Thanks for sharing this -- lots of memories, lots of sympathetic groans and snorts. I totally remember the rage reaction to hearing a mediocre dilation measurement. My midwives would always stall -- the first time, they seemed lazy, but the second time she really was good about not wanting me to feel like the work was for nothing -- and pointed out there's also effacement (thinning), so a change from 5 to 6 cm might come with a 30% to 90% effacement change, and thus mean a lot of progress. Or so she said.
I hate the tendency to push epidurals -- "no need for anyone to be in pain" as if there's no potential side effects, and I also hate the tendency to push absolute avoidance of medicine -- "drugs = failure." Could society please make friends with the middle ground? Sheesh, like I said -- natural childbirth is when there's a pregnant woman and a baby comes out; everything else is just details and plumbing. Your labor lasted long enough and hurt badly enough to make the epidural make perfect sense -- if that makes you a "failure" in the birth department, what does my magical ability to lose all use of one leg for two months after each kid say about me?
And I have to say, that nurse (several, actually) sound horrible. Part of me wishes I could have been there to help out, but part of me knows I would have won no friends with the nurses. Complaining that you were too loud? Sheesh! Damn right they can get soundproofed rooms if that matters to them.
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I hate the tendency to push epidurals -- "no need for anyone to be in pain" as if there's no potential side effects, and I also hate the tendency to push absolute avoidance of medicine -- "drugs = failure." Could society please make friends with the middle ground? Sheesh, like I said -- natural childbirth is when there's a pregnant woman and a baby comes out; everything else is just details and plumbing. Your labor lasted long enough and hurt badly enough to make the epidural make perfect sense -- if that makes you a "failure" in the birth department, what does my magical ability to lose all use of one leg for two months after each kid say about me?
And I have to say, that nurse (several, actually) sound horrible. Part of me wishes I could have been there to help out, but part of me knows I would have won no friends with the nurses. Complaining that you were too loud? Sheesh! Damn right they can get soundproofed rooms if that matters to them.