To still find this shocking and upsetting? Labour ward

[Bububu1]

When I was on the labour ward having my son a midwife checked to see if she could feel his head. She said she thought she could feel a shoulder instead and urgently called in a doctor to scan me to see his position.

I was panicking a little by this point, doctor comes in does the scan and exclaims he is feet first and ill need an emergency c section. Cue me really starting to worry and get upset. He had been head down for weeks by that point so I was really confused.

Anyway as they were all trying to arrange this around me, the doctor says nevermind he read it upside down, sorry he doesn't do scans much????! Everyone seemed to find this a little funny.

To me it sounds made up it's that ridiculous but hand on heart that's what happened.

After this, baby's heart rate dipped and contractions had to be slowed (which left me wondering if it was due to the stress I'd just been put through for no reason).

A few hours later son was born naturally head down.

Is it worth complaining about seen as nothing actually went wrong apart from me nearly being given a section I didn't need?

Drs are only human too and make mistakes it’s not something I would complain about tbh all worked out fine in the end!

He could have been many hours I to a shift by then. It was a mistake. He realised and owned up and no harm done.

I don't think it would ever have got as far as a section, there are too many checks and balances in place. I know it gave you a scare that you didn't need, but the doctor was probably run off his feet and a short term mistake is excusable.

The dr admitted his mistake openly and immediately, his behaviour was that of a decent honest human being. Doctors aren't machines. For all you know, he'd put in a 12 hour shift.

After I had ds, the dr stitched my tear and then said 'it's not symmetrical. I'll have to do it again.' I didn't put in a complaint. They are medical staff, doing their best, and there's no harm done.

What would you like to complain about specifically?
It is worth thinking about before logging anything. Was it their conduct? Their lack of care? Their treatment plan?
Essentially, nothing happened. The mistake was realised immediately and you had a natural delivery which is what you, presumably, wanted. You are both well and healthy. So what would you like to happen following your complain?

It's no wonder medical professionals are leaving in droves.

I'm not going to say you're unreasonable, as it sounds stressful, but the fact he admitted his mistake and everything was ok in the end, I wouldn't persue this further personally.

The Doctor had been primed to think the baby might be in an awkward position and made a simple mistake, which he admitted, and everything was fine.

Nothing to complain about, and stress would not slow down your labour.

A midwife made a similar mistake with me, and I was prepared for a section, but it turned out she was wrong, and so I didn't need it.

If you are going to be checked up on in labour, occasionally there will be misinterpretations of the information. Only way to avoid that is to never do any checks..... don't think that would work out very well.

I wouldn’t complain as it was obviously a mistake and nothing untoward happened. I think I’d be more annoyed by them all laughing at the mistake and not thinking of the worry you were experiencing but again I doubt I’d complain about it. Forget and move on.

Everything is heightened and intense in labour so I can see why you were flustered, but as others said the doctor made a mistake, admitted it and corrected himself. I don’t think it’s worth a complaint. Even if he hadn’t caught it, someone else might have once they began the process for getting the section. Congrats on your son.

I'm really struggling to understand how this could happen. The Dr would put the scanning wand above your pelvic bone and whatever appears on the screen is the presenting part - there's no possible margin for error there. You can only see one little part of a baby at a time in the 3rd trimester, so it's not possible to read it upside down. I honestly can't make sense if this situation at all. I think it would however be reasonable to feedback on how them laughing made you feel, that's unacceptable.

You were worried for a short time and feel it's worth a complaint?
How long ago was this? it seems quite obsessive to be focusing on.

Sometimes a worrying time is not actually anyone's fault.

It sounds a little scary but that doesn't mean someone is to blame for it and until we get medical robots to do the full range of medical care for us, humans will make errors. The best we hope for is that those errors are spotted soon enough to not result in harm: as happened in your case.

It would have been more professional and courteous of them to have apologised for the mistake, I agree.

I wouldn't be impressed with the medical staff thinking this was funny! Did they not seen to consider that it have you the shock of your life?

You will laugh about this in time

Sometimes laughing is a response to a major stressor. The doctor will have given him/herself the fright of his/her life and a million things would have gone through their brain in nanoseconds; trying to work out best for baby/you/cane we get theatre ready/, etc.
So please don't; it was an error, but not a catastrophie

Yes. Raise it as a concern and emphasise that it's not that they made a mistake which is upsetting, it was the flippant way it was handled at a time when you needed a calm, trusting atmosphere - you would would think that professionals would understand this.

This is what I thought, its not necessarily the mistake although I do think it's a pretty big mistake if it had gone unnoticed so a bit worrying. But everyone just seemed to find it quite funny, except me who was lying there panicking and crying.

Perhaps should have mentioned in the OP that a c section should be an absolute last resort ideally for me due to a blood condition I have. Any surgery is a bit more risky. Hence my maybe OTT to some people, worrying.

I’d had high blood pressure during pregnancy and when I was in labour I was told by my consultant that I’d have to have a forceps delivery otherwise my blood pressure would get too high and I’d have a stroke and maybe die, which was a bit worrying to say the least.
When he left the room the midwife patted me on the knee and kindly said, ignore him, you’ll get this baby out by yourself. She was right.

You're not unreasonable in that your experiences during labour are obviously going to impact the birth. We are mammals. If we feel scared during early labour of course it is going to slow the process right down, because you can still feasibly escape from danger at this point, unlike during the final stages when you're on automatic. And I don't think we as a society allow enough recovery from birth experiences either, so some women carry trauma for years.

Maternity wards hang in what seems (from my experience of 2 births) to be a very delicate balance between allowing a natural process to occur without hindering it with too much intervention vs providing required pain relief and medical intervention when necessary. It can't be easy for them at the best of times and right now isn't the best of times.

That said, you could still feedback and doing something might help you process your feelings. My experience has been that doctors often sweep in and out without pausing to consider the impact of their words and attitude. Nurses and midwives are almost always brilliant, probably because they have to spend so much longer relating to their patients.

You would have been scanned again right before surgery. I was with a breech presentation - midwife got it wrong initially, said he was head first. I was insistent that his head was under my ribs. Dr confirmed breech right after with a scan. Then surgeon scanned me right before surgery.

Agree. A term baby can only have the part you are directly scanning on screen so scanning just above the pubic bone to confirm presenting part would have shown either a clear head or a bum/feet. There is no seeing the picture upside down on the screen. It’s not like the early scans where the whole baby is in view.

I can’t think what the dr meant or was seeing but it wasn’t a case of ‘oh I saw the baby upside down on the screen and misinterpreted’

I think all labours are a bit chaotic and this wouldn't be anything notable enough to complain about. A bit of temporary worry for you is not an adverse enough outcome for them to investigate.

My labour they messed around for ages getting me my epidural (other patients, shift change, shortage of staff) then it didn't take (assume this was doctor error, who knows). My the time I convinced them of this they told me it was now too late and I had to go through it without pain relief. I was upset at the time but didn't complain. Me and baby were fine in the end and we have moved on and I'd suggest you should too (in the most kindly way).

The investigations they will want to take will be those with life long physical impacts to the baby/ mother or where the baby was lost.