United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

omgoodnerss Kathleen, told you to smoke to keep your baby weight down? Well I have to admit, not much more sank in after that- I just want to give you a mama hug for having to endure that kind of mentality-

women can choose whether they want to have responsibility for their birth or whether they want the doctor to be responsible- or who they want to be responsible- personally I chose to be responsible (in
conjunction with my higher power)
thats not a judgement statement- thats a "what I do" statement
and believe me, I was heartfelt to question my choice when my child endured a birthing injury-
but for me, birthing is a highly spiritual activity, well life is, but you get my point- so as it is a duty of the care provider to recognize on an intellectual and intuitive level all things to promote a healthy birth- both prenatally and during the birth itself, I also am willing , at the same time to take the responsibility and share it with my higher power- and that was the way I looked at it before I birthed-
I do however think that as paRT OF that responsibility I have a responsibility to pick a good care provider- and it very well may be that as part of perhaps the responsibility of being a mom , many of the moms on these boards have to endure litigation and so forth with their care providers so that they help raise the integrity and ability of birth-practitioners because I agree with you that they(doctors and midwives, ALL the birth care providers)need to be trained and able also.
Kathleen! they told you to smoke? argh- do you smoke anyways? just curious, oh my- I cant get past that one...
okok- you gotta give me this one- I dont think an old timer homebirthing wise woman midwife would have ever told you that- no matter how long ago!
dratted doctors wink

Marymom I know can you believe that one!!!!

My children are 35,34 and 29.... In the good old days there were no materials out there for pregnant Moms you got a simple 30 page book from your OBGYN - that is if you did not go to a GP to have your baby...

They told us that the placenta was a barrier and nothing went past it... They thought it was OK to take a drink to... so glad I don't drink... they gave us water pills if we were retaining fluid... pills for morning sickness which I had for nine months with one baby but only took the pills for 3 months... They had strict rules about weight gain only 20 lbs... That was never my problem... they were annoyed that I did not gain more weight 13lbs with first 14 second and 17 the third and he was 9lbs... They felt and knew that smoking kept the babies weight down and wanted me to have smaller babies... ugh... can you imagine so innocent in my twenties... besides I only had one doctor all my life and trusted him (rightly so) so my experience said that this OB was right... Thank goodness he knew what to do when the shoulder were stuck... Just the information was so poor at the time... we never had access to our birthing records and also our husbands had to drop us off and wait in the waiting room... My husband feels cheated about that one....
I stopped smoking in 1980... I was always told by family Dr. never to smoke because my lungs were weak..Never mentioned the Horner's possibly caused that!
I only started to smoke to look grown up... My Mom never smoked and my kids don't smoke... In fact all of my friends were allowed to smoke when we were pregnant. We drank tea/Coffee(that is if you could hold it down... not I) No food restrictions... No real information...

That is why I think that girls and woman need a special course on birth... Woman's health issues are really neglected and girls need to be better educated on these matters... young women tend to be more passive on these matters because we are peace makers in general...LOL.

I think the Medical Community and medical colleges need to have better information on this also!! OBGYN most assuredly should be more then familiar with this material and young woman should get hand outs with first office visit including all information... on difficulties they may face and a list of the red flags....
I worked in accounting... not the medical field... I knew how to give medication and check out doctors and hospitals because my Mom was dying when I got married but I did not know about delivering babies so I choose to go OB/Gyn for safety sake...