Last month I conducted a delivery.I love to call it an 'Organic delivery'!!Why ORGANIC? Cause everything about it was 'natural'.While describing the incident ,I will try to be non judgemental.And will leave the interpretation of story for you.............
I came across this lady in one of my OPDs.I remember the first encounter.. Quite early in her pregnancy she was switching over from another consultant to me.I remembered her through out her antenatal visits as the lady who loved to speak and ask loads of questions.My average time spent with her in each visit used to be about 45 minutes(instead of allocated 20 minutes as per the hospital rules) .This used to annoy rest of the waiting patients to no end,as it used to delay their schedule accordingly.In her next visit I used to find that despite talking for several minutes to me she had treated her particular condition in her own way.After a while I realized it was no point getting annoyed by her own way of her antenatal care.It was 'her' and she wanted me to realize this fact.Once without mincing her words she told me,I know I can take care of my pregnancy and my body but I just want your presence.......just in case things go wrong.Fair enough,I thought!!Then she told me a long list of do's and don't during labour.It was an exhaustive list and here I had to put my foot down at the risk of annoying her.Some of her demands were too risky for herself and the baby.Once in her last trimester she had some problem due to which I had to examine internally and realized she was already halfway dilated.Though this was her second delivery which was likely to be much quicker than her 1st one she wished to go home and let nature take charge.She did tell me quite proudly that her last delivery was also in a triage.(Not an ideal situation to be honest as at times things can go wrong and triage is not the best place to deliver the baby).10 days later when she came back she was getting uterine contractions which she dismissed as some 'grinding'.After a lot of persuation she agreed for an internal and she was almost completely dilated.But she and husband were still not convinced.They want 'labour' to set in.They were convinced that she would go in labour only after a week and she knew her body best(remember she told me so quite early)I didn't know how they would realise that labour has set in if till then she hadn't.I was anticipating a total natural 'bathroom delivery' at home with a push.But thankfully well past midnight she felt some pushing sensation,reported it and myself and my whole team acted like a flying squad.Now what happened during delivery wasn't what I or my neonatologist friend would have liked to do in the best interest of the mother and the child but we did as ultimately it was her body and her baby.It was just during the 15 minutes of labour I could see both of them little worked up and out of control.But once the baby delivered,they knew best.Proudly they exclaimed....... this time we made it and it was not in triage.
Post delivery I was ordered by her husband 4 days later to take few stitches for her 1st degree perineal tear,which I declined politely till I had seen her in my OPD.It was getting enough for me,It was getting enough for them too,because the all so important world cup cricket needed them to be at home to give the desperately needed moral support to the India team.A follow up visit to a doctor who wasn't listing to them wasn't as important.I know they visited one of my colleague with a request to take the stitches on the condition that she won't be prescribed any antibiotics.The doctor wasn't comfortable to take stitch without antibiotic cover and she advised them to meet me.Till date which is almost more than 3 weeks since the delivery they haven't returned back to me and I know for sure tomorrow they have booked appointment with some other gynaecologist.
What makes me write this post? It is good to know one's body and situation but maybe not so good to be a control freak.I just hope things are fine with her but as there is no follow up visit,I really don't know.
PS : I must appreciate the enthusiasm of the couple.They wished to be so much in control that the lady wished me to teach her husband how to check dilatation so that he can decide the time to bring her to the hospital.
I came across this lady in one of my OPDs.I remember the first encounter.. Quite early in her pregnancy she was switching over from another consultant to me.I remembered her through out her antenatal visits as the lady who loved to speak and ask loads of questions.My average time spent with her in each visit used to be about 45 minutes(instead of allocated 20 minutes as per the hospital rules) .This used to annoy rest of the waiting patients to no end,as it used to delay their schedule accordingly.In her next visit I used to find that despite talking for several minutes to me she had treated her particular condition in her own way.After a while I realized it was no point getting annoyed by her own way of her antenatal care.It was 'her' and she wanted me to realize this fact.Once without mincing her words she told me,I know I can take care of my pregnancy and my body but I just want your presence.......just in case things go wrong.Fair enough,I thought!!Then she told me a long list of do's and don't during labour.It was an exhaustive list and here I had to put my foot down at the risk of annoying her.Some of her demands were too risky for herself and the baby.Once in her last trimester she had some problem due to which I had to examine internally and realized she was already halfway dilated.Though this was her second delivery which was likely to be much quicker than her 1st one she wished to go home and let nature take charge.She did tell me quite proudly that her last delivery was also in a triage.(Not an ideal situation to be honest as at times things can go wrong and triage is not the best place to deliver the baby).10 days later when she came back she was getting uterine contractions which she dismissed as some 'grinding'.After a lot of persuation she agreed for an internal and she was almost completely dilated.But she and husband were still not convinced.They want 'labour' to set in.They were convinced that she would go in labour only after a week and she knew her body best(remember she told me so quite early)I didn't know how they would realise that labour has set in if till then she hadn't.I was anticipating a total natural 'bathroom delivery' at home with a push.But thankfully well past midnight she felt some pushing sensation,reported it and myself and my whole team acted like a flying squad.Now what happened during delivery wasn't what I or my neonatologist friend would have liked to do in the best interest of the mother and the child but we did as ultimately it was her body and her baby.It was just during the 15 minutes of labour I could see both of them little worked up and out of control.But once the baby delivered,they knew best.Proudly they exclaimed....... this time we made it and it was not in triage.
Post delivery I was ordered by her husband 4 days later to take few stitches for her 1st degree perineal tear,which I declined politely till I had seen her in my OPD.It was getting enough for me,It was getting enough for them too,because the all so important world cup cricket needed them to be at home to give the desperately needed moral support to the India team.A follow up visit to a doctor who wasn't listing to them wasn't as important.I know they visited one of my colleague with a request to take the stitches on the condition that she won't be prescribed any antibiotics.The doctor wasn't comfortable to take stitch without antibiotic cover and she advised them to meet me.Till date which is almost more than 3 weeks since the delivery they haven't returned back to me and I know for sure tomorrow they have booked appointment with some other gynaecologist.
What makes me write this post? It is good to know one's body and situation but maybe not so good to be a control freak.I just hope things are fine with her but as there is no follow up visit,I really don't know.
PS : I must appreciate the enthusiasm of the couple.They wished to be so much in control that the lady wished me to teach her husband how to check dilatation so that he can decide the time to bring her to the hospital.
1 comment:
This is Hilarious :D
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