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Date: | Wed, 26 Aug 2009 10:36:52 +0300 |
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This getting off topic but as an adoring fan of Monty Python, their
predecessors the Goons and their disciples, Rowan Atkinson and Hugh Laurie
(yes the one and the same Hugh Laurie who plays Dr. House), I find that
usually their satirical humour hits the nail on the head. Of course they go
over the top - and even in the eighties when "Meaning of Life" with this
skit was made, most hospitals were not quite as horrendous as this.
But if we remember that most women were attached to continuous fetal
monitors, the awe for the monitor was greater than that for the woman in
labor, medical attendants talked over the heads of the woman, she gave birth
in the lithotomy position, babies were indeed smacked on their bottoms,
given no time with their mothers and whisked away to the nursery - then we
who have worked tirelessly all these years in childbirth education and
lactation and postpartum support can be proud. For it is our outreach that
has not only caused change and provided choice in the birth place, but it is
has aroused the awareness of the "consumer", the pregnant woman and her
partner.
Yes some of the Monty Python skits are OTT but they were created by
brilliant people who were often highly qualified in other fields. Compare
this with some of the scenarios in the American ER and the BBC Holby and
Casualty hospital series which are currently screened as depicting modern
hospital life and it is obvious that the script-writers and directors know
not the first thing about their subject.
Example: This week`s Holby. Jess, one of the nurses who is also the
daughter and the partner of senior physicians has an emergency Cesarean -
almost all births at Holby maternity ward are emergency Cesars or worse.
The next day she is in pain and weepy and tells one of her nurse friends
that she is exhausted because she spent all night breastfeeding and her
breasts are engorged and sore. Error No. 1. Engorgement does not occur
because she breastfed frequently in the first 18 hours.
One of her nurse friends takes the baby from her. "A bottle won`t hurt,"
she tries to comfort her. Says Jess: "I want everything to be so perfect,"
(weeping)
"You have to think of yourself and keep up your strength." says nurse friend
taking baby to give bottle.
At Holby almost all women are induced and give birth in the lithotomy
position if not taken to the OR first.
And this is supposed to illustrate a UK hospital in the 21st century.
My colleagues in the UK say there is a still a long way to go, but this TV
series is way out of date and there are so many factual errors.
Monty Python is so zany that when I have showed it to colleagues and
occasionally when appropriate to my clients, they roar with laughter.
The semi-documentary hospital series on TV are meant to be serious - and
that is much more scary!!
Wendy Blumfield
NCT Trained ANT/BFC
Israel Childbirth Education Centre
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Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 5:32 AM
Subject: LACTNET Digest - 25 Aug 2009 - Special issue (#2009-834)
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