I am a new Bradley teacher and I just attended my first hospital birth.
Wow! What an experience. The birth was beautiful, as I'm sure all births are, but the midwife was very hands-on and talking incessantly. She also did several things that I wasn't familiar with (ie: was horrified with).
Can someone please explain?
The mother, late 20s and very healthy, had a quick labor and delivery. No drugs. Was GBH+ and refused the IV antibiotics. The baby was anterior with his hand on his cheek. He latched on, like an old pro, immediately after birth.
1. The midwife said, "Now, I'm going to birth the placenta." And pulled on the cord. Hard! Why?
2. Mom was nursing and said she was feeling contractions. Then, the midwife mashed - hard- on the uterus. So hard that the mother cried out. And 10 minutes later the L&D nurse did some more mashing. Why?
I was in shock, speechless. I knew my Bradley training was minimal, I knew I was going to have some surprises, but these two things were so foreign to me. (I had a homebirth with very hands-off direct-entry midwives, my placenta detached about 30 minutes after birth - no pulling or tugging. And no mashing on my uterus!)
3. Are there any circumstances under which these procedures should be done? Can I tell future students they are able to refuse these procedures? As little as I know, these procedures were all about speeding up the afterbirth.
4. One more question: Should all tears be stitched? Is this something a mother could choose not to do?
Thank you so much! Many of my students will be birthing in this same hospital and I want them to be prepared. The mother looked at me when they were pulling on the cord and mashing her uterus and I told her, "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about this. I didn't know."
This makes me feel like a bad teacher, especially because I told them that my goal as a teacher was for my students never to think "I didn't know that would happen" during their births.
Warmly,
Mary, mom to Goodwin (2)
Wow! What an experience. The birth was beautiful, as I'm sure all births are, but the midwife was very hands-on and talking incessantly. She also did several things that I wasn't familiar with (ie: was horrified with).
Can someone please explain?
The mother, late 20s and very healthy, had a quick labor and delivery. No drugs. Was GBH+ and refused the IV antibiotics. The baby was anterior with his hand on his cheek. He latched on, like an old pro, immediately after birth.
1. The midwife said, "Now, I'm going to birth the placenta." And pulled on the cord. Hard! Why?
2. Mom was nursing and said she was feeling contractions. Then, the midwife mashed - hard- on the uterus. So hard that the mother cried out. And 10 minutes later the L&D nurse did some more mashing. Why?
I was in shock, speechless. I knew my Bradley training was minimal, I knew I was going to have some surprises, but these two things were so foreign to me. (I had a homebirth with very hands-off direct-entry midwives, my placenta detached about 30 minutes after birth - no pulling or tugging. And no mashing on my uterus!)
3. Are there any circumstances under which these procedures should be done? Can I tell future students they are able to refuse these procedures? As little as I know, these procedures were all about speeding up the afterbirth.
4. One more question: Should all tears be stitched? Is this something a mother could choose not to do?
Thank you so much! Many of my students will be birthing in this same hospital and I want them to be prepared. The mother looked at me when they were pulling on the cord and mashing her uterus and I told her, "I'm so sorry I didn't tell you about this. I didn't know."
This makes me feel like a bad teacher, especially because I told them that my goal as a teacher was for my students never to think "I didn't know that would happen" during their births.
Warmly,
Mary, mom to Goodwin (2)