Rings cut before delivering?? Sounds scaring.

[Anonymous]

PP here, sorry for those typos.

[Anonymous]

When my birth ultimately wound up heading for a c-section, the prep nurse asked me to take off my rings before going into the ER. I handed my engagement ring to my husband but told her point-blank that my wedding ring had never yet left my finger and I wasn't about to take it off now. She was more than happy to wrap some tape around it and I was good to go.

Makes me wonder if it's a sterilization issue or something.

At any rate, know that you can refuse -- just like any other hospital procedure.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wore mine on a chain around my neck.

Never heard of the cutting them off thing.

Me too, for like the whole third trimester.

[Anonymous]

I had mine on a chain around my neck from 30 weeks or so. When I went in to the hospital, I gave the chain to DH, and he wore it until I was in recovery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of this before. Please don't flame me for this old-fashioned statement, but I wouldn't want to seem like I am pregnant and unmarried. I know that's a dated issue and I would never think less of anyone because they didn't were unmarried. And, if I were single and pregnant, I wouldn't be embarrassed. But I AM married, and I want to appear to be married, too. I've never heard of people taking off their rings. I'm only 9 weeks along. Is this something that happens to many women?

I had to stop wearing my rings when I was around 6 months pregnant. I had a lot of swelling and they just wouldn't fit. It really wasn't a big deal to me, even though the thought of "looking like an unmarried woman having a baby" did cross my mind at first. But I don't usually wear my rings 24/7 anyway (always take them off when I sleep, and on weekends if I'm at home I might not even put them on), so again it wasn't a big deal to me. The thing is, once you get that far along in the pregnancy, you're so big and uncomfortable and miserable (well I was anyway, and I was due in July so had to deal with the summer heat too), that you really stop caring about little things like that. Most people don't care anyway, and wouldn't give it more than a passing thought, if that.

[Anonymous]

My rings didn't fit once I was about six months pregnant either. I bought a fake set in a bigger size to wear for the rest of the pregnancy (and got lots of compliments on the fakes!).

[Anonymous]

I think that *most* women by the end of pregnancy have fingers that are too swollen to wear rings. I think women in the delivery room more often than not are not wearing their rings, so I highly doubt the doctors or nurses think a lack of a wedding ring on a delivering woman means they are not married. I couldn't wear my rings after around 30 weeks, and most of my friends couldn't wear them by the end too. Start looking around at women on the street towards the end of their pregnancy, and I think you'll notice that rings are scarce.

[Anonymous]

OP here. First, I want to thank you all for your posts. As this is my first pregnancy, problably my mistake was not taking my other rings off. I really don't care what others (docs, nurses, other people) may think if I don't have my wedding ring on. The ring has been with me from the day I got married on religious ceremony, so it's all about those unique moments. Special thanks to poster 21:19

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've never heard of this before. Please don't flame me for this old-fashioned statement, but I wouldn't want to seem like I am pregnant and unmarried. I know that's a dated issue and I would never think less of anyone because they didn't were unmarried. And, if I were single and pregnant, I wouldn't be embarrassed. But I AM married, and I want to appear to be married, too. I've never heard of people taking off their rings. I'm only 9 weeks along. Is this something that happens to many women?

I had to stop wearing my rings when I was around 6 months pregnant. I had a lot of swelling and they just wouldn't fit. It really wasn't a big deal to me, even though the thought of "looking like an unmarried woman having a baby" did cross my mind at first. But I don't usually wear my rings 24/7 anyway (always take them off when I sleep, and on weekends if I'm at home I might not even put them on), so again it wasn't a big deal to me. The thing is, once you get that far along in the pregnancy, you're so big and uncomfortable and miserable (well I was anyway, and I was due in July so had to deal with the summer heat too), that you really stop caring about little things like that. Most people don't care anyway, and wouldn't give it more than a passing thought, if that.

Agree 100%. I took mine off too. Didn't even cross my mind that people would think I was pregnant and unmarried and would look down on me??

[Anonymous]

Well, I'll be the voice of dissent. When pregnant with my second baby, I wasn't able to get my wedding and e-rings off starting around 24 weeks. My OB advised me to go to a jeweler to get them cut off because if I showed up at the hospital for my c-section with them still on my finger, the hospital would cut them off and she assured me a jeweler would do a much better job of doing it than a hospital would. True enough, the jeweler did a very careful job of cutting them off with the intent of repairing them neatly when I was ready.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They will not cut off your rings -- even if you beg them to. My sister had TSS and her hands were so swollen she was begging the staff at Holy Cross to cut them off --- but they said they could not damage her personal property and weren't equipped to do it even if they wanted to.

Okay, this is wacky--they could not damage her personal property and "weren't equipped to do it*? Whaaat? They are, I can tell you from personal experience, unfortunately.

My experience: Took my rings off toward the end of my pregnancy, as my fingers were swelling, and about 3 or 4 weeks after delivery, when we felt like we could manage going to church, I stupidly decided to put my rings on. Whoops. Was able to get my engagement ring off, but ended up spending the morning in the emergency room at HC instead of at church. And they certainly do have a painful little device that will cut rings off. (If your rings are gold, it may not be so painful, as I think it's a relatively soft metal, but mine was platinum.) The doc did his best not to damage the ring, and fortunately the inscription was not even disturbed (this was just luck). We got it repaired, and you certainly couldn't tell that it was ever cut--it's just like having it resized.

[Anonymous]

It's a true story -- they wouldn't cut off her rings. Now, she was on the infectious disease floor b/c of her TSS -- not on the OB floor -- perhaps they are better equipped there. But I was standing right there when she was in tears begging them to cut off her rings. Fortunately, the swelling went down after the meds took effect.

Bottom line: don't be a moron -- take off your rings before your fingers get too fat.

[Anonymous]

If nothing else, this thread proves that every hospital and probably every anesthesiologist and doctor has a different way of doing things. Clearly there is no hard rule about this. In any case, if you have a vaginal delivery it is of no concern at all. I guess if you have c/section or some other emergency surgery, some docs might require you to remove the rings while others won't. Maybe you should just ask your doctor what he and/or your hospital require.

PP who had your rings cut off -- what was your surgery for? It was after you had your baby, right? Maybe it depends on what type of anesthetic you receive for the surgery.

[Anonymous]

It's really common to take your rings off if your fingers start to swell. A lot of people I know had to do it. I'm very sentimental, and I had not taken my wedding band off since the moment my husband put it on in our wedding ceremony. I was so sad to have to take it off. But my fingers were starting to puff up, and I didn't want to cause damage to myself or the ring, so off it came. I put my engagement ring away, and I wore the wedding band as a necklace, on a chain that my husband had also given me.

Our anniversary was a few days after I gave birth, and my husband made a sweet, sweet speech to me, evoking our wedding vows, and put the band back on my finger. It was a really special thing, and made me not mind having had to remove it.

Hope that helps!