Notes on period obstetrics

[bunnyjadwiga]

The first recorded case of a C-Section operation survived by the mother appears to have been in Germany in 1500, performed by the desperate father-- Jacob Nufer, a pig gelder.

Rectovaginal fistulas (which is one of the complications that episiotomies were developed to combat) were common and long-term complications of birth in the 19th century. Between 1845 and 1850, James Marion Sims came up with a speculum that allowed repairs to be made and perfected a method by operating on a number of African-American slave women who had such fistulas. He later made his fortune performing the surgery on upper-class women who also demanded the now-fashionable anesthesia for the operation.

The 16th century Rosegarden for Pregnant Women and Midwives recommends that overweight women deliver in a hands and knees position that is widely mentioned in the current delivery/midwifery literature as a method for reducing shoulder dystochia (where the child is trapped in the birth canal because the posterior shoulder cannot be delivered). This manuever, however, is not easily executed in a modern standard delivery room due to the presence of monitoring equipment.

Comments

[paquerette.livejournal.com]

H&K is great for posterior too, or sometimes just because. It was my preferred position my first labor.

I don't think it's the monitoring equipment so much as the doctor's comfort (have to get up off their little stool) and the sort of weirding out factor that any position other than lithotomy tends to give the staff.

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

I was just going by what the midwifery journals (British) said about the position.

[anastasiav.livejournal.com]

We have a dear friend who is a L&D nurse at a local hospital with a large, very popular birth center (called "the birthplace"). They just built a brand new facility that includes ... wait for it ... full size (ie: "double") beds in every room because so few women were willing to birth in the "on your back and put your feet here" position any longer.

Slowly, slowly the culture is able to drag the process of giving birth back to a more sensible state of affairs. Slowly.

PS: A number of friends have pointed me towards a film called The Business of Being Born in recent weeks. I haven't watched it yet, but if you have a chance I suspect you should.

[madrun.livejournal.com]

"I don't think it's the monitoring equipment so much as the doctor's comfort (have to get up off their little stool)"

Halelujiah.

Trust me on this one...

[bunnyjadwiga.livejournal.com]

If I can't successfully refuse having a wire going into the birth canal, I'm pretty sure I'm going to experience some difficulty getting up on my hands and knees.

*sigh*