This is a direct quote, (thanks, you know who you are) from a wonderful friend-to-be who just wrote me a heartfelt e-mail. She was discussing her own difficult decision about how and where to birth her firstborn, and this is in regards to her OB father...
"It was also hard to witness the intense judgment against OBs, even though much of it was warranted, because I knew what it was leaving out: my knowledge of my dad, who was loving and wanted to do the right thing, and who wanted to insure the safety of my child, his grandchild. My dad, who had witnessed the death of babies, who had worked hard to save babies, who never ever wanted to take a chance if he could save a baby’s life, and who probably did save many lives."
Can you think about this from this standpoint, all of you? Can you imagine being the well meaning doctor, who maybe did just go into this for the love of people and healing and doing good, looking into the torn, anguished eyes of a mother as he pulled her dead baby from her womb? Who holds the mother's hand as he tells her that her baby has died, who hands her a kleenex as her tears fall onto the sweet face of her child who will never wake. And then, maybe later that evening, or the next day, he has a situation where he thinks maybe, just maybe, another baby is in danger?
What would you do?
It is, in fact, remotely possible, that this is not just about money.
3 comments:
I do think about this a lot- I do think that a lot of doctors want to be healers. I always keep their humanity in mind.
I also think a lot about the individuals who manage to stay in the field and who do not succumb to fear and over-manage a majority of pregancies. People that can be brave enough to leave the birth that ended with an angel soul, and attend the next patient's birth with the joy it deserves.
And I wonder what makes the two parties different?
For the record, I am NOT one of the special folks who could leave the fear and go into the next birth expecting the best, and so I know that I am not cut out for the profession of bringing babies into the world.
Yes, I can embrace this. As I hope that the next place of birth for us will be with the doctor who tried in vain to save Birdie...
Yes, I believe in her wanting us and needing us to have a live baby, and working with her and the CNM's that will do anything they can to ensure this for us. They will not rest until that is what we have. The OB who delivered Birdie is 3 mins....is an angel. She also confided in me that she moved her family closer to the hospital and that she will be there with us in the hospital until our next child is born. She also is PRO VBAC all the way...and PRO LIVE BABY!
She is unique in her profession.
she delivered Birdie "in" 3 mins not "is"....oops...
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