my hospital was the same. i can only advise empowering yourself, read everything you can and make yourself as confidant as possible do not let yourself be bullied and get yourselfs the births you want :-)

Thats wise words there!

i watched it and i loved it!! cant wait for the next one! it makes u realise what an amazing experience it really is, and i would go through it al again!

all you pregnant ladies shouldnt worry about giving birth, its the best thing u will ever achieve! its the best thing that i ever did and im so proud of myself! and i have my gorgeous daughter out of it! xxx

just tuned into this on ch4.
i thought it was a great show.
that steve proper reminded me of my partner typical bloke
i thought that midwife was a bit harsh at points!

I agree but midwives are just women doing a job!! They are as tired and stressed as the rest of us.

Oh god, the first womans hubby was a total idiot. I didn't find him funny at ALL.


Laura- your friend Lisa was SOOOOO lovely and brave!! I cried all the way through her section (hormones!), and thought that she handled her nerves and fears really well. Her little boy was gorgeous too, and when she finally got wheeled down to see him it was so nice!!!

xx

ahh i thought it was funny, but everyones different! it made me feel better when my OH made me laugh (but not during a contraction that would piss me off!!) lol xx

I really felt for Lisa. I know the m/w was probably just trying to do her job but imo, it's unacceptable to say things like You're going to have to push this baby out otherwise i need to go and get the dr to pull this baby out!' Seriously??

but i suppose in a way that would of made her push, its the way they work i suppose, to push them a little bit more to help get that baby out! xx

jennifer, it's not the way they are supposed to work though, every piece of official policy starting from the basics their NMC code of conduct to the hundreds of local policies and guidelines stress the importance of communication, consent choice, empowerment, dignity and respect. There are ways and means of saying things as a health professional and threatening labouring women with intervention in that way is unacceptable. She could just as soon have firmly indicated that if baby wasn't pushed out in the next x amount of time she would firmly recommend medical intervention to get baby out. The woman should always be part of decision making. Where's the acknowledgement of consent in her statement? The thing to remember is that regardless of baby's situation, the woman is the patient and while the M/W may need to be firm and be straight, neither she nor anyone else is ever in a position to imply that anything will be done without the womans say so. Imho, it's all tied in with the language of pregnancy and birth.
EG: My dr, M/w won't 'allow' me to have my baby at home, give birth vaginally after c-section etc. Rubbish. It's easy to overstep the boundaries where patients are vulnerable, but it's not ok. Rant over

haha its good 2 get a good rant out!! i definatly see where your coming from though xx