The 'Delivery Room' That Time Forgot

I recently attended a birth at Fairmont General Hospital, in WV.
I was shocked at the practices I saw still being routinely used on laboring women, against their wishes, and against their will. I was horrified with the way the attending OB spoke to and treated my client. (Example: when my client let out a powerful roar while pushing out the baby, the OB said, "Sshh! No sounds! Just pushing!" and when my client's partner suggested something to her, the OB barked, "Listen to your husband!" and afterward, when the OB said he was going to stitch her up, she asked, "Do you have to?" [many vaginal tears do not require stitches] and he answered, "No, I don't have to." When my client seemed relieved, the OB retorted, "Now just be still and let me do my work!" When my client said, "Don't be an ass!" to him, the OB came back with, "Well, you're acting like one!")

In the eight hours I spent at Fairmont General Hospital in WV, I witnessed:

Rough vaginal exams, with little concern for the pain being caused.

Routine IV insertion (by an unqualified person. The IV was also put into the same arm as the automatic blood pressure cuff, which proceeded to 'blow out' the IV!).

Continuous electronic fetal monitoring, with no breaks, even for a trip to use the toilet (my client was offered a bed pan!).

Routine NPO orders. No food or drink allowed throughout the labor and delivery.

Flat-on-the-back position for the entire labor and birth.

No choice in positions for birth.

My client was put into the legs-up, hold-your-breath "purple pushing", and was shouted at for breathing too frequenting and/ or not pushing long enough to suit them. At no time was my client encouraged to listen to her body and do what felt natural.

Forced lateral position. My client had her legs forced into stirrups, against her wishes. When she said, "This hurts. This is hurting my hip! Ow, ow, ow- god dammit!!" the OB said, "We need to do this, so I can deliver your baby!"

Large blue drapes covered my client from her chin, down. Drapes were held onto her legs with metal 'clamps'.

When I offered my client the opportunity to feel the descent of her baby's head, she was told not to invade the 'sterile field'.

The baby was born, grasped and hung by the ankles and jiggled, fully-extended, head unsupported. The cord was clamped and cut immediately. The baby was then taken to the nursery for 'observation', even though my client loudly expressed her strong desire that the baby stay with her. The baby received a bath, shots, eye ointment and who knows what other procedures, all out of sight of the parents. When the baby was finally returned to the parents, they were strongly admonished to not unwrap the baby, or take the baby's hat off, because the baby "had just gotten a bath" and needed to be kept warm.
No one at this hospital had yet figured out that if the mother was allowed to warm the baby immediately after the birth, she could give the baby a bath herself at a later time, and it would enable the baby to be uncovered and cooed over for as long as the parents wished it.

I can not believe that in 2009, when every other area hospital has given up these practices, that Fairmont General Hospital, in WV, is still clinging to these out-dated, and unsupported (by science or common sense) techniques.



The above is a scanned image from a 1985 issue of Mothering magazine. Its purpose was to illustrate birth in the 'old' hospital way, before mothers were allowed to assume whatever position they wished, birth as their bodies told them to, and keep their babies with them immediately after birth. Even in 1985, people were questioning and abandoning these practices. But in 2009, at Fairmont General Hospital, these practices are routine and used on birthing women daily.