Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I am no longer a doula but was an active one for over 10 years. The blatant lies that OB Nurses and Doctors tell mothers are terrible. Women are taken advantage of every single day and damaged and sometimes don't even know it for years after a birth. Choose your provider and birth place carefully!
Like what? As a doula, did you tell the woman they were being lied to?
We speak about the risks prior to labor and there is only so much a doula can do if the mother/partner are bullied into procedures or interventions that were not medically necessary or ended up causing more interventions. I cannot speak for the mother, I support her choices. When an intervention is suggested, I try to give my clients a review of pros and cons but it's up to them. Panic sometimes sets in and Obs know how to manipulate. The majority of the births I supported went well but there are a few that haunt me. Also, what I see is sometimes
different than what the mother experiences. If she feels good about her birth but I have seen her Ob do something damaging to her IMO, I am not going to ruin her memory of her experience. If she does not feel great about it and asks me, I might offer my obeservations and notes.
I have attended over 200 births,
question everything your medical provider does and unless it's medically necessary, don't induce.
As a nurse, I will second this. Question everything! Do not just take your doctors word at face value- this is your life or your loved ones. I cannot tell you how many borderline dangerous orders I've had to follow up on or to prompt the doctor to order meds/tests that were vital for the patient's safety.
+1000 to the "question everything" advice.
ICU RN here. I'm surprised there weren't more healthcare-related secrets in this thread.
- Never, ever put anything you care about on the floor when you visit someone in the hospital. It's often where soiled linens end up temporarily when patients are bathed, and bodily fluids frequently leak onto the floor.
- A seasoned ICU nurse often is more knowledgeable and realistic than your average ICU intern (especially a medicine intern).
- Housekeeping and dietary in the hospital are total jokes. Patients get upset with nurses over their food or how their room looks and nurses have to go to great lengths to communicate with ancillary staff that don't GAF about patients or doing their job to try to make it right.
- Nurses want you to be comfortable, but sometimes patients take the whole "patient first" mantra too far. We'll get you some ice or fluff your pillow after we suction a patient who can't breathe or titrate vasoactive medication on a patient with a low blood pressure. Your priority isn't necessarily ours.
- Surgeons (especially cardiac/vascular surgeons) will "try everything" on you or your loved one, even when it's painfully evident that recovery of meaningful quality-of-life is next to medically impossible. Why? When their patients die within x amount of days of a major surgery, it hurts their bottom line in terms of reimbursement and quality measures.
- In that same vein, no one ever dies in the OR because it hurts a surgeon's numbers. If it's looking hopeless, you or your loved one will be rushed to another unit and coded/pronounced there.
- Nursing can be a really bitchy profession and bullying/horizontal violence is rampant.
I'm sure I'll think of more to add...
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