Dear Melissa
Your story is a carbon copy of mine, except that i couldnt say that i am a
midwife, and two births behind my name isnt like a qualification to give an
opinion. I advocated for this woman for literally 4 days...and the day she
was in i was in with her for the whole 24 hours....i am in canberra
too....later after my traumatic experience, i was told that i didnt advocate
for the woman, i was putting words into her mouth and that i was advocating
for my own interests.....like you melissa i am shaking my head...i felt like
i had raped this woman...i felt violated myself...if you want to get
together and have a chat seeing as though you are a canberran, i would love
to meet you and perhaps we can have a D & M....
anyway, you know what i realised, your thoughts and your actions are the
begining of a seed of change, so are my experiences and actions, as are
others...dont give up and dont become dishearted yet!!! you have been in
there for two years....this was my first real (non relative) birth....
lots of love, support and advocacy for women
arwa
>From: "Mel and Michael" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: Baby Midwife goes Bananas
>Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999 12:59:58 +1000
>
>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)
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