Discussing interventions with your doctor

Lola918

Hi Ladies,

I'm a FTM due in January, and my goal is to deliver my son naturally and with minimum interventions.  In all the material I've read to prepare, it seems like there can be a lot of tension between a woman and her doctor regarding interventions (induction, augmentation, pain management, c section, etc...).  When one is suggested, it can be a struggle to figure out what to do.  In my hypnobirthing class, the instructor went over a way to guide discussions with doctors so a woman can feel comfortable with any decision made during birth.  I found it incredibly helpful and thought I would share in case anyone else finds it useful.

Here it is:

When a medical professional suggests or offers any intervention, follow the acronym BRAND and ask the following questions:

B - BENEFITS - what are the benefits of this procedure?

R - RISKS - what are the risks associated with this procedure? 

A - ALTERNATIVES  - are there any alternatives to what you are suggesting?

N - NOTHING - what happens if we do nothing (for 10 minutes, 1 hour, 1 day, 1 week)?

D - DECISION - please give me a few minutes to think this over and I will then make a decision and let you know.

I hope you ladies find this helpful as you prepare to meet your little ones!

sschwege

I took Hypnobirthing as well and thought this was great!  I only had to use it once (with my first), lucky for us we have a hospital known for being low-intervention.  But right as I was getting ready to push, my MW asked if I wanted her to break my bag of water.  I asked what the benefit to that was, her response, "No benefit, I just won't get sprayed in the face.  But it's fine, we will just hold up towels!" Ha, not a good reason from my prospective.  I declined and the bag stayed intact the entire hour I pushed, I consented to having the bag broken right at crowning.  

Knottie32364231

Thank you! We haven't gone over how to handle persuasion and disagreement between doctor and patient in my classes. It helps to have an easy method to remember to use. I'll try that when doctor is insisting on interventions.

TwinsCitiesMomma

Another good resource is Natural Hospital Birth: The Best of Both Worlds by Cynthia Gabriel.