Baby Midwife goes Bananas

[Mel and Michael]

Dear all, I am a baby midwife (aged two) and new to ozmidwifery. I just wish to relieve some of the frustration and anger I am feeeling at present about how things are changing in our unit. I left work today feeling like I could walk away and never go back again as I am ashamed to be part of a system that treats women so terribly. We have a new resident and registrar who are VE mad, they do a VE on any one who moves. Yesterday one woman was examined four times before she was even in established labour. She presented with ruptured membranes, fiddling but not doing a lot but was examined anyway. When my shift started, we decided that the best thing to do was send her to the ward (VMOs dont like them to go home) and wait for labour to establish but the registrar thought she should check the first VE - cervix effacing admit a finger tip. Two hours later she began to have some mild contractions so a midwife examined her to see if it was time to send her back to delivery suite (I hate that term) and two hours after that the registrar decide to do another VE to see if there were forewaters with the view to rupturing them and putting up Synto. On the same shift a woman having her second baby was labouring beautifully and asked for an epidural. It was fairly obvious to me that the epidural asnt going to happen as she was beginning to grunt a little with her contractions... In comes the resident who told the woman that she would have to have a VE because she hadnt been examined for seven hours and "we dont know whether your progressing". I managed to distract the resident for ten minutes  or so with another woman who had arrived and luckily in that time this woman birthed her baby. When we try to talk to the resident about doing unnecessary VEs she just says I need to get the experience. it is so sad to young doctors who are so selfcentred about their practice and so totally disconnected with women and what birth is all about. They both have this thing about "fixing" things, if the membranes are intact we will rupture them,   if the cervix is not four centimetres then they need Synto. Recently, a primip arrived having irregular painful tightenings. The registrar did a VE and found her cervix to be one centimeter dilated and so ruptured her membranes. When I asked why we couldnt just send her home I was told "well she was booked for induction on Friday anyway" (it was Tuesday). The woman then continued to fiddle about uncomfortably for six hours before the registrar decided a Synto infusion was necessary. This woman went on to have a very long labour, two lots of Pethidine, an epidural then a forceps birth for maternal exhaustion followed by a PPH of 1500 ml. she had ten VEs during her labour. We have tried to speak to the VMOs about this but their not interested typically. I know I have gone on and on but I am really distressed that this is happening and unfortunately I am a part of it.  Are there any baby midwives out there experiencing the same frustrartions I am and what do you do to fix this????     Yours in beautiful birthing, Melissa (Canberra)