Post of the Week.
Courtesy of Midwifery is Catching. Click on over and have a read.
Damn, that's some fine writing!
I couldn't agree any more. I'm not sure that the gloves are what makes the process so different, so invasive. I'm almost convinced that it's 100% about intent and trust. The intent of the Midwife/Physician/Nurse, and the trust of the client (and therein lies the abject need for prenatal visits to be as long as the client needs them to be, and for continuity of care! Whoever does your prenatal care MUST be the one who attends your birth... but I digress...)
Sometimes a VE is necessary, and sometimes, putting your fingers and (and occasionally a whole hand) in a woman's vagina/cervix/uterus is very painful (I watched a cervix swept for clots after a birth recently and that absolutely hurt "like Hades" as she put it.. It's true that when these types of situations occur, you can't ask for permission. You must act decisively and quickly. But it's a whole different thing when a client trusts you and recognizes your loving intent. The client in question bellowed (as I would have, I'm sure) and then later thanked her beloved midwife for stopping her bleeding.
If you don't know your caregiver from Adam, and it hurts, and you don't understand why, you are horribly vulnerable. You question the intent of the person at the other end of the fingers in your vagina.
Somewhere in that particular vicinity lies the line on the other side of which you will find abuse. Where is that line? This is the tricky thing. It differs for every woman. But if you venture unwittingly (or carelessly) across it, I believe that that's the point where otherwise normal laboring women and their vaginas, cervixes and uteri can decide, "You know what? it's not safe for me to birth here."
Voila, Failure to Progress.
Ding! You're outta time.
Cesarean.
Damn, that's some fine writing!
I couldn't agree any more. I'm not sure that the gloves are what makes the process so different, so invasive. I'm almost convinced that it's 100% about intent and trust. The intent of the Midwife/Physician/Nurse, and the trust of the client (and therein lies the abject need for prenatal visits to be as long as the client needs them to be, and for continuity of care! Whoever does your prenatal care MUST be the one who attends your birth... but I digress...)
Sometimes a VE is necessary, and sometimes, putting your fingers and (and occasionally a whole hand) in a woman's vagina/cervix/uterus is very painful (I watched a cervix swept for clots after a birth recently and that absolutely hurt "like Hades" as she put it.. It's true that when these types of situations occur, you can't ask for permission. You must act decisively and quickly. But it's a whole different thing when a client trusts you and recognizes your loving intent. The client in question bellowed (as I would have, I'm sure) and then later thanked her beloved midwife for stopping her bleeding.
If you don't know your caregiver from Adam, and it hurts, and you don't understand why, you are horribly vulnerable. You question the intent of the person at the other end of the fingers in your vagina.
Somewhere in that particular vicinity lies the line on the other side of which you will find abuse. Where is that line? This is the tricky thing. It differs for every woman. But if you venture unwittingly (or carelessly) across it, I believe that that's the point where otherwise normal laboring women and their vaginas, cervixes and uteri can decide, "You know what? it's not safe for me to birth here."
Voila, Failure to Progress.
Ding! You're outta time.
Cesarean.
posted by Louisa at 3:28 PM
1 Comments:
Your last paragraph put it perfectly.
Reminds me of reading about the "sphincter Rules" in InaMays newest book...so totally understandable. Mess with some one when they are trying to DO something, and you might throw them off! Off their "game"?? Is it that odd? Isnt there some sports analogy I could send their way? (they being the examination man)
Besides, any basic cat owner knows..."mess with Mama and she wont have them kittens tonight, cuz you pissed her off. Turn the lights down and let her be."
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