One Born Every Minute USA - water breaking

[RuByMaMa]

My understanding is the procedure itself is uncomfortable and it leads to a generally more painful labour for the woman - why are they insisting on doing it?!?

This programme winds me up so much

Why do I watch it?

Is it me or are nearly all the mothers induced and labouring on their backs?

It just confirms my impression that childbirth is much more 'medicalised' in the usa.

Had to switch off. The lack of respect for women is horrible. Just a production line to suit obstetricians :(

I watched 10 mins of it and turned it off.

I didn't watch but i had my waters broke with both my dd's, dd1's birth was very painful and went on forever but having my waters broken was not uncomfortable at all. Dd2 was born very fast, i had an epidural so not painful at all.

Only saw a minute but had to turn over - they looked like they were jumping on the poor womans legs to push them further back.

Will never give birth if I kept watching that.

I've just finished watching it... Not sure why I continued watching it after the first 10mins, as I just felt myself getting angrier and angrier

The women aren't even given any options or asked what they want... As far as I could see, the one woman who was trying to go 'natural' was given no little support in her choice and it was almost as if the midwife was finding it hard to refrain from saying 'told you so' when she did choose an epidural ...

Will try not to watch it next week

One positive point,if a woman requests and epidural she gets it and doesn't have to wait hrs and hrs.

I was really shocked by the episode of this that I watched.
It felt like their policy was to say "you have been in labour for 2mins, you are not progressing, we will induce you, break waters etc"

It made me really glad I didnt give birth in america

I was quite shocked by the flippant banter between the staff as well - as if working on the labour ward is a big joke :(

As mentioned before I gave birth to DD1 in the twin hospital to the one shown in the series.
I was induced (my choice- 6 days late) then laboured for about 10 hrs till pushing time then ended up pushing and having an EMCS. My waters were broken when I was 4 cms dilated and then I had an epidural.
DC2 & 3 were born in the UK- VBACs with no epidural, my waters broke naturally just before pushing.
In fact with DC3 labour and delivery from start to finish took just under an hour. They told me I couldn't push until my waters had broken. Apparently they could it see it bulging (their words- it freaked me out a bit) but wouldn't touch it- when it burst it went everywhere (lovely).

What strikes me about this show is that they come in so early in labour. Why don't they wait at home till the last minute if they want a natural birth. And the water breaking? I don't get it. It is supposed to make contractions a lot more painful and not necessarily quicker. Why not wait?

I think they break the waters so they can attach a scalp monitor to the baby. I'm sure that's why my waters were broken for DC1. that was it then, on my back with an epidural and more syntocin to speed things up.
DC2's birth couldn't be more different, waters broke naturally just before pushing. I did not spend any of my labour or delivery on my back at all.

OBEM USA is very bizarre...all the births seem identical..what's with the counting?

There seems to be no discussion or decision making about the waters-breaking - as soon as they women arrive the mw says put on this gown and I'll break your waters.
All the women spend the whole labour lying flat on their backs, not walking around or upright.
All deliveries take place with the woman's legs hoiked up,
That awful football coach style yelling 'Go go go'
There's never any skin-to-skin contact when the baby is born, never delivered onto the stomach, whisked away and last night one baby even had a nappy put on before it was finally handed to the mother.
No one TOLD the mother or father what was happening when that baby needed help to breathe
There was no constructive help for the mother who wanted to deliver without intervention - no active birth techniques used throughout labour, no trying G&A, no walking about, no talking her through it, just lie on your back til you've had enough, and then straight to epidural - and birth compared to having your teeth pulled out.

All dreadful.

And if those mws had been shrieking with laughter messing about with trollies and wheelchairs making so much din in the corridor outside when I was in labour or resting afterwards they would have had a mouthful.

It's all so saccharine, even before the praying.

What really annoys me is how when in labour, or once the baby is born the midwives seem to just ignore the women. It wasn't just that one birth - i've seen it in all the episodes so far.

As in, the new mum will be asking 'is my baby ok?' over and over again - and occasionally someone will say 'your babie's fine' - but they are over in the corner doing resus or trying to get the heart rate up.

Tell the bloody women what you're doing to her baby! Grr!

I watch it to make my self feel better about giving birth in the UK.

Why is there no g&a, it's brilliant at regulating your breathing and gives you something to concentrate on.

I had my son in the USA. My experience was NOTHING like that on One born every Minute USA!!

My L&D nurse could not have been nicer or more encouraging, she encouraged me to move around, go in the jacuzzi bath, she rubbed my back with hot towels, she got me one of those Swiss Balls things to bounce on, I told them NO epidural UNLESS I need a section and they said -fine!

My waters were broken which was fine by me and my OB delivered my boy onto my belly and I was given skin to skin contact as soon as they had cleaned him up and done his Apgars.

That show in my opinion is edited to make things appear much more dramatic- good for the ratings!

It does annoy me that all the women shown seems to labor on their backs in bed and then wonder why it takes so long- they don't seem to have much idea of what to expect or how to get things moving naturally- so perhaps their ante -natal classes are crap!!!

I did miss gas and air but had one shot of IV Staidol- magic stuff- bit like a very large gin and tonic on an empty stomach!!

That's the thing- it doesn't even take that long! Look at the woman who originally wanted a natural birth. She arrived in not much pain, her waters were broken straight away and after 3 hours of labour she was dilated to 7 cms and asked for an epidural. An hour later she was ready to push- it was her first baby!!!!!
That's amazingly quick!

well, Im just surprised that more of them dont have el sections. I thought that was all the range in the US? I think its hysterical the way the midwives can all have a laugh during the night. They wouldnt know what had hit them if they did afew nights over here!

what channel is this on? haven't noticed it on

sarahken its on More4

Thanks will look out for it :)

Been watching this series and have been amazed at the attitude of some of the nurses. Just out of interest though, as it seems so much more medicalised than here - does anyone know how the figures compare between USA and UK with regards to outcomes like EmCsec and stillbirth?

I think they have something like 25 percent el sections and that's all to do with insurance. Apparently it's very hard to get doctors that want to practice obs and gynae and those that do make a fortune.

I think I heard (on MN) that gas and air has never been registered in the US. Something to do with it being a bit unstable in a more extreme climate???

Whatever it is, they don't have it, so it seems to be, no pain relief or epidural, nothing in between...

There are IV drugs but not many women go for it- all my US friends were AMAZED that I chose not to have an epidural!!

Their labour and delivery units are much quieter in my experience than in Uk hospitals(I am an RN so know what UK hosps are like by comparison.)

When I had my little boy it was REALLY busy and they coped well but it was really unusual apparently- they normally had 5-6 births a day but the day I had my son they had 17 women in labour!
They seem quieter probably because there are often several hosps in an area- we lived in a suburb of a large city and within a 10 mile radius of where we lived there we were at least 7-8 hosps all with L&D/Birth centres.

When I was asking my friends for an OB referral( I wanted a good one!) they ALL told me to ask what their C-section rate was- some are as high as 45% which is shocking but it IS to do with insurance and litigation.
My OB was wonderful and his section was low by comparison to many many others- it was about 18%.

I told him that I really wanted him to deliver my baby and not one of the other OB's who had higher section rate. He was fine with this and told the nurses to call him when I was ready to deliver whether night or day. He knew I really felt unhappy about the high rate of sections in the US in general plus he told me he wanted to deliver his first British baby!!!

Have to say I think this tv show gives a really bad impression of deliveries in the USA.

Having known many women who gave birth there (it is the 'nice' maternity place in Columbus) they all gave birth in exactly the same way as the women on the show.
Early epidural and mostly flat on back. The epidural rate in the hospital is over 90%.

I gave birth in the other central Columbus hospital (linked to the one on the show). When you go for the pre-birth visit they show you the birthing ball, rocking chair, shower etc. In practice they tend to want you in bed. I was strapped on a drip (for the induction) and had to get up and drap my drip around to go to the toilet every 20 mns. I don't think the nurse was too happy with me.
I found that the birth experience was very medicalised but the post natal care was great.
Single rooms, birth day cakes for the parents newborns, really sweet nurses, lactation consultants etc. That was really nice.

I think it really must depend on the hopsital or birth centre in question as to what the typical experience must be. But if you watch "The Business of Being Born", that's really interesting (and shocking) WRT the managed childbirth which seems to be more usual there than it is here.