Caesarean - Was Midwife cruel to insert catheter prior to anaesthesia?

[NowYouTellMe]

Caesarean- Was Midwife cruel to insert catheter prior to anaesthesia- non-urgent birth?

You’re right, your opinion on my input is so important we all must hear it. Thank you!

I appreciate I wasn't there and I don't want to sound dismissive - but large blood clots really do look like chunks of placenta. Blood clots can be crazily large! Especially when you first stand up (the blood congeals into a big clot in the vagina then you stand up and out it plops!).

Obviously I am not saying for sure it wasn't a piece of placenta, but a clot really is more likely.

I think a lot of people have misread your post to say YABU.

You had a catheter inserted prior to an elective C-section? Or at least a low grade emergency. So 1) you were going to be anaesthetised anyway, and 2) there was no need to rush. So IMO, yes, it was cruel to not wait until after the spinal has been done. The area is numb long before the spinal has taken full effect. There's plenty of time to put the catheter in before draping.

No more important than yours. Even though I don’t agree with you rolling your eyes at someone who suffered pain during a procedure that is usually done after a spinal is administered.

You sound like a medic.

'Cruel'? FFS 🤦‍♀️

I am a midwife. I would never ever insert a catheter before the epidural or spinal is working, if there isn't going to be regional anaesthesia then I put loads of instilagel on to numb the urethra. I am raging on OPs behalf!

If someone is about to have a spinal anyway, then yes it is cruel. It’s fucking uncomfortable. I imagine if you’re hours and hours into an incredibly painful labour and you’re being prepped for an EMCS, you probably don’t notice the sensation so much, but coming into theatre cold for an ELCS, with ample theatre time and a spinal coming anyway, why make a woman endure that? I imagine unless you have a baggy urethra, it’s never going to be pleasant.

I hope the posters laying into the OP read your posts.

Cruel? No
I have catheters inserted and taken out weekly
No pain relief at all

OP You shouldnt need pain relief

Yes

I find the MN hyperbolic overuse of the word 'cruel' fucking uncomfortable.

Cruel is a ridiculous word to use unless you actually believe the midwife wanted to hurt you for fun.

I had a home birth but needed a catheter and they just popped one in and it was fine, barely felt a thing. They may have used a numbing gel, I can’t remember. I can totally relate to other posters suggesting anaesthesia for a catheter is like using a sledgehammer to crack an egg, totally unnecessary. I doubt the midwife was cruel, just a bit kack-handed if it was painful.

Oh good. Someone telling a woman she ‘shouldn’t need pain relief’. Like when male doctors insinuate you’re weak when you don’t find a cervical biopsy ‘mildly uncomfortable’ and beg for pain relief. Or when they roll their eyes at a woman crying in agony during a hysteroscopy. Or like the doctor that offered a woman a lemon scented tissue to smell in lieu of any actual pain relief during an intensely painful (not mild discomfort as the NHS leaflet said) gynaecological procedure.

It is men who can't be catheterised easily.

@PrivateHall can you shed any light on the assertion made further up by a different poster that most women giving birth vaginally are also catheterised, even if they don't have an epidural?

I have no recollection of the catheter being put in so must have been after the epidural. Twice. Whipped out the next day but that didn’t hurt, just a slightly odd sensation.

ok maybe people have catheters without anaesthetic but if you’re having an anaesthetic anyway then why wouldn’t you wait.

OP, do you really think your midwife revelled in the fact that you could feel your catheter insertion? You’ve described her as ‘cruel’ so I assume you think that she enjoyed seeing you in discomfort?
did it not occur to you that she had a reason to insert the catheter ‘early’ like perhaps she inserted it with less theatre staff around to protect your privacy?

indeed

the hospital i worked in had a policy it was to be in place prior to transfer to the or suite and therefore done prior to g/a. that being said the lube used was xylocaine jelly that numbs the area.

I had vaginal births with no epidural and no one ever mentioned ever doing any kind of "in and out" catheter. It's not in my notes for DC3 which I had a birth review for.

How likely is it that this was done without my permission?

I definitely didn't have one with either of my labours. They were both over 20 years ago though, so perhaps things have changed since then.

it’s not likely at all, why would you think you wouldn’t notice a straight cath draining?

Because someone on here said it's usually done in vaginal births and given that I've had 3 then it's likely, given what they said, that it happened to me and that makes me very uncomfortable as my permission was never sought.