural I'll take it, and the highly biased opinion of someone whose job is to inform women of their choices won't sway me.

Glamazon

I've not had any input from MW or hospital about pain relief or anything yet! Should I be worried? I'm 30 weeks tomorrow.

I start Parentcraft at 34 weeks so assumed it would happen then - not doing NCT classes.

Ater my growth scan next week I think I'll start asking more questions - my MW said as I was under hospital I didn't need to see her but because of my potential BF problems she will see me in 4 weeks time and try and get the BF MW to join her

All a bit up in the air!

Right, I need food - I really fancy chippy dinner but it's a bit fatty!

Oh sod it, it's only once a week!