Why don't doctors care if someone's in agony?

Question

Why is it doctors don't seem to care if someone is in agony, like childbirth. Why don't they give adequate pain relief if the mother wants it & there is no reason to withhold it.

From personal experience, they don't give a crap. And seem to get pleasure from making it worse. I don't have a low pain tolerance level & can tolerate severe pain without complaint. But when I do complain, it's agony. I don't squirm around & scream, i'm not that kind of person, however severe it was. They drove me to want to comit suicide. If only I had been left alone, no birthing partner, my daughter & I wouldn't be here now. Because I know there would have been no one to stop me & I would have done something stupid, seriously. It wouldn't have been my fault, pain can make people not in control of their actions. Why can't doctors see this? Some women can't push out a baby it doesn't matter what size the woman is, or the baby is, sometimes the woman knows it's not possible. Bloody doctors should listen!

Answer 1

There's an old saying in life that's especially true in medicine: TINSTAAFL.
In my youth, while I was in training, there were some obstetricians on staff who didn't mind giving careful doses of narcotics for pain relief. That gave me great experience in resuscitating newborns.
Also, most women breeze through labor and delivery without a complaint, so on those rare occasions when women complain, doctors certainly should listen. After all, they only do C-sections in that rare one in three deliveries.
But you can't blame them too much. They're working under wage and price controls. It's perfectly common for an obstetrician to do everything perfectly, have a bad outcome, and lose a lawsuit for $3 million, and allowing them to charge that much, a perfectly reasonable fee, would allow them to cater to your problems with less constraint. I'm sure you wouldn't mind the slight increase in the fee to cover the difference.

Answer 2

I'm sorry that this is going to sound bad but doctors need to be objective when they deal with patients. Some of them give a crap inside but they just have to THINK about the symptoms and what medications to give you. You don't want a doctor that gets tied up in the pain you are in you want a doctor that can focus on the problem and fix it as soon as possible. You hit the nail on the head when you said that pain makes people do stupid things. If your doctor feels your pain they would be too busy concentrating on your pain than concentrating on the problem. This is why doctors can't practice medicine on family or loved ones. If you were in pain during labor the doctor should have given you an epidural if you requested it. If they didnt then that was the doctor's fault. Just in defense of doctors, there are some that give a crap. Perhaps they should show it more often.

Answer 3

when in labor a women can only have pain medicine up to a certain point in labor, because of the baby being born---pain medications slow down the rate a person recieving them breaths--a mother in labor gets apin med so does the unborn child because what is in the mothers blood goes to the baby there are only a few things that do not cross the placental barrier medications DO and a slow breathing baby is not good. I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience with childbirth usually women have natural pian killers in them to reduce the pain of child birth--think about if women did not do you think there would be as many people on the earth now?? even before the use of medications or discovery if you will i don't think the doctors didn't care however the doctors look at the entire picture before implementing treatment if the doctors are good doctors also ultrasounds are done during pregnancies not only to check the unborn fetus but to measure a womens hips to see if a baby can pass safely thru the birth canal

Answer 4

hi, ur looking at only one side of childbirth and that is your pain.The other part being the child and the approach of doctor towards both of you.It does makes sense that the doctor focuses equally towards ur clinical condition and child's status .Apart from it the doctor very well knows that much of the agony is because of first time labour pains or reluctancy to give birth through normal way.Because of medical advancement today cesarean section is a very routine procedure and every second lady wants to go for it without even giving second glance on the side effects and later troubles.You are now with your baby that too a normal born (i assume) that makes it clear that it happened because you were fit to handle that pain.Human beings run away from pain and thats what you tried to do but see at the end you did gave birth to baby normally.During delivery its not that child is born its also a birth of MOTHER.You thought that it was not possible but it did happened isn't it.Think if doctors would have listened to you? You would have never known your potential.It's doctors job to let things happen natural way if possible.It must have been possible for you they must have done pelvimetry to know ur pelvis parameters and thats the reason they didn't listen to you.The pain relief thing has been answered to you by others.Dont bother enjoy being a MOTHER !!!

Answer 5

Pharmacologically speaking, they can't give much in the way of narcotics because of harm to the baby. Epidurals have to be administered before a certain point, to safeguard the possibility of killing the baby before childbirth.

Many drugs have never been tested on newborns as well, for obvious ethical reasons, so many doctors choose the safe route, as the goal in delivery is to make sure both make it out alive, not to make life easier.

Answer 6

i don't doubt that you were in significant discomfort during your labor, but i refuse to believe your accusation that your doctors didn't care about it, or as you claim, that they "seem to get pleasure from making it worse."

labor epidurals are usually available in most modern childbirth facilities, but after you're fully dilated, most doctors will not put them in because it'll take longer to do the epidural than it'll take for you to just push the baby out yourself. plus, if you're unable to hold still, that'll make it a lot more difficult for the anesthesiologist, and not only could it take longer, but it could also increase the risks of an epidural.

narcotics can also be administered, but again, if you're complete and pushing, it's standard practice to withhold narcotics because of the risk of fetal apnea- meaning your baby will be born not breathing and need to be recusitated.

it sounds to me like you were just a difficult and demanding patient- instead of your demand that "Bloody doctors should listen!" maybe you're the one that should be listening to your doctors.

Answer 7

I kind of know what you mean---I have a neck and spine deformity which makes intubation basically IMPOSSIBLE... I tried to tell this to my orthopedic surgeon and then to the anesthesiologist who were performing arthroscopic surgery on my torn rotator cuff... I also have a problem because my nerves are all twisted from the neck down because of my severe neck deformity, and a saddle block to numb the shoulder did NOT work. The anesthesiologist tried to do an awake intubation and almost lost his manhood when he tried to cram a 3 inch tube into a 1 inch space and almost ripped my throat to shreds... I reacted the only way I could---HITTING HIM with a closed fist---unfortunately for HIM, his manhood was at MY FIST LEVEL... it sure stopped him from doing the intubation and they ended up canceling the surgery---I went a month later to a BIGGER hospital where they did NOT intubate me at all.... just did the surgery... but no matter what I told the doctor AND the anesthesiologist, they would not listen...I have to wonder how long he walked funny after that ATTEMPT.

Answer 8

I comprehend professional-existence and professional-determination and the finished existence vs homicide is a enormously debatable and heated situation. although, on your poem many stuff dont rather make experience to me...Im unsure what Paganism has to do with something, or are you associating Paganism with abortion??? And if so, why? Im not sparkling on many stuff in the poem, thats purely one component that jumps out at me.

Answer 9

Doctors distance themslves emotionally, because if they wouldn't they'd be all depressed all the time. Doctors who aren't specifically pain specialists are always hesitant to give narcotics.....Just a fact of life....I am sorry you had to endure whatever pain you had to endure........

Edit: I am not a doctor, but I would think that an OBGYN could've given you Demerol.....

Answer 10

you seen in essence the fact that they do see anguish everyday is the problem all in itself, when someone is exposed to something like agony long enough they develope a sort of immunity to it so they dont react like everyday people that dont feel it everyday and dont see it.