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Pregnancy

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Original poster

did you have any students at your birth?

111 replies

ranirani · 21/01/2009 22:28

I am at watford general. 37 weeks PG this Friday.
Do not think I want to have any students poking down there, definitely not. maybe to be present, and one only, not the whole group of them staring at my bits.
did you have any experience with students?
i know they need to learn but do not feel all that glamorous somehow with all this extraweight etc... having my Dh there would be enough embarassment for me
and NO photographing either!!!!!!!

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NorktasticNinja · 21/01/2009 22:31

No, the MW brought one with her but I couldn't be doing with the extra faffing and told her to get rid of her

I might consider it for my second birth, depends, but if you you don't want them then you must just say so.

scrooged · 21/01/2009 22:31

I had a medical student there. It's good for their education. They don't take pictures, they won't touch you without your consent. I spent 4 hours trying to get mine to pop to the pub across the road from the hospital to fetch me a brandy to 'calm my nerves'. He didn't.

NorktasticNinja · 21/01/2009 22:32

It might be good for their education, but if it's not good for the birth experience then they should disappear, pronto, IME.

AccidentalMum · 21/01/2009 22:33

I was a student's first witness and for about an hour I felt immense pressure not to be too scary . She was really helpful for practicalities (actual midwife was delivering 3 babies simultaneously) and I was really dissapointed not to get one for DD2.

minouminou · 21/01/2009 22:33

Yep, and he was fab. Amit, his name was, and it was great to have an extra pair of hands available - very reassuring.
DS was trying to come out hand 1st, and before his hand and arm was manoeuvred back, he was hovering, obviously dying to shake hands, like me and the midwife had done, so I actually said "Do you want a go?"
THAT, Ranirani, is how much you'll care!!!!!

scrooged · 21/01/2009 22:34

You get to a certain point where you don't care/notice who's in the room.

AccidentalMum · 21/01/2009 22:34

Did you say 'get rid of her' NN?

Pinkbump3 · 21/01/2009 22:36

Yes i did and i will never forget the horror on their face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i had a young girl training for mw sit with me and take notes for a few hours which was not a problem. she left and i progressed very quick just as i was about to deliver mw says can some students observer the birth as it would be their first! well with dd about to crown i could not have gave a toss who was there and said yes, next thing i know there are 2 girl mw training and 1 male jr dr standing at the foot of my bed as i delivered dd2 and all i can ever remeber about her birth is the sheer horror on that guys face i will never never forget it!

herbietea · 21/01/2009 22:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

AccidentalMum · 21/01/2009 22:36

BTW they are very (completely?) unlikely to be in a group.

chancelloroftheexCHEQUERS · 21/01/2009 22:36

Yes I had a med student.

She was very nice. I kept thinking I should make small talk with her 'so what year are you in? where are you studying?' that kind of thing.

Didn't get round to it though what with being preoccupied with giving birth.

She came and thanked me at the end for letting her watch and seemed quite emotional about the whole thing.

IdrisTheDragon · 21/01/2009 22:38

I had a student doctor in for DD's birth. It was the first birth she had seen and I actually really liked having her there. I can't really remember what she did but she was very sensitive and useful for gripping onto at times.

She came and saw DD and me on the ward afterwards and told me how she'd been telling her mum she'd just seen a baby being born and how lovely it was

scrooged · 21/01/2009 22:39

I watches a couple of births as a student. They were lovely and I will remember them forever.

InspectorGadget · 21/01/2009 22:39

I would def have a student midwife for a hospital birth, especially one that was in 2nd or 3rd year. Basically its one of the only ways you are gonna get continuity of care on the NHS and they will prob stay with you (and not the labourer next door) for the whole of their shift and really give you the support that a midwife caring for 3 women at the same time couldn't.

Not sure about med students right enough, my understanding is that they only want to get in and catch the baby, then they bugger off, so they have less to offer iykwim.

ClementFreudsGreatestAdmirer · 21/01/2009 22:39

i had a student nurse (or mw?) shadowing my mw for dd. perfectly happy for her to observe. slightly embarrassed at shocking her with my outbursts as 2nd stage kicked in. very grateful she was there to hold onto dd while placenta took one hour to come out, and we'd gone for leaving cord attached...

IdrisTheDragon · 21/01/2009 22:40

Just remembered - she put the line in for my IV antibiotics. And was very good at putting my hair bobble in (DH was useless )

tootiredtothink · 21/01/2009 22:40

I did. It was her final year IIRC, think she had to attend a certain number of births.

I felt as if I had two midwives helping me and thought it was fab.

I'm a bit of a nervous soul so loved the fact that there was someone in the room at all time.

Would definitely hope to have two if I was lucky enough to have another baby.

scoobi6 · 21/01/2009 22:41

I honestly couldn't tell you - looking back I think half the hospital were in the room! After a long labour dd was very nearly an emergency cs, and a lot of people descended on me all at once! And while I might have had reservations beforehand, once it was happening I didn't care in the slightest and what I looked like didn't occur to me. Far too much excitement for that!

I will say that some people were lovely, and some weren't, and it was much more to do with their personalities than age or experience. If I "clicked" with someone and their presence helped me, I wouldn't care if they were a student or not.

Agree with you on the photos thing though - no way would I want photos or video to look back on, and I banned dh from getting the camera out during labour!

LadyPinkofPinkerton · 21/01/2009 22:41

I had a student mw at my HB. She didn't get in the way. She just watched and learned some stuff hopefully.

She was also on the final day of her time with the community mw's and was lucky to attend an hb as many students don't get te chance. I was plaesed DS2 came on the right day for her

IdrisTheDragon · 21/01/2009 22:41

It was also good that labour was quite short (was in hospital for about 4 hours until DD was born, so she was there for the whole labour).

CandleQueen · 21/01/2009 22:41

My first birth was long and arduos ardous hard, and went though 7 shifts of midwife. May have had students, may not - I didn't care by that stage. The butcher and his dog could have popped their heads around the door and I wouldn't have noticed!
I wasn't keen on having students 2nd time around, but it was a really good experience. The Midwife had one midwifery student with her, she was excellent and even deliver DS2.
I did regret letting the consultant who was stitching up my 2nd degree tear explain what he was doing with me to her. I was off my face on G&A but realised later I had just had the most explicit biology lesson EVER! DH had to leave the room before he passed out! It was too much for him to hear...

Pinkbump3 · 21/01/2009 22:42

PS. None of the students got to touch me they were purely observing.

gladbag · 21/01/2009 22:42

I had put 'no students' on my birth plan as I'd envisaged my hospital birthing bed being circled by a huge group of teenage looking young 'uns with clipboards, all staring up my spread legs a la 'Scrubs'. No thank you.

When the time actually came, and I was in stomping around the room and groaning in fully fledged labour, my lovely midwife casually mentioned that although I'd put 'no students', would I just say hello to her current student - enter one lovely looking calm 30-something woman. I was past caring by that stage and said it was fine, and actually it was absolutely fine. I had imagined that I would be mortified and humialiated by the whole birthing process (loss of dignity and all that) but actually once in there, it really didn't bother me. The student simply watched most of my labour, and occasionally asked, very respectfully if she could do some checking herself. Not a problem at all, and she came in to see me afterwards to thank me, and I was glad that ds and I could have helped towards her training.

So I would say - check with your midwife what 'student' actually means, and see how you feel at the time.

EldonAve · 21/01/2009 22:47

I had a student MW for DC2 - she basically did all the monitoring etc under supervision
It was fine

ronshar · 21/01/2009 22:47

A student MW delivered my third child. I was only in the room for 5 mins before DS came rushing out into the world with the cord round his neck. The student was fantastic very calm, not a single note of panic at all. She was fab afterwards as well.

You are perfectly within your rights to refuse a student of any kind but do remember that they have to learn and they are always supervised.
I watched loads of births as a student. I always felt it was such an honour to be included. I now realise that the mothers probably didnt care who was there

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