Had so many people on the room at GW for my first and still recall the young male med student looking horrified at the sight of childbirth and looked liked he'd seen few vaginas before- it added a moment of levity. I did say no to a very pushy nursing student - she repeatedly asked us our potential names ( we hadn't shared with anyone, we didn't even know the sex of our kid) and she was just very demanding in a way I didn't like. An attending was there for the final delivery and came in at every shift change

Second delivery I saw a doctor at beginning of induction and at time baby was about to come I wondered if it was just going to be my husband and the nurse- 2 residents then arrived for it whose names I don't even know and I think an attending joined very briefly but he didn't stay long and the residents stitched me up. I would've been annoyed if it was a more complicated labor but it wasn't so they likely appropriately triaged attending to where he was needed.

I am a psychologist and trained on real patients ans think it's important for doctors and nurses to as well

For my 2nd child I had student come help hold my leg since my husband passed out and he was laying on the couch.

I kicked the two med students out during labor with my first. I did initially agree to have them in the room but labor was not going well and the radiating discomfort from one of the med students was distracting. I feel bad for him in retrospect - he was in over his head. I’m assertive but the nurse would have happily done it for me.

I’ve been in teaching hospitals since pediatrics and, with the one exception above, I love having trainees in the room (there were plenty of other trainees during both my births). I feel like I get more thorough exams and explanations and I like helping teach the next generation of doctors. Also, at no point was there not an attending literally breathing down the neck of the resident placing my epidural/stitching me up/etc.

At GW I had an a small audience of students while delivering with forceps. Now they use a less invasive contraption.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My siblings are physicians, they have to learn somehow. You can ask for them to observe and not participate if you're not comfortable with them being hands on, but please allow them in the room.

If your siblings are physicians I hope they’re more respectful of patients than you are. “Have to learn somehow” doesn’t mean women are obliged to be their teaching materials.

NP— you’re really looking to be offended, aren’t you?
🙄

You’re not well-informed on this issue, are you?

Medical students abuse women routinely because they “have to learn somehow”

https://rainn.org/rainns-recommendations-for-legislators/involuntary-pelvic-exams-protect-patients-with-informed-consent/

In many states its even legal

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My siblings are physicians, they have to learn somehow. You can ask for them to observe and not participate if you're not comfortable with them being hands on, but please allow them in the room.

If your siblings are physicians I hope they’re more respectful of patients than you are. “Have to learn somehow” doesn’t mean women are obliged to be their teaching materials.

NP— you’re really looking to be offended, aren’t you?
🙄

Anonymous wrote:My siblings are physicians, they have to learn somehow. You can ask for them to observe and not participate if you're not comfortable with them being hands on, but please allow them in the room.

If your siblings are physicians I hope they’re more respectful of patients than you are. “Have to learn somehow” doesn’t mean women are obliged to be their teaching materials.

I decline observation by students during delivery because I don’t like crowded rooms when I’m *not* pushing a human out of my body.

My OB asked if a student could attend a couple of specific prenatal appointments and I said yes, had that particular student wanted to attend the delivery i would have agreed but not random strangers their for their own benefit, not mine or my baby’s.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, hell no.

Indeed. The fewer people looking at my undercarriage, the better. I'm a never-nude, and shower with clothes on. Absolutely no observing.

Wanting some privacy is normal, but the rest of what you are describing is not. That is related to your trauma or whatever, and not a normal response.

There's no trauma. Some people are just very private.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by “students”? Medical students? Residents? Fellows? All of the above?

Not OP, but yes that's what you agree to in a teaching hospital, like UVA's.

Yes, but medical residents and fellows aren't students, they're fully licensed MDs.

Anonymous wrote:What do you mean by “students”? Medical students? Residents? Fellows? All of the above?

Not OP, but yes that's what you agree to in a teaching hospital, like UVA's.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, hell no.

Indeed. The fewer people looking at my undercarriage, the better. I'm a never-nude, and shower with clothes on. Absolutely no observing.

Wanting some privacy is normal, but the rest of what you are describing is not. That is related to your trauma or whatever, and not a normal response.

No I didn’t care. With my first I even forbade my husband from seeing me in labor from below the waist because I didn’t want him to see me like that - but when the time came, I didn’t care at all and neither did he.

Anonymous wrote:Teaching hospital question. What made you against it rather than for it? It seems the doctor is still in the room I believe?

No, your baby won’t be delivered by unsupervised medical students. I had my baby at GW and they asked if the attending could bring her students in and 5 of them watched me give birth. I’m sure if I hadn’t been so focused on the pain I would have been more embarrassed, but GE is a teaching hospital and every medical student needs to learn.

My kid loves the story about how future doctors learned by watching her be born and how they said she was beautiful (she is!)

I had some students watch, and I was fine with that. I’m normally kind of prudish, but at that moment I didn’t really care anymore. I might have been a bit more nervous if that had been doing a procedure on me, though. Guess it would depend what it was. Catching the baby? Probably fine. Giving an epidural or performing a C-section? Hell no.