HW#42

My peers Anthony Vargas, Jay McCarthy and I decided to have a personal experience for the assignment. We went to St. Luke's Roosevelt hospital on 59th street, 10th av and spoke with three nurses about their views concerning birth and the practices surrounding it. Here are the core questions that were asked (some improvising was done during the process):
-What inspired you to choose this occupation and/or what do you enjoy most about it?
-How do you feel about the rising rates of cesarean sections?
-Do you think the use of epidural and pitocin is more beneficial to the mothers and their child or to the doctors? Why/why not?
-How do you feel about midwifery and homebirths?
-Do you think that it’s right that doctors are generally trained as if every birth was an emergency situation? Why/why not?

Person #1:
This nurse was very honest and straightforward with her answers as she seemed to be fine with our asking the questions. She enjoys the occupation because she genuinely cares about helping women and children. This woman was interesting, because she seemed to lean towards midwives rather than obstetricians despite her occupation. She mentioned that she did not support the rise in Cesareans, stating that they were used “judiciously” and to a doctor or patients liking. She claimed that patients may have a cesarean on a certain day just so that they would not be in the hospital on another. I agree with her because a c-section should not be some kind of luxury to someone, it should only be used in cases where it is vital. This woman also disputed the use of epidural and pitocin. She felt that it is a bad decision to use it and in cases where it is used it should be the minimum, “so rather than using six shots use two.” In her talk of midwifery she mentioned “The Business of Being Born” and spoke of how it was a great movie, stating that she felt midwives are able to handle births just as well and any doctor would. In fact, she gave birth via midwife to both of her kids and, surprisingly enough, without the use of any drugs. When it came to the training of the doctors, she felt that at the end of the day the most important thing with the birth is that the baby gets out okay, regardless of the process. Despite expressing that, “birth is one of the most natural processes and it should go back to being that way” she still felt that the most important thing all in all, is that the baby gets out safely. When asked about the training of the doctors, she felt that at the end of the day the most important thing with the birth is that the baby gets out okay, regardless of the process. Despite expressing that, “birth is one of the most natural processes and it should go back to being that way” she still felt that the most important thing all in all, is that the baby gets out safely. This makes me wonder what life she would choose if given an ultimatum: the mother or the child?

Person #2:
This woman was by far the vaguest of all the interviewees. The seemed uncomfortable, possibly because of the room we were in (a slightly smaller room than the last, about a forth of Andy’s) or because she may have felt pressured by us. Her job title was the director of parent and family education and she chose this occupation because she feels that it is very important for patients to be knowledgeable on the subject. I wonder if the information provided by her is biased towards the obstetricians, her responses give reason to question how impartial her ‘education’ may be. She was consistently evasive in her responses and avoided saying anything that may undermine obstetricians. When asked about C-section rates, she said that Roosevelt hospital has the lowest C-section rates in the city. This is an interesting statistic and I wonder if this is true (although I could not find any recent and reliable sources to verify, that does not mean that she is a liar, I am simply a poor researcher). When asked about midwifery, she simply said that “it is great” and elected not to elaborate. She came off almost defensive when asked about the doctors training and said that doctors are trained to handle every situation they are given. She claimed that they are prepared to handle both normal and high risk situations.

Person #3:
This woman was arguably the most helpful of the three. She chose the profession out of a childhood desire to learn about birth and how it all worked, which has lead her to being the manager of the nurses department. She was honest and by far the most elaborate with all of her answers. She only supports cesareans in situations of necessity. With homebirths, she said that they are “prevalent” in her country (Jamaica) and that she still supports them. When it came to speaking about the training of the obstetricians, she said that “it’s not that the doctors are not properly trained, they just are not fully educated.” In saying this she agreed that they handle situations as if they are in emergency and said that the trainings for doctors should be different. During her training she was trained like a midwife and working in the field that she does, surrounded by doctors and many unnatural births she said that they are just accustomed to the emergency situations. This made me wonder what the point of so much schooling to be a doctor is if the majority of them are not able to handle a ‘normal’ birth situation. This also makes me wonder about the recent birth of my almost two month old baby brother. I was at the hospital with my family post-delivery and was told that everything went smoothly. I then learned that the birth was via a cesarean and wondered why, although I never got around to having that conversation. My stepmother and her doctor are just another example of how cesareans are abused in this generation of mothers and doctors are not as knowledgeable as they should be and do not appreciate the ‘birthing experience.’