birthing baby number seven....

Dianne - posted on 11/01/2011

i had one of those in my hand for my first birth and im also one of those people who tend to faint at getting blood taken etc, surprisingly it didnt bother me much at all during delivery however once i had the baby i had sweated the stickyness off the sticky plaster they use to keep it in place so asked for it to be removed, they told me only once the placenta is out so i waited, happy to err on the side of caution while the thing moved every time i moved my hand and once i was finished again asked to have it out, but no, not until youve done a pee so i had to shower with the iv moving and stinging, it was worse than down there felt! it was ages before she did remove it, so im going in this time with the plan that it can go in no problem but once im finished and in very little danger of haemorrage ill be demanding it out and taking it out myself if not (also i didnt have the oxytocin with the first and wont unless needed next time)

Michelle - posted on 03/14/2009

yeah...you're probably right, i'm one of those people that would rather go through childbirth than have a needle, and they hurt!!! i think they are just going to stick a bung in it just so its there in the event of something going wrong...yeah, i think i mean an IV thing...sorry! thamks

Ally - posted on 03/14/2009

as a nurse and emt i agree with tricia...in an emergency situation you would be surprised at how often you cannot find a suitable vein when one is needed.

Tricia - posted on 03/14/2009

A cannula?  Can I assume you're talking about what I'd call an IV for the duration of this post? 

One option might be to request a heparin lock (aka hep-lock) instead.  It's inserted into a vein the way an IV would be, but it's not connected to anything outside of your body.  So while with and IV you have to drag that infernal pole around and you're connected to it with a long piece of tubing, with a hep-lock you've just got the plastic doohickey in your hand.  It's sort of a best-of-both-worlds solution... you have freedom of mobility, and they have easy access to very quickly start intervenous drugs.

Johnny - posted on 03/10/2009

I have no actual useful knowledge on this topic, as I've just birthed one baby so far :) But IMHO this sounds like the kind of medicine that is designed to prevent lawsuits rather than prevent actual problems.  I did hemorrhage severely after my daughter's birth, which was completely unexpected, and so they just gave the oxytocin and performed an internal.  I lost a little more than a litre of blood & while it made recovery more difficult, I don't think I would submit to a cannula next time even having been through that.  Good luck & congrats on #7!