my latest experience with birth

Today my neice had her second baby. It was a hospital birth. Every single
nurse who came in either asked if she wanted an epidural or tried to
convince her to have one, and when she turned it down they made a snotty
face and stupid jokes like, "If I had a nickel for every mom who said she
didn't want one and ended up having one anyway, I'd be rich" and said my
neice was definately in the minority in not having one! She had been very
clear on this subject to everyone so I had to ward off the pushes for her. I
do not get why they feel the need to be so pushy about an epidural. If the
mom asks for one, fine, but there's no need to be pushy and rude.
The nurses also seemed very uncaring towards a laboring woman, trying to
force her to do things during a contraction and acting like they had no
patience to wait half a minute on it to go away. I kept having to tell them
each time that she's in the middle of a contraction, hold on. I would expect
an L&D nurse to know something like that! *I* know it and I sure am not a
nurse. As an example, the nurse made her get up and go to the bathroom(neice
did not want to and stated so quite a few times) and on the way back, she
had a contraction. She told the nurse to wait until the contraction was
over, the nurse stopped for 2 seconds and then started pulling my neice back
to the bed anyway.
Also, at this hospital, no photography whatsoever is allowed during any
procedure or during the birth. The hospital 10 minutes away allowed
videotaping the whole birth process back when I had my babies, and I
videotaped a birth at a hospital in another state two years ago so I know
this isn't a ban in every hospital.
My neice did very well, she had gone in to be induced but when she got there
her labor started naturally so there was no use of pitocin, except to birth
the placenta(because, as the OB told her, you have to have pitocin to expell
the placenta). She was in labor for a good 11 hours and had a boy. She
stayed on top of the contractions and barely even moaned. She squashed my
hand pretty well but I'll treasure my squashed hand always She was so
great and I cried and was so proud of her. It's hard to see someone you love
hurt so much for so long!
I really love births so much but it burns me the way moms have to fight
their way to the kind of birth they want. My neice's first baby was born in
Germany and she said it was much different and she had more options and was
treated better there. (we are in the southeastern US)

--
Marie
~The test of courage comes when we are in the minority. The test of
tolerance comes when we are in the majority.~
Ralph W. Sockman