(no subject)

[ocelot]

I attended my first birth yesterday afternoon. The family spoke only Spanish. This was a bit odd, as my Spanish is pretty bad, though it was coming back fairly well by the time I left. It was good in a way, though - most of what I need to do is nonverbal anyways, and I wasn't tempted to babble excessively and didn't feel any pressure to make small talk.

I was pretty surprised to be called in at all. The volunteer coordinator gave the impression they weren't really using the volunteer doulas much these days, but it turned out that she was one of the nurses on duty, so that probably explains it.

The birth went well overall, but I do have somewhat mixed feelings about the way the mom was treated and how things were run in general. I'm looking forward to seeing more births to see if things are different. It's possible that the language barrier or other aspects that I wasn't aware of impacted how it was handled, but if all of them are similar, I'll probably end up looking at homebirth next time around.

Comments

[telemicus]

After watching hundreds of tv births before I cancelled the discovery health subscription (I was getting obsessive!) I really do think that Hispanic families get treated rough in comparison to affluent white folk. And the less English they speak the more they get bossed around or even neglected. But yes I wish like anything we could do a home birth, waaaay more often than not people get treated like dirt by medical professionals, even the well-meaning ones canbe ridiculously uneducated and incompetent and it just kills me to watch. And all that is when there is a camera recording everything, I can't even imagine what goes on without anyone around to watch. SO you are doing a good thing just being there, and maybe being an advocate as you get more confident.

Good luck!