OBEM USA - anyone watching?

[HoldMeCloserTonyDanza]

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

Twinkling, we would have an episode where one of the British ones has a breakthrough with one of the labouring American women and helps her through a natural birth. It will be manipulatively beautiful. With irritating background music of course.

LOL oh yes you have to have the irritating background music

American here---yes, the experience as shown @ this hospital is very very typical. More people than not have epidurals. Home births are not legal in most States. Mothers are often given pitocin to get labor started even if they're not overdue. Most birth practices in the States are fueled by the extremely litigious society. Obstetricians are sued at the drop of a hat, and often try to all they can (short of giving birth themselves) to avoid legal action. So yes, the birth process is very medically managed.

On the flip side, and playing a bit of devil's advocate, after having watched OBEM U.K. I am absolutely terrified at the idea of giving birth in the U.K. Why should it hurt so much if it doesn't have to?

But that's like saying when I scrape my knee or pull the nail on my little finger I should be taken to hospital for morphine - it's not really appropriate. Childbirth is not completely pain free.

I used to laugh at the episodes of Friends that covered Rachel's birth experience. I thought it was really far fetched.

Seems like reportage now.

thought susan and steven were pretty arsey actually, steven more so. I understand that they wanted the birth to be hands off, but surely they would want the baby monitored occasionally just to make sure it's ok? very frustrating for the midwife.

Of course, i watched this thinking, wow, i would love to give birth in the US, all the lovely drugs! I had to scream and scream for an epidural here and then didn't get one.

I actually gave birth to my first DD in Riverside's twin hospital in Columbus. Although the rooms were huge and when you visited they showed us the birthing balls/ bathtubs/rocking chairs etc and encouraged us to move around, the birthing experience shown on the program was very typical.

I was induced 6 days late and know of a lot of mothers who were induced ahead of their due date. They broke my waters when I was 4 cms (for no apparent reason) then gave me an epidural (which to be fair I was gagging for after a whole night of aggressive induction-induced contractions). I got to the pushing stage but according to them wasn't pushing very well (possibly because I couldn't feel a thing)- in the end I had an emergency C section. My American friend who was pregnant at the same time as me and gave birth at Riverside had the exact same birth as me.
I went on to have two late natural deliveries in the UK, so quick that there wouldn't have been time for an epidural if I'd wanted one!

Anyone interested should download The Business of Giving Birth, a very interesting documentary about childbirth in America.

On the plus side the post natal care was lovely- they brought us a Birth Day cake for our DD and the nurses kept cuddling her whenever they checked her. They were also very supportive with breastfeeding.
Saying that we were paying for the whole thing with a generous expat medical insurance. My C section friend had a standard medical insurance- the cost of the C section plus the extra days stay in hospital because of a scar infection set her and her husband back 15 000 dollars!

OMG that is a lot if money!!

I loved the starchy expressions on the faces of the staff when the orgasmic groans started up. Its obviously hard for them to get their heads round the idea that like sex, childbirth can be a noisy affair!

To those who say that childbirth should be painless, I say give me stilton or gorgonzola not primula or kraft slices.

I would love to know what Americans thought of our OBEM - is there an equivalent of MN over there?

I missed this. Is it available to watch on the internet? I have JFGI & can't find it!

Don't watch it GandT - it is very depressing. A baby factory.
Pitocin - tick
Novocaine - tick
Epidural - tick
Keep smiling and pop that baby out inside your deadline, before we whip it out for you.

Remember that these AREN'T midwives. They are labour and delivery nurses, and it's the doc who sweeps in to do the delivery (usually dressed as if he's performing majorly bloody surgery ). There was only one midwife in the program - the blonde woman who delivered the "natural" baby. (Nurse-midwives deliver about 10% of babies in the US, I believe.) Surprise surprise, she was the only person who was supportive of the couple's plans for their birth!

What got me about the natural birth couple's experience was the way the nurse was going on about needing to put Susan on a monitor so she could tell how strong the contractions were.

This was a lady with 30 years of experience. If she had seen more women going through "natural" labours, surely she would have been able to tell from the woman's behaviour? My midwife could tell over the phone from home how we were progressing...

Mind you, if there's no gas and air, I suspect that might account for a higher epidural rate. I'd have struggled without (2 tanks of!) it with DD, and it got me through the last bit of having DS brilliantly.

Thing I don't understand is that 2 of the staff said they had had at least of their children naturally but they didn't seem to be at all supportive of natural birth as hcps.

was the monitor for contractions or babys hb? in uk with 1st birth i was on a monitor and due to that they didnt let me off my back, needless to say in my 2nd birth plan i wrote i didnt want continuous monitorin.

I think "naturally" just means not via c-section...

Just watched the second episode of this and whoever said that it would be hard to make a series about these births was right - all the births with the exception of the C-Section look identical to me.

Is anyone else amazed about how compliant the women are? They let nurses stick needles in their veins and then ask them what it is for.

I don't get why they gave the first time mum pitocin after only 8 hours of labour? That's nothing for a first baby!
And they topped up her epidural as she was pushing???

Just watched a bit of the first episode, but turned off before the end. Even watching the opening credits, I knew I was going to get frustrated at all the women lying on their backs, feet in stirrups. Also, 90% epidural rate? 90%? Fuck me that's big. Surely that just leads to a cascade of intervention that could be unnecessary.

I say that as someone who asked for an epidural as soon as I'd been assessed by the midwife when I went into labour. I still wish I'd got it as well, but I laboured too quickly.

I couldn't really watch the second one. There was a poor woman who had an epidural, laboured for six hours (yep, just 6!), then they upped the pitocin and broke her waters - and her epidural stopped working . Of course she couldn't handle the pain - it was completely unprepared for and artificially sudden. Was one of the single biggest adverts for NOT having an epidural I've ever seen.