BirthTrack! Oh! Scary!
Posted on | August 4, 2008 | 14 Comments
Check out this little bit of frighteningly wired-up weirdness: Birth Track: Technology (Thanks Rixa and Jenny!) And a good blog post about it here: More! Better! BirthTrack! by http://rixarixa.blogspot.com here’s a bit from the post (the parts in red are provided by the BirthTrack company)…
It will reduce the number of vaginal exams during labor. Instead, you’ll have two clips permanently attached to your cervix the whole time! Sign me up! “In the usual procedure vaginal examinations are performed numerous times during normal labor. In the case of labor arrest or other complications the number of vaginal examinations increases.”
It will help doctors perform a cesarean for “failure to progress” even faster! Because we’re not jumping the gun fast enough as it is, with our 31.1% cesarean rate! Remember, labor must never stop or slow down! “In the event of non-progressive labor, the diagnosis may be delayed, thereby preventing the mother from obtaining the best medical care.”
It will make sure you don’t go too slow or too fast! “In managing labor, obstetricians are faced with a number of important challenges, including…identification of inadequate progress of labor and assessment of a quick developing labor process.”
It is more accurate! “The information available to the caregiver is inaccurate due to the objective nature of the measurement and intermittent [assessment].”
You’ll have information streaming at you non-stop, every second! Next up: sending the info to your Blackberry in real-time! “You will have continuous information regarding the progress of labor and you will know the position of your baby every second.”
Your partner will be more involved in the birth! He can stare even more at the machines and less at you! “Your partner will be able to be an active participant in the labor process as he/she follows the progress of the partogram on the screen next to your bed.”
Oh and of course, as this last statement indicated, you WILL be lying in bed!
did I give you nightmares?
xox,
Heather
this musing is related to this comic: BirthTracker!
Comments
14 Responses to “BirthTrack! Oh! Scary!”
The Zoops!
August 4th, 2008 @ 10:18 am
Yes, that is certainly the stuff of nightmares. Sadly, the large woman’s hospital where I live *does* allow OBs to monitor women from home. They can watch their patients’ EFMs from home on their computers. Without even seeing or ever meeting a patient in person, the OB can call in and say, “I’m coming in to perform a c/s on the patient in room 8. Have her ready by the time I get there.”
August 4th, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
They say on the website that most hospitals use the electrode into the scalp as a standard practice? Not in my part of the world… maybe in their dream-land! And how can they attach two sensors to your cervix “painlessly”?
Needless to say, all this technology is going to severly limit your ability to walk. Which is going to decrease the speed of your labor. Which is going to increase the “failure to progress”. Which will, of course, cause the call to go for the Pitocin. Which is going to make you want an epidural. Which will then slow your labor again… which is going to raise the already terrifyingly high c-section rate! I could see this with a woman who they KNOW is going to have trouble delivering due to some sort of anatomical fluke. Otherwise… grrrr!
August 4th, 2008 @ 4:35 pm
Yuck.
I have an “anatomical fluke.” A few of them, in fact. A couple could be used as an excuse to use interventions. But I’m perfectly capable of delivering my baby without any wires, thank you very much.
The nurses kept trying to get that fetal monitoring belt positioned on me right but I’m small and I kept moving around and making it fall. They seemed a bit frustrated with it, but fortunately didn’t take the frustration out on me and let me keep moving and not caring about the dumb belt. Imagine if the wires weren’t staying positioned right inside and the nurses kept having to come back and adjust things down there. ug.
I just watched The Business of Being Born yesterday. This Birth Track just confirms things for me. It’s all just getting ridiculous.
August 5th, 2008 @ 1:40 am
I tell you what why dont they just strap us down on a board then they can attach all the wires electrodes and pump us full of all the drugs they like. they seem to be heading this way anyways oh im so angry and worried what about all those mums who get duped into being treated like this. This is not a normal birth process and what a way to be welcomed into the world having something jabbed into your head and then having to watch out for the electrodes in the way out surely if there attached and babys made up its mind its on its way if they dont have a chance to take them out in time thats going to cause some damage to the cervix and possibly scratch baby up a bit to. but hey thats fine because then the mum will need more stitches and painkillers and thats how they make their money. grr its just so wrong
August 5th, 2008 @ 5:07 am
and then tucked down at the bottom of the “mothers-to-be” page is this sentence.
“False positives, in which normal labors are mistakenly characterized as non-progressive and therefore, over-treated, are problematic as well.”
dont ya think this machine will just lead to a whole slew of “false positives”? i see they got FDA approval but has this torture device actually been used on any labour?
also, irony, let me count the ways:
“The imprecise manual methods currently used to estimate these factors may result in undesirable consequences, including:
* Hours of unnecessary suffering on the part of the mother; ’cause being confined to one spot with a modern day pear is a walk in the park’
* Risk of infection for mother and fetus; ‘that risk increases greatly just delivering in a hospital’
* Substantially increased rate of labor complications; ‘when you’ve only got a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail’
* Significant waste of hospital resources including caregiver time, administered drugs and equipment usage. ‘apparently having a nurse or ob/gyn in constant contact is ‘a waste of resources’ “
August 5th, 2008 @ 5:13 am
My first child was induced (two days after due date and no i wasn’t on bed rest or had any ‘complications’), they broke my water and then told me i couldn’t get up and walk around, when it didn’t go fast enough they gave me a pitocin and then an epidural. I stopped at 3cm and had barely been in labor for 12 hours and they put me in for a c-sec.
I started out wanting a NATURAL birth with no drugs. How did they talk me into this stuff that I never would have consented to now? I was young and dumb and they could make sure it happened on their clock to make it easier on them.
To think that they can do this to more young unsuspecting women is obscene. Damn.. i think that just resolved my toying with the idea of becoming a midwife. :-/
August 5th, 2008 @ 5:15 am
I’m waiting for the “upgrade” that gives them ways to “fix” the “problems” the monitor shows automatically.
Huh, maybe after they make doctors totally useless, free birthers can just lie to family members and say that they rented one of these machines?
Just as I never understood why anesthesiologists weren’t totally angry at the implication that there was a serious risk of them messing up intubation if a laboring woman ended up needing a c-section with general anesthetic, I’m astounded that OBs and L&D nurses aren’t ticked that this thing is saying basically “you’re too incompetent to be trusted to have a clue.” I guess they aren’t upset because so many of them have been relying on machines to let them be incompetent for years?
August 5th, 2008 @ 5:57 am
With interventions like this, is it any wonder that so many women are choosing “elective cesarians”?
August 5th, 2008 @ 6:42 am
GAHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well I’m telling you, this seals the deal for me: HOMEBIRTH!!!!
August 5th, 2008 @ 11:41 am
oh my lord, i’d like to see some jackass try to hook me up to that thing with my husband in the room!
seriously, i don’t know whether to laugh or cry. or puke.
August 5th, 2008 @ 1:46 pm
Am I the only one reminded of the “birth farms” in Battlestar Galactica?
August 6th, 2008 @ 8:50 am
i agree with soulgasm: i don’t know whether to laugh, cry or puke.
this is just terrifying.
heather in tucson
August 7th, 2008 @ 6:14 am
Robots – they’re heading towards robots assisting women in labor. I am so glad I was able to find my own power so this will not be my experience, ever. And this just gives me more reason to continue empowering parents so this does not *have* to be any informed parent’s experience either.
I do ponder occasionally why people do not think about the fact that for thousands of years we did without these devices… and how troubled many youth and families are… no connection? Hmmm… ugh. Thanks for bringing it to the forefront and making light of it Hathor, as always…
I refer to the hub where I featured the art of Hathor… How to Have the Birth of Your Dreams:
http://hubpages.com/hub/How-to-have-the-Birth-of-your-Dreams
Love,
Amy
April 15th, 2009 @ 3:44 am
WOW! How did I miss this one??????? ok first of all I’m one of “those” women that this would false positive on EVERY TIME (My widwife knew to EXPECT this in my 3rd baby & STILL had to tell the dogs to kiss off)(ok typo but I’m keeping it, lol) at least I was in europe for THAT birth where they APOLOGIZED for having to use the monitors intermittently until the cervidil “expired”! APOLOGIZED for not being able to better manage the preeclampsia and then the resulting induction! IT didn’t even WORK the first day, they sent me home! I went shopping DURING my induction, VERY different then a U.S. hospital! This machine would never get approved here, where high tech is a tub & the RomaWheel!!!!!!!!!