OBEM USA - anyone watching?

[HoldMeCloserTonyDanza]

Who's in? I'm really interested to see what's different in America.

Yeah the moaning shower thing is odd!

Pesha - fingers crossed for her. And captainbarnacle - actual labouring then! I have to say I felt I had earnt DD by the time she arrived!!

I thought the shower thing was their version of getting in the bath as I haven't seen any baths in the rooms.

God this programme is freaking me out. I dunno if I'll watch the others. Part of the annoyance is the format, which gets me wondering - do Americans really need their TV to be so... fed to them in small, pithy blasts of colour and information? It's like a long, disorienting advert for medical equipment. And we've only seen one baby.

I'm starting to understand why Ina May Gaskin exists. And I am also painkiller queen, but this prog is making me want to hustle every person on it to The Farm, pronto...

Just found this thread.

I'm getting more and more frustrated with every minute of this. I want scream 'GET OF YOUR BACK! WALK AROUND! TELL THEM TO FUCK OF WITH THEIR EPIDURAL!'

So glad I gave birth in the UK

Ah, was wondering if there would be a thread on this....No wonder the 'labour and delivery nurses' are all so upbeat and relaxed - they just seem to sit around whilst their patients lie in bed with epidurals...

Gutted about the memory card in the camera though - note to self, pack extras just in case!

Why is everyone having pitocin? Presumably they are overdue and need to be induced etc but the narrator is making out like it's just what you get when you arrive at hospital. They are SO drug-happy!

I think they give it automatically there, I could be wrong..

She's only been 10cm dilated for 5mins and they are doing a section????

I probably won't watch again either. I wanted joyous stories of women in birth, not this.

9lb 12!!! Woah..

9lbs 12oz!

This makes me appreciate our OBEM even more. No one has had a cup of tea or any cake yet either!

Oooh a nice cup of tea and the funny receptionist! I miss her!

NCT lady here! Am finding it all infuriating - but not surprising. The worst aspect of it all for me is the way the U.S. midwives are pushing epidurals on these women right from the start, expressing disbelief - "are you sure" - when a woman says she'd like to give it a go without. They seem to be very negative about a woman's body's ability to labour and give birth without a lot of interventions. It really feels like they are setting these women up to think that there's no way they can have their baby without pharmaceutical intervention. They're not supporting them at all - well I'm not seeing much of it at any rate. And don't even get me started on the woman who was given as she was saying she felt the urge to push "let's just get this in & then we'll check" WTF!! And Tasha (is it?) who's just been given a dose of narcotic to chill her out just before they put in the epidural - she even said "don't waste that on me". These women are just not being listened to at all.Grrrrr.

I knew I shouldn't have watched this.

On the plus side - thier rooms are so much nicer than the ones at our local unit. Am a bit .

I like the moving beds though.

I am really going off the U S of A

SMUG GITS! Why are they smirking?!

Doula looks like she could stab the midwife!

I feel a bit sorry for that couple now. Everyone on there thinks they're weird.

why is the nurse only talking to the birth partners?
not to the woman?
at least the nurse midwife seems nice.

I wonder what happens if you want a homebirth in America!

"keep things positive"

What a brilliant birth partner Natural Dad is, though. he's wonderful!

I am so CROSS - and I'm not an NCT/earth mother (EMCS, VBAC and just found out baby3 is major placenta pravia hence csection next month).

Argh this is awful.