"Forceps in the right pair of hands can be artistic"

[working9while5]

This is the team leader of the LGI delivery suite: lifebegins.channel4.com/explore/birth/types-of-birth/assisted-birth/video/gail-from-leeds-general-on-forceps

I have to give birth in this hospital. I don't like this line. Can feel myself practically hyperventilating.

i think you're overreacting!!
she very clearly and factually explained the use of forceps, which can be scary for women facing them. the use of a lot of equipment in many different fields can be described as 'artistic' or an 'art form'. if she'd said 'skilled technique' or 'clever assistance tool' i doubt you'd have batted an eyelid.

Can't get link to work, but I have just had a ventouse delivery, two weeks ago.

The baby swivelled during labour to a wedged posterior position with her head flexed, she also had her hand up by her face and the cord round her neck. The obstetrician delivered her safely, first rotating her with the ventouse, then taking it off, then easing her out slowly, hand and all, so I had an intact perineum, despite everything.

My husband described his skill as a work of art. I know ventouse is not the same as forceps but I bet there can be amazing deliveries where forceps are life savers.

How am I "overreacting"? I really don't like it as a phrase at all. Perhaps, just maybe, that has something to do with my own nine months of recovery after forceps delivery, which was, well, nothing compared to my friend's double incontinence and weekly physio for six months.

You are dead right if she'd said "skilled technique" or "clever assistance tool" I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, and I don't have an issue with someone suggesting that they can be the right choice in certain situations. However, given there are a fair few of us out there with ragged bits because of forceps, I think it's not the most sensitive thing in the world to be smilingly describing them as "artistic".

I have been booked to have a debrief with this woman's team about my ds's birth ahead of the birth of my next child (Kielland's forceps, whose use, artistic or otherwise, has been banned in several countries) and while I at no point expect her to say that use of forceps was unnecessary orthat they wouldn't be used again in an emergency, I don't find it even vaguely reassuring to hear such a glowing report of them.

sorry you had such a rough ride with them working and consequently it has left you sensitive (and i use that in an objective way) to the way they are portrayed. however, she came across as explanatory, and not particularly singing their merits - just that they can be effective.

when i said you 'overreacted', you typed "I don't like this line. Can feel myself practically hyperventilating" without the background. it sounds more like a panic attack, and something that you do need help with. our experiences do colour the way we see/hear things, but we can't hold other people responsible for that, when they don't know individual circumstance. i doubt anything people can say will 'reassure' you although i hope that your debrief helps you to deal with this effectively. i am sorry you have struggled so much with this.

Hey this is MN, there is room for hyperbole you know...

As for "our experiences do colour the way we see/hear things, but we can't hold other people responsible for that, when they don't know individual circumstance", well, yes and no.. the speaker also bears responsibility for the potential interpretation, and given that a midwife should really be quite aware of the range of emotional response to something like forceps, it's all the more reason to stick with the factual stuff and hold on subjective adjectives. Particularly where that midwife will be in the business of debriefing women after their experiences.

I would prefer not to have seen the person potentially doing my debrief talking about forceps this way. As I said, she was doing fine until that last line.

"Hey this is MN, there is room for hyperbole you know..." i do know and "As I said, she was doing fine until that last line." hence my initial thought was 'overreaction' - your response, though, then suggested there was more to it.
anyway, out of such a big midwifery team, your chances of getting her for your debrief mush be 1 in hundreds, eh? here's hoping