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

[NowYouTellMe]

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

It was inserted prior for both of my sections.

I'm not the one who is ignorant.

it's well established within medicine that consent is sought for everything. You can't just catheterise someone without asking for their consent and if you didn't ask it could absolutely be considered an assault.

I really hope you aren't a medical professional because that's basic day one stuff.

Of course it is not standard practice to insert a catheter for every childbirth - if you want to talk about misogyny, that would be misogynistic. Women do not routinely need catheterisation to enable them to give birth safely.

I’ve catheterised prob over a thousand people in my 40 year career as a nurse, male and female, in a ward setting, so none of them were anaesthetised. It’s a procedure that does not need an anaesthetic, if it did the nearly everyone who is admitted would need to be anaesthetised, a ridiculous waste of resources and a hazard to the patient, especially ones with respiratory probs. I’ve been catheterised myself also. Everyone makes a big issue about anything nowadays. I agree everyone has a different pain threshold regarding procedures but that doesn’t mean you need an anaesthetic. A full bladder needs urgent attention regardless of what situation.

Have you ever catheterised a person, it’s not easy to do without consent, I’m not the ignorant one !

Perhaps you have missed the origin of this conversation where someone was claiming that most women are catheterised during childbirth but we just don't realise it.

I know that's not true, you know that's not true.

I made the point to that poster that if women were being catheterised without their consent or knowledge in childbirth that would be an assault.

please don't try and argue that catheterising someone without their knowledge or consent wouldn't be considered an assault (however unlikely it is that could actually happen) because if there are still genuinely practising health professionals who think they don't need to obtain consent because 'they know best' then we really do have a problem.

Did you read the post at all? The OP is not asking for anaesthesia FOR the SRC. She is saying she was going to be getting anaesthetised anyway, so why not wait and insert the SRC after that, like most trusts do? I can't work out if you are part of the problem or just didn't bother to read properly.

Some people really can’t read. Frightening.

Can’t understand the ignorance of some people on here tbh!

I'm the kind of person who reads everything she can before doing something. I don't remember any significant talk about catheters (or suppositories - another surprise I discovered post insertion).

Both mine must have been inserted after anaesthetic, which just seems sensible since it's happening anyway, when I was being prepped for the EMCSes. I was very grateful for them (getting out of bed to wee following days of labour, and then being sliced open and a baby removed and the associating pain and grogginess isn't exactly straightforward), and I do remember them coming out and it being fine.

@asdadult I believe anyone here saying catheterisation is done routinely in all vaginal births is either lying, or from a different country than the UK. It is absolutely not routine here, and your consent would be sought. But I could believe it could be a thing in, for example, the USA.

@Lemonlady22 I have an admission of medical negligence and that things were done to me without seeking my consent in a different medical instance.

You'll have to believe me on that but I have two separate letters from my health trust that set that out (same incident and doctor, different days and different nurses) and admit medical negligence.

Consent is not always sought. Yes, I know it should be, but it isn't always. Hence me being so concerned when someone here said that it was routinely done without the woman in question being made aware.

@Lemonlady22
No one here has said you need or should have an anaesthetic for a catheterization.

The question was, if you're about to have an anaesthetic would it be better done afterwards? What do you think ? As you're so experienced? Before? After? Give the patient the choice? Or you decide because you've done loads and people make such a big fuss?

Yes to this!

I had an Emergency C Section 18 y ago. I was told the catheter had to be done first. I had a student nurse who made a bit of a mess of it. It really hurt. It was also difficult as I'm a survivor of CSA (in my notes & mentioned at time). I was then obliged to walk down to surgery, on crutches (long term) with catheter in situ. 2nd Csec (transverse lie) I asked for (demanded tbh) catheter inserted in theatre post sedation.

In some instances it needs to be done before due to the bladder and womb being in the same area, a full bladder can lead to a ruptured bladder, especially in an emergency situation. Of course you should always get consent, I can’t see how any medical professional can catheterise an awake patient without consent, and if you sign a form for a C section it states that any other procedure needed during the section ‘as may be required’ so that is consent