Queen Mary doctors- tend to intervene?

L

ladypilot

Registered User
Hello,
I will be giving birth at Queen Mary. For those who have given birth there already, I was wondering- are the doctors pushy with medical intervention when it's not medically necessary? For example- do they actively persuade you to do things just to convenience themselves such as:

1) induce labor
2) give you drugs to speed things up
3) advise you to undergo unnecessary C-sections
4) episiotomy, etc.?

Also for delivering the placenta- do the doctors let you deliver it naturally or do they typically intervene with artificial hormones or cord pulling?

I am trying to find out what the doctors typically do there so I can prepare myself. Thanks!:bluebaby:
 
i always told the doctors to do what they thought was necessary for the health of the baby and my own health.

i had an emergency c-section (VERY high BP and the on-set of pre-eclampsia)

i also had a scheduled c-section (i was in agony and in a wheelchair and couldn't walk. i talked to the anesthetist. he said that although they could use an epi or a spinal for the c-section, he thought that it might exacerbate my agony. he suggested general anesthesia. i was terrified, but he was amazing! they said, and i agreed with them that there was no point in delivering 1 month early to help ease my pain if they were just going to make it worse with an epi/spinal.)

i found most of the doctors there to be VERY good. i think though that it is a very western thing to question your doctors. i ALWAYS read my charts (and there were pages and pages of them). if there was something i didn't understnad, then i asked them. so far as i could tell, i was the only one there that read their own charts. maybe that is because they are in english, i don't know.

if you have a question, ask. they are always happy to answer them for you!

good luck!
 
I found the Dr's at QMH to be wonderful.
They did suggest some procedures that I didn't want, but were respectful of my wishes.

A 1 or 2 page birth plan can help alot, that way everyone knows up front what is wanted.
Mine clearly outlined that I didn't want any unnecessary intervention, and things like giving me an episiotomy weren't even suggested. ( By the way I had no tearing either).

I opted to have the injection to speed up delivery of the placenta as I had higher risk of bleeding due to a fibroid.
I think that it's fairly standard, but I'm sure you could ask not to have it.
 
ladypilot responds to own thread on experience

Hello all,
I just wanted to give my personal first hand experience in regards to my own previous question.

My water broke 4 weeks early but I didn't have any contractions. By the time I got to Queen Marry at about 3am, I still did not have any contractions. I was calm and collected and completely confident. I told the doctor on rotation that evening that my water broke and also gave her a bag of amniotic fluid saturated pads thinking that they would do a simple paper test. The doctor wanted to do a vaginal exam which I didn't think was a good idea since it could risk infection by poking around in there unnecessarily but did it anyway. The doctor did the exam while the amniotic fluid was gushing out. She performed the exam once, then after I got dressed she said she had to do it again b/c she forgot to check something... (sigh). Then she turns to me and says, "Yes, I confirm your water has broken." Wasn't the fluid gushing out a bit obvious??

Anyway to get to the point, once I was admitted the doctors wanted to induce me straight away. Ideally for me, I wanted a natural vaginal delivery without any drugs. I was prepared and confident but considering the circumstance of course I had to reconsider. I asked the doctor if I could wait 24 hours b/c 70% of women who's waters break go into natural labor with 24 hours. Firstly, the baby was in no immediate danger. His vital signs were strong and normal. In the US and the UK, women wait up to 3 days (even a week in NZ) for the onset of natural labor once the water has broken and I didn't want to force my body into something it obviously wasn't ready for. The baby was preterm, he wasn't ready to come out and my body was not ready to give birth. For the next 24 hours, the doctors and nurse continuously pressured me to have induction labor by coming to my bed every couple of hours. I kept telling them over and over that I wanted to wait at least 24 hours but they were so pushy and tried to scare me or intimidate me.

In the end, my perserverance worked. The turning point was when the "Head Superior" doctor and her 6 or 7 interns surrounded my bed and tried one last time to intimidate me. I stood my ground and told them that yes I do respect the fact that they are the professionals, the experts and take everything they say into consideration BUT that they must respect me as their patient and that I know my body best; and that NO, I was not going to be induced, PERIOD! The head doctor raised her voice and gave me a lecture but eventually backed off finally and said, "Oh, no one is forcing you." I wanted to laugh!! It was ridiculous. I am surprised how confident I was during this time but I think it must've been my maternal instincts. Ladies, listen to yourselves. Trust yourselves. Only you are the ones who know yourselves the best.

So this is my account of my experience just before the birth. More info on the rest which I will post later.

Baby was born healthy and safe!!:cheerlead
 
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