Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Midwife mentally tortured me and told me 'no pain, no gain', Heather Paterson tells hearing | Mail Online

So, a few people have asked me about my experience giving birth in the UK, and why we ended up filing a formal complaint. I'm not going to go into details on that, but I will say that I have no problem, whatsoever, believing this article. None of it sounds far fetched or made up, in the least:

Midwife mentally tortured me and told me 'no pain, no gain', Heather Paterson tells hearing | Mail Online

I'm okay with socialized medicine being bare bones, no luxuries, simple and efficient. I wasn't expecting the pampering I got on a first class insurance plan in the US. However, the conditions I saw were precisely as this article lays out.

4 comments:

  1. I am just bug-eyed with disbelief after reading that article and all the comments. Let's hope that formal complaints and articles like this can make a difference!

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  2. I take it things are different in Germany? I'm not sure how things got to be the way they are in this area of London (I didn't have my baby at the same hospital as the article, but rather another in the area.) Fortunately, there were also some wonderful staff, like the obstetrician who delivered my baby. He and those nurses and midwives were fantastic. I had a little trouble getting to them, and then poor conditions during my recovery.

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  3. My experiences here in Germany were both very positive, and I've never heard anybody else complain about midwives or doctors during births. There might be some bad apples somewhere, but I haven't heard about them, or even read any articles like this in the German press. I have had a few other experiences where the German doctors appeared to me to be a bit arrogant, but if that's their only sin ...

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  4. Sounds positive indeed. I'm sure there are places in the UK that are like this too (and places in the US that are like that article I linked). I'm somewhat forgiving of doctor arrogance; the decisions they have to make are so significant that arrogance is one understandable way to endure the stress!

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