I had 35 hours of labor *after* my water broke (my contractions just kept stalling). My hospital has a very firm policy on giving women as much time as they need to give birth. Many hospitals will put a time limit on labor *even if mom and baby are fine,* and then go to c section. This really is for the hospital’s…

It’s becoming more and more common for doctors to pressure women into having C-sections for the doctors’ own convenience and based on the doctor’s preference. In some countries, doctors get paid more for performing a C-section because it’s surgery, so that contributes as well. I think that in this environment it’s…

This is only mildly related to the story, but I too hallucinate on painkillers! I get the exact same type of experiences as you, thinking people had told me they hated me, didn’t want to see me ever again, etc. I get really paranoid on them. Everyone I’ve ever mentioned this to has told me that it’s totally bizarre,…

I became a midwife after experiencing midwifery care with my 4th child. I am long out of the profession but our standards for VBAC (1990s) did include a timeline. We wanted to see constant progression, it could be slow, but if we saw signs of uterine inertia that was a red flag.

I suspect that the bad relationship between physician and patient is the root of the issue here. Which is why I wish the first line of care was always a CNM. There’s a different mind set between providers that can make or break how a woman feels about her birth experience, even when the situation goes sideways.

I don’t know if it’s just me, (and I’m not saying it happened to this woman) but I am an avid hallucinator when I’m in pain and on meds. I broke my ankle last fall and I vividly remember a phone call (just after I got back from the ER) where my father yelled at me, told me that he hated me, and to never call him…

When my sister ended up with an emergency c section for her firstborn, one of the things i learned from the very cool doctors and nurses who were there is that the heartrate is often one of the last signs of fetal distress. A baby in distress diverts blood from other organs to maintain the heart and brain, so they can…

As a L&D nurse we use fetal monitoring to determine how a fetus is “coping” with labor. There are three categories of tracing of a baby’s heart rate - Cat I is a sign that a fetus is well oxygenated at that moment, Cat II is indeteminant, the fetus could be fine or it could be compromised, we can’t tell. Cat III…

I’m curious why she was so against having another c-section after having two. It’s says she had an 8-month recovery, but I don’t know if that means there were complications or it just took that long to feel ‘normal.’

Fuck you stupid imp.

Fucking asshole. Sessions, that is.

Why? Why is this type of shit remotely a priority in any way? At least with the gun law stuff there’s a clear trail of money from the NRA and gun manufacturers into the pockets of politicians. Has there been a dearth of frivolous transgender discrimination suits that are decimating American businesses left and right…

I have no problem with prosecuting people for this, but we have nothing to prevent it and then release them after less than a decade usually and are like “ok try to keep out of trouble.” Keeping someone behind bars is easy, addressing the situation BEFORE and AFTER it happens to prevent it again is what’s hard, and…

I don’t see it as considering the perpetrator’s perspective, but if pedophilia is a sexual attraction that works the same way as adult attraction (evidence indicates it probably does), we’re setting up people to fail, and in turn creating more victims. So like, I don’t give a shit about people like Salling, he’s a…

Huh. That’s an interesting theory.

Sure, in that hypothetical they likely won’t go to jail, and there are probably a lot of pedophiles out there who suppress their urges to avoid prosecution, social ostracization, self-loathing, etc. But that’s not an effective solution for a lot of those people. Suppression is rarely a good solution, and may just…

There was a really great TAL episode on treating pedophilia a while back. There are a lot of pedophiles who recognize that they have these attractions and don’t want to act on them, but we basically make it impossible for them to get help. There have actually been fairly successful treatments for both non-offending…

I struggle with this a lot. I’m a social work grad student, and there’s a common theme among classmates that “I could never work with people who abuse kids or are pedophiles.” And I have, in various jobs, worked with sex offenders and people who have committed violent crimes, including against children. One thing that…

It’s not a victimless crime but many child pornography laws are broad enough to encompass simulated images, like drawings and 3D renders.  My sympathy comes from having worked in criminal defense, which is why I loathe these “not a victimless crime” rationales. There’s a resistance to understand and curb these urges…

Xtina? Blink once for “yes”, twice for “duh, but I’m sworn to secrecy.”