Jill wrote:

Sorry you had to go through all that! I do think that
pushing that long with that little progress isn't particularly
common, even among midwives, unless the mom *wants* to continue
that way. I think it would be an uncommon situation for that
to go on so long without at least bringing in an OB consult
when the birth was in the hospital already.

Sigh..................I will not be seeing the midwives anymore. They were
fantastic during my appointments but labor with them was hell. Their
treatment after labor when I have been in very bad pain from the stitches,
has been horrid too. My husband even commented that for no reason, they have
been kind of attitudey and sarcastic, whenever the subject of pain or
request for pain relief comes up and he agrees with me if they want to be
unhelpful with it, they should have told me when I told them I didn't want a
natural birth instead of telling me they give epidurals and whatever else
the patient needs or prefers.

Absolutely. I'm sorry your midwives behaved that way.
It's certainly inappropriate.

I think next time I will stick with an OB and have a doula, instead of a
nurse-midwife.

Truly, I don't think that your experience had to do
with the *type* of provider so much as personal or practice
philosophy issues. I would just suggest that next time you
try to get additional information on pain relief philosophies
from *whichever* caregivers you interview. Actually, the
tough thing is that you probably need to get independent
information (e.g., recommendations from other clients, if
possible), because I think this is an area where you usually
are told whatever they think you want to hear. The midwives
I went with are probably as earthy-birthy as they come, but
I know several of their clients who ended up with transports
(for exhaustion or failure to progress or whatever) who then
chose to have epidurals and didn't catch any grief whatsoever
for it.

Best wishes,
Ericka