Hilarious (if not a little gorey!) midwifery birthday cake by Vicki Falls in Scotland who posted it on the RCM faceboook page!
A while back, I posted a link to a BBC news article about the history of fathers-to-be attending the delivery of their child.
The BBC have now posted this response, with real life stories from dads. It’s a lovely read, and very interesting.
Interesting article about how the role of the father-to-be in labour has changed in the past century.
This might be a silly question, but do student midwives perform episiotomies? How are you taught how to perform them? I'm the most nervous about that aspect of midwifery haha
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We do indeed!
You’re essentially taught by doing. You get a brief lecture on it, but it just kind of happens in practice.
You’ll be pleased to know that midwives actually use episiotomies very very rarely. Out of the 40 normal deliveries I have done, 3 needed an epis, and two of those were done by a doctor who happened to be present, who then passed care back to me. So I’ve only actually done one.
Episiotomies are more common during assisted delivery (vacuum, forceps) or during episodes of severe fetal heart rate abnormalities. At this time, there’s a 99.9% chance the doctor in the room will do it.
But for a normal delivery, they’re pretty much a no go unless there is no other option. Most midwives will agree that a second degree tear is nicer than a whacking big epis, but they can sometimes prevent 3rd and 4th degree tears so are more necessary.
Most of the midwives I’ve worked with hate episiotomies and never feel comfortable doing them. Partly because they’re done so rarely by midwives, and partly because they’re just plain unpleasant to do.
But don’t worry. If the hospital you train at has a good policy for advocating normal birth, you’ll rarely do them!
xx
Sad sad.
A friend on my course today was telling me about an obstetric lecture she attended yesterday.
The OB leading the lecture had convinced her that caesareans were ‘as safe as normal vaginal delivery’.
Sorry, what?
You’re supposed to count
The counted pushing they had her doing was valsalva pushing. Evidence shows that valsalva pushing increases the chance of negative urodynamic outcomes and fetal hypoxia (suffication of the baby before birth). It also increases the risk of severe perineal tears.
So no. You’re not supposed to count. You’re supposed to go with your body, and push when you feel like it, for as little or long as you feel the urge.
Just watched an episode of 16 and Pregnant and it made me so mad!
They had the poor girl flat on her back, and I mean flat, with her legs in lithotomy position. They were making her do counted pushes. Literally counting to 10 with each push.
I just…. I can’t. What the hell.
